Council Meeting Memo #045
Bochum Welt: Desktop Robotics + Feelings On A Screen (Compilation, Central Processing Unit)
This compiles two of his mid 90’s Rephlex releases, fucks with the program (drops tracks, adds remixes, changes the running order) and forms something new. Totally underrated at the time, I think only now with the renewed interest in all things IDM and retro, will his work become more appreciated. But if push came to shove, I prefer the original releases. SA
Lasse Marhaug: Context (Smalltown Supersound, Album)
Exhausted just reading the things this Norwegian one-man industry does — designer, producer, publisher, musician as well as tea-drinker. Musically, I’ve always found it a challenge putting words to this sort of stuff. Too easy just to reel off a shitload of lazy hashtags and descriptors. Either you get it or you don’t. All I’ll say is, if you only ever buy one experimental album this year, make it this one. SA
AM/PM: Age of Distraction (What About Never, EP)
First release from AM/PM in fourteen years and from memory it seems like the quality threshold has been upheld. Dance music, yes, but one that wallows in the darker corners of the clubspace. Melodies that wrong foot you and beats that focus on timbre rather than rhythm. The title track with its satisfyingly dub / rave bassline provided the most thrills. SA
Batu: Opal (Timedance, Album)
I love short albums. This one zips through 11 tracks in 36 minutes. Liking the very direct nature of this. Don’t expect anything cheerful or uplifting though. But that’s not to say there’s nothing to enjoy. On the contrary, well crafted sound design is always a pleasure to induige in. The world it builds and the space it creates for these sounds to explore is the USP of this work.
God that was a shit review, unlike the record. SA
Deadbeat & Sa Pa: The Mountain (BLKRTZ, Album)
Shuffle and blur (rumbling too) > ears frottaged, mind lathered > bass may pause, but motion continues > it’s almost skipping along, thundering almost happily > it continues in this way, the music, in variations on these themes > its patterns intrigue, stimulate, lull, then re-engage the listener’s attention > there are unexpected shafts of light that brighten the growls, thrums, hisses, burrs > there’s a voice that sings sometimes, it’s processed (lyrics unavailable) > there’s intent/intelligence, expertise/experience, craft/cunning (these things are not to be doubted) > it is built upon other music, reverberations can be felt in its marrow, tendrils of sound eddying down time, catching like seaweed on rocks as the tide recedes > we are halfway there and still it surges forward, details emerge, variations spied > it pumps, it thumps, it’s inhuman, it’s ineffable in its energy > you may tire, but it is inexhaustible, don’t stand in its way > here it comes now, stand aside or jump aboard. CB
