01. Flying Lotus – Clock Catcher / Broken Note – Meltdown
02. Boreta – Bubblin in the Cut
03. Two Fingers – Bad Girl (King Cannibal Remix)
04. EPROM – Shoplifter
05. Switchdubs – Who Are Those Guys
06. Caper – Poker Ghost
07. Crookers ft. Spank Rock – Park the Truck
08. Foreign Beggars ft. Noisia & Devlin – No Holds Barred (Goth Trad Remix)
09. Borgore – Foes (16bit Fuck Hoes Remix)
10. Liquid Stranger – Zero Hour
11. HD4000 – South Street (VIP Remix)
12. Reso – TikTak
13. Brackles – Rawkus
14. Kraddy – Godzilla (Son of the Electric Ghost Mix)
15. Milanese – So Malleable (Cold Mix)
16. The Qemists – Your Revolution (Reso Remix)
17. Rudi Zygadlo – The Udu and the Clave (Doshy Remix)
18. King Cannibal – Embrace the Minimum
19. Voodeux – Enter the Voo (Eskmo Remix)
20. Geiom & Dawntreader – Toscani
21. Roel Funcken – Martyrz
22. Meat Beat Manifesto – Less
23. Emalkay – When I Look at You
24. Starkey – Rain City
25. Tom Encore – Jig
26. Datsik – Retreat (Elite Force Remix)
27. Excision & Datsik – Calypso (Elite Force Remix)
28. Noisia – Machine Gun

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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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Modell 5 is a digital video performance created by Ulf Langheinrich and Kurt Hentschläger (aka Granular Synthesis) that utilizes the same principles of granular synthesis to distort video. These Austrian artists used the performance to showcase the development of an audiovisual synthesizer, which they’ve been working on for years. Modell 5 premiered in 1994 at the ICC London and is still being shown today.

The performance consists of four 10 x 3.5 meter screens with projections of Japanese performance artist Akemi Takeya’s face. The image is manipulated digitally by a computer, which warps it in a nightmarish way. Synched up with mechanical rhythms and drones, the experience is both disturbing and beautiful. It seems as though the video was composed just like a piece of music.

Granular synthesis is a method of splitting samples into many tiny (1-50 ms in length) sounds, or grains. The grains are then layered on top of one another playing back at different speeds, pitches and volumes. This creates a thick atmosphere of sound instead of one single tone. In a similar way, the video in Modell 5 is being broken down into individual frames and edited back together. If you’re interested in the audio end of granular synthesis, you can research Curtis Roads or check out audio samples of Native Instrument’s Spectral Delay plugin.

Chris Clark’s new album, Totems Flare, was released today and the sound is huge! My first listen was on my iMac speakers. My second, on my car stereo and my third on my crystal clear Mackie HR-624’s. I do this so that I don’t pay too much attention to the production right off the bat. Now that I’ve heard it all the way through about four times, I can honestly say that this album rocks. The synths on the opening track, “Outside Plume,” are so freakin’ thick. It’s a great introduction to the album single, “Growls Garden.” The break in the middle of “GG” is one of baddest things I’ve heard all year. Big up, Clark!

Although the album seems predominantly digital, it feels human. It sounds like the future of the past. Beats are missed, pitches slip and notes get dropped. The best example of this is in the seventh track, “Future Daniel.” If you’ve ever tried playing chords with a monophonic synth patch, you’d understand. There’s something special in every track—the beginning of “Luxman Furs”—the end of “Totem Crackerjack”—there’s a lot of cool shit going on here.

Clark apparently had an extremely hard time narrowing down 30 tracks that he had originally recorded for the album. I’d love to hear the tunes that didn’t make the cut. My only complaint with Totems Flare is that I can’t play it really loud because of the overwhelming distortion. Those of us with tinnitus have to be careful.

If you dig it, check out Boxcutter, Autechre, Venetian Snares, AFX and Telefon Tel Aviv. If I’ve left some key artists out, leave a comment. Totems Flare is available now from bleep.com and iTunes.

