Mark Templeton – Safely Into March
29 May
MARK TEMPLETON
Safely Into March
Self-Released
* Commissioned for Postcards From Gowanus exhibit
The latest ten-minute piece by Canadian composer Mark Templeton is a free download (courtesy of Bandcamp). Safely Into March is a hazy drone work. It’s sparked with late night post-bonfire crackle, and a wavy, inebriated allure. Tempered, a sense of place emerges – one of being lost in darkness, with glints of light through fog, cautiously knocking things over that make noise and jolt as it hastens the listener to paint a finite picture from its parts.
LISTEN:
Substrata 2.1
28 May
JUST RELEASED: Limited to an exclusive 100 copies, this image (printed on archival A3 Somerset Photo Satin), along with the incredible recording by Biosphere is available once more. The image, which is the original recording’s cover art, known as The Planet Is Blue, is by Touch label guru and photographer Jon Wozencroft, shot in Sicily back just before 9/11. Depicting the craggy break between earth and the sea, the removed ambiance meshes snugly with the recording in its overall hue and expanse.
Ember – Aurona Arona
27 May
EMBER
Aurona Arona
Ahornfelder
This German quartet’s second effort is mysteriously remote. The hard etching of strings on Etherlorbien proceed with a certain level of caution, while meandering with frantically organic improv percussion (nods to Christian Lillinger). But somehow when Oliver Schwerdt’s sweetly corrupted piano rises the goings-on seem just fine, bringing a hint of awkward mellow into a field of crazy lines. And it all ends abruptly with a big silence, leaving generous space for contemplation. Behind the seamlessly woven knobs/wires of Alexander Schubert, who pieced the record together, the twisted lips of Urs Leimgruber’s sax fluff the tight Begen Bginn Fllt forming a cacophony of out-there jazzy atonality. The four play in a uniquely universal voice, turning their instruments towards a rhythmic conversation. Quiet moments throughout emphasize an assimilation of human interaction, its power dynamics rising to the occasion in curious hot spots, and whispering with solace, reflection. This is where free jazz meets the street, out in the open, acting on playful impulses and a sense of co-joined individuality. The title cut may call upon impressions of futuristic lounge music played in a deconstructed casino of sorts, zip-locked with hints of humor and audacity. It tiptoes and clomps, rattles and beams you up at the same time. And once all plays out its a big bad ball of brazen bravado. Play loud!
Rene Hell – Porcelain Opera
21 May
RENE HELL
Porcelain Opera
Type
(((SYNTHESIZE ME))): Meet Rene Hell – the latest moniker of Jeffrey D. Witscher, still a rather newcomer to the electronic scene, and aside from assorted cassettes over the last year this would be his powerful debut on Type. It meanders like some kind of melancholic lost soul or bastard stepchild of Cabaret Voltaire or Pink Floyd (listen to Prize Mischief Hold). Yeah, there’s a baby beatnik inside this Porcelain Opera easing out on his own with a nod to the vibes of vintage Pete Townshend on IV 18:54. There’s also some kind of deep dark 80′s synth flashback on L.Minx. Along the way garbled rattling and lil’ squeaky antics are lain atop a rather syrup-slow thematic backdrop that might make some harken back to the era of Vangelis’ Heaven and Hell. So, yeah, this new thing is packed with references galore though remains more than just a melange of other people’s stylistic leanings – it’s about free-flow composition. It’s also about time someone just lost themselves wholeheartedly in the music once again – and not self-indulgently. There’s a fusion between old and new, digital and handmade. This is quite original and hard at first or second listen to pin-down, making it worthy of long play. Give ‘em Hell!
Oneohtrix Point Never – Returnal
20 May
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER
Returnal
Editions Mego
Welcome to cryptic caustic contained chaos. Nil Admirari is an odd opener, but proves its point, taking no prisoners. This is Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin), a Bostonian building his bite since ’07. After entering this maze the blend of sounds land smack dab in a trancendentalist Tangerine Dream soundtrack of sorts. This dark passageway strides through both the luminous Describing Bodies and the ambient/rubbery Stress Waves. Returnal is Lopatin’s fourth record, and not your average bear, nor a rocket ship for that matter. There’s this flavor of a tinkering experimenter tuning things and along the way discovers and embellishes some finer elongated melodies. That futzing plays in its favor. Then comes the title track, only strangely transitional, which sort of plays like a down-mixed variation on The Knife vs. Vangelis on sleeping pills. A flare of psych haziness is scattered throughout (Pelham Island Road), a bit like a bad trip I might suppose. And then comes the restrained tribute to Steve Hillage on Where Does Time Go with repetitious and cooler tone moogy rhythms. The overall atmosphere on Returnal is pretty grey, effervescing for shy moments only to retreat and carry on. Not for everyone (mastered by James Plotkin), discs like this often disappear into the greater subconscious only rising up for the true lover of the unexpected.
Klangwart – Sommer
19 May
KLANGWART
Sommer
Staubgold
Klangwart (Timo Reuber & Markus Detmer) create a journey through tangly reverb tones in an almost clinically paced new release. Sommer offers a lot of room for thought, an airy sensibility with deep bass lows following a more conceptual, almost soundtrack-like layout. The radio tuning style on Schnappschuss is tonal experimentation at its most fun. Both Moloch and Frühtau (w/Nufa) are thick and dense cyclical tracks, only revealing surface squeals, keeping a sense of slithery mystery. But what makes this record stand out is its continuous haunting drone — while this duo adds layers and layers of intricate and intimate sounds. The goings-on shift with low-rise beats in their collaboration with Philippe Petit on the late night chiller Hitzefrei. It’s a dead ringer in your ears.
Jóhann Jóhannsson Visits Portland
11 May
The Aladdin Theater (3017 SE Milwaukie Avenue) features Icelandic artist Jóhann Jóhannsson in concert, one night only, May 13 at 8PM. Don’t miss this one.
Addendum: The concert was lovely, and truly unique for electronic performance. On stage, Jóhannsson, was joined by a mini quintet symphony, four stringed instruments as well as a second laptopper (Goldmund who played as the virtuoso pianist opener) doing percussive sounds. The black and white projected films had glitches, were dark and slightly non-responsive, but the music was introspective, harmonious and trance-inducing – so I closed my eyes and drifted off with them. A blend of field recordings, dark ambient with lots of dramatic classical overtones. With an attendance of about 80 people on a beautifully warm evening all I can say is many missed this one – and they were kind enough to do a single, short encore as well.
LISTEN:
The Lady Blacktronika: Cover Art
11 May
My work dons the cover of the new single by the “first lady of beatdown” The Lady Blacktonika (aka Akua Marcelle Grant) coming out in the height of the Summer on Bay Area-based Untitled & After. These tracks are gonna be HOT!
A – Luv Hate Us
B – Another Man (You’re On the DL II)
Fierce diva bustin’ loose.
