We're always so pleasantly pleased to receive music from and by our mailorder customers from around the globe! K is from Portugal. In case you couldn't tell from the album's title, this is some intensely ominous music. Rolling swells of dank guitar generated drones dominate the seven tracks. Industrial grindings and IDM-esque rhythmic sequences occasionally emerge from the deep smothering roar. Chill-inducing and apocalyptic.
The opening track for "Deli Mood Spot" is so misleading and uncharacteristic of the rest of the album that I have to question K-Rad's decision for including it on the album. K-Rad is a Chicago trio specializing in an IDM techno centered around low-sampling rate grit and faux-acid squiggliness often heard on Patrick Pulsinger's productions for Cheap Records, yet the album seductively begins with a down-tempo, trip-hop number straight outta Mo' Wax circa 1996, complete with blunted breaks, Steinski inspired samples, and DJ Shadow funk recontextualizations. Both that opening cut and the rest of the album are well-executed but certainly do not work as a paired dyptic of well-established aesthetics.
A mix cd along the lines of K7's "DJ Kicks" series by dj K.O. of ICU (now IQU) and with ultra-minimal cover art (plain jewel case.) Contains tracks by: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Plone, Andre Estermann, AEMIC, Michael Fakesch, Illianthal, Red Snapper, Boom Boom Satellites, One True Parker, Hexer, Jon Forte vs. London Electricity, BOB Sound System, Palm Skin Productions, E.V.A., and Aphex Twin.
We went pretty crazy for The Kenya Sessions, a record on which producer/percussionist Sven Kacirek took field recordings from Africa, of local musicians as well as various street sounds, and wove them into his darkly hypnotic percussion driven soundscapes. Lush and rhythmic, and quite melodic, Kacirek laid down gorgeous expanses of xylophone/marimba/kalimba/glockenspiel, the resulting collages sounding not like collages at all, the studio elements and field recordings perfectly fused into a seemingly organic collaboration. And while much studio magic was employed in that instance, exactly the opposite is true here, a record on which not only does Kacirek play all the instruments, but employs virtually no studio tweaking, no sampling, no loops, everything here is meticulously composed, and then played and recorded straight through, the sounds not manipulated, but left whole, which seems impossible listening to this, all manner of strange buzz, thrum, glitch and hiss, lovely and layered, and sounding weirdly like a techno record. Much like the 'live techno' of another recent aQ fave Elektro Guzzi, much of this record sounds like it must be the work of some DJ or studio mad scientist, but instead it is simply an incredible work of modern minimalism, by an amazing percussionist, who seems to have a ridiculous mastery of recording and production.
The vibe throughout is melancholy and brooding, the sound impossibly full and lush, multiple melodies overlapped, creating dreamy harmonies, constantly shifting overtones, moody and mesmerizing, all of these sonic elements anchored by Kacirek's minimal rhythms, intricate and skittery one second, bombastic and free jazzy the next. Like some strange fusion of modern classical, minimal electronica, and brooding electro pop (the vocals on "It Is Not About Love" remind us of the late great Lamb), there's also some Kompakt style Pop Ambience going on, not to mention Necks style drone-jazz, and a little bit of washed out house music propulsion, field recordings also surface throughout, the whole record has the feel of something that might end up on Type, or Miasmah, with its murky mesmer and strange dubbed out 'clicks and cuts', but it's too playful, too much like a real band, and a real recording, not a studio concoction, which imbues the sounds with some ineffable warmth that transforms it into something very very special.
It's always a challenge to meld electronic and organic sounds. When done correctly, it can be sublime, an otherworldly fusion of seemingly diametrically opposed musics, an impossible hybrid that on rare occasions can most definitely transcend its constituent parts. When done incorrectly, it can sound flat and forced. Or can simply not work at all. Most egregiously, the enduring 'electronica flecked folk' that we do on occasion love, but which in most cases is simply pedestrian strum and croon peppered with glitch and buzz and somehow presented as avant.
But this, this is something else entirely, an unlikely fusion of acoustic percussion, electronic studio production, various bits of programming and processing, and most importantly, recordings of actual Kenyan folk music, vocalists, traditional string instruments, all