MP3: Clark – Growls Garden

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Last week, I stumbled upon the musician/digital artist, Ultre. His latest release, The Nest and the Skull, is a beautiful blend of acoustic instruments and electronics. The abstract tracks feature an array of instruments including guitars, pianos, violins and cellos. The music is accompanied by electronic beats, sampled sounds, breaths, hiccups and manipulated beat boxing rhythms. The sound is thick and atmospheric, similar to Burial’s 2007 album, Untrue. A lot of records sound dead and cold when too many electronic elements are used, but The Nest and the Skull utilizes nice, warm production techniques. Similar artists include Autechre, Dntel, Cex, Mouse on Mars, Prefuse 73, Access to Arasaka and early Telefon Tel Aviv.

This release is going to join my collection of “work albums.” Among the others are Funki Porcini’s Fast Asleep, and FFWD’s self titled album. They’re perfect to listen to when I need to sit down and design/code for hours.

To view artwork and videos by Ultre, visit Ultre on MySpace. The Nest and the Skull is available from Amazon and other online music retailers for a special price of $5.99.

MP3: Ultre – Struggle and Nothing

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A few weeks ago, I was checking to see if Tipper was working on any new material. I found out that he recently mastered an album called Zoomorphic by Spoonbill (aka Jim Moynihan), so I decided to check it out. I figured if Dave Tipper was involved in something it’d be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this good. It’s wild!

It’s a sound designers dream come true. Wobbly bass, foley sound effects, cartoon samples, warped synths, organs, flutes, kalimbas, trombones, slide guitars, broken egg shells, ping-pong balls, crunching food… you name it, it’s in there. Somehow, Moynihan is able to cram hundreds of sounds into each track while retaining structure, catchy melodies and sick beats. Zoomorphic can’t be pigeonholed into a single genre. It’s a mix of glitch-hop, IDM, dubstep, abstract electronica, folk and a touch of bluegrass.

A bit off topic… but about 10 years ago, my friend Liz and I were smoking in the dorm bathroom, looking out at the Philadelphia skyline. We were talking about the worst possible ways to die. For some reason, I thought that dropping acid at Zoobilee Zoo would be the worst way to go. Zoomorphic would totally be the soundtrack to that experience… only without the dying.

Zoomorphic is Spoonbill’s third full-length release. His previous albums are abstract as well, but are better categorized as broken beat, downtempo and experimental. Definitely worth checking out. All Spoonbill releases are available from Amazon and Addictech.

MP3: Spoonbill – Feather Leather

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This summer, Nine Inch Nails fans can expect something totally different. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and NIN are currently collaborating on a full length release called Here Be Piggies. It’s a companion album to TKDE’s upcoming album, Here Be Dragons. The 6 track, 66 minute long album will be released by Ad Noiseam by the end of summer 2009. Both bands are working side-by-side so we can expect something much more exciting than a typical remix album. The new NIN line-up for the release (which seems absolutely ridiculous) includes Armando Acosta, Terminator X, Jasmin Wagner and HP Baxter. Since I got this from Ad Noiseam, I’m assuming it’s correct. But it could just be a stunt to boost TDKE’s popularity. Either way, I’m sure it’ll work.

This is what Trent Reznor had to say about the upcoming release: “I wanted to try something different, something genuinely more underground and boundaries-pushing. Getting away from mainstream rock has been my wish for years now, and I found in TKDE the perfect people to jam with. Partying with TKDE / Bong-Ra’s Jason Kohnen also helped me get over my straight-edgeness, and releasing on Ad Noiseam brings me back to the times I was a struggling musician scraping for money. I am having fun again, finally.”

If you’re unfamiliar with TKDE, they’re an experimental 7-member band that got their start composing music to silent films. Their current sound is a mix between creepy jazz, downtempo, industrial and IDM. It’s dark and beautiful. Definitely check them out. TKDE are currently on tour throughout the UK. Below is a track from their second release, Mutations EP.

MP3: The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Shadows

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