It’s finally here and it’s every bit as good as the write-ups have said it was—although definitely not Tobin’s “most accessible” work to date. ISAM is aural heaven, extremely overwhelming, a journey to a distant world, your worst nightmare, a day in the park, the skip in your step, a sound designer’s wet dream and the icing on the cake.

The album’s available as a digital download or in a deluxe package with a book, double vinyl and CD. http://www.amontobin.com/store

Amon Tobin – ISAM (2011)

01. Journeyman
02. Piece of Paper
03. Goto 10
04. Surge
05. Lost & Found
06. Wooden Toy
07. Mass & Spring
08. Calculate
09. Kitty Cat
10. Bedtime Story
11. Night Swim
12. Dropped from the Sky
13. Morning Ms Candis
14. One Last Look

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Rebellion Der Traumer, the latest album by Kollektiv Turmstrasse, is a departure from their previous minimal tech-house releases which both reflects their development over the years and proves that true artistry is in the ability to reinvent and grow.

Rebellion Der Traumer begins with the soft melodies and thin percussive bursts from “Affekt.” Over time, the songs become richer with drums, vocals, piano melodies, stringed instruments and organic atmospheres. Between the 10 full compositions are minute-long ambient interludes—all beautiful on their own—that serve as fluid transitions from song to song.

Rebellion Der Traumer is best heard from beginning to end. To catch and appreciate all the sonic details, listen with headphones or high quality monitors. Trash the speaker docks.

MP3 1: Kollektiv Turmstrasse – Affekt
MP3 2: Kollektiv Turmstrasse – Uneins
MP3 3: Kollektiv Turmstrasse – Goldmarie

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Lucky Shiner is the debut full length album from UK producer, Gold Panda. This unique album borrows sounds from the past and shapes them into something exciting and memorable. This mixture of atmospheric electronica and organic sampling creates a warm and raw experience, often missing in today’s electronic records. Lucky Shiner is similar in style to Eleven Tigers, Take, and Four Tet releases, but by no means a reproduction. This album will shine long after the 2-month shelf life of all the Rusko and Benga-esque tracks that we constantly see come and go.

Gold Panda built a reputation back in 2009 by remixing tracks by The Field, Bloc Party, Little Boots and Simian Mobile Disco. Later in the year, he released 3 original EPs which got positive attention from both Pitchfork and The Guardian. Live sets were soon to follow which gained him a larger fanbase and established him as a recognized live performer.

This past October, Gold Panda released the Snow & Taxis EP, which includes remixes by Glitterbug and Throwing Snow. To hear more, check out Gold Panda on iTunes.

MP3 1: Gold Panda – You
MP3 2: Gold Panda – Marriage
MP3 3: Gold Panda – Vanilla Minus

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One of my favorite albums from 2010 is Eleven Tiger’s Clouds are Mountains, released by Soul Motive Records. It’s one of the few records that successfully spans all bass music genres including ambient, dubstep, garage, breaks, drum n’ bass and techno styles. The album shares similarities with Burial, Boxcutter, Kryptic Minds, The Orb and Gold Panda releases.

Definitely check this album out, I’ve been listening to it over and over. If you purchase the actual CD, you’ll get a beautiful fold-out poster and liner notes designed by Eleven Tigers (Jokubas Dargis).

To hear more tracks from Clouds are Mountains, check out Eleven Tigers on iTunes.

MP3 1: Eleven Tigers – Sparkles
MP3 2: Eleven TIgers – Stood Up

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Whatever floats your boat, this may not be it. Really, a large part of me is surprised that this particular boat belongs in part to Portishead’s Geoff Barrow at all. If there’s one phrase I definitely don’t recall popping into my head while listening to Dummy it was “krautrock noodling.” But there’s been a lot of German prog name-dropping going on with this release by Barrow and fellow Bristol boys Billy Fuller and Matt Williams. And, to an extent, with good reason. It certainly sounds like it could have been cut circa 1974 in a studio two doors down from Can, Neu!, Amon Düül, or some other vaguely krautrock-y name I could just make up. Toss in the fact that these dudes recorded all of this in a single room with no post-production and wrote it in one 12 day session, and you can see why people might be quick to drink some throwback Kool-Aid in today’s 8-bit glitch landscape.

Which isn’t to say there’s no synthy dicking around to be found here; it’s practically smeared in the stuff. But I’ll cop to the fact that there’s something oddly comforting about the (admittedly synthetic) earthiness of it all. And while Third gave the world a glimpse of a somehow-even-darker Portishead, it certainly didn’t hint at the blackness that Beak> brings to the table. Before I had ever heard Silver Apples, I kind of assumed they were on some sunny 60’s day-glo shit, but after the first two tracks of Beak> I found myself slammed into the same queasy ominousness that that band first surprised me with. That initial familiarity doesn’t hang around for long, though, with the band soon enough skittering all over the place. The crunching guitar lines of “Ham Green” manage to juxtapose themselves with the ethereal when we arrive at “Battery Point,” one of the album’s few pinholes of light. But you’ll forget all that by the time your noise tolerance is tested by tracks like “Barrow Gurney.” In a lot of ways, much of what’s on display here is what I had hoped a group like Sunn O))) sounded like: heavy experimental grind with receded vocals that occasionally kicks ass. I mean, pretense is pretense, but I’ll take mine sounding like this and leave the cartoon demon vox for somebody else.

A large part of the enjoyment here relies purely on surprise. Plenty of artists take time for side projects or decide to move their work in different directions with middling results (Hi, Kanye).  So to give a cursory listen to a knob-twiddling side project out of obligation to an artist’s previous work, it’s definitely a relief to discover that it doesn’t blow up in their face. Sometimes risks pay off. And considering that “risk” isn’t exactly the watchword on the lips of most musicians these days, Beak> at least deserves a tip of the hat for making theirs work. And if you hate it, hey, at least you tried something new.  ~ Jim Feeney

MP3 1: Beak> – Backwell
MP3 2: Beak> – Ham Green
MP3 3: Beak> – Battery Point

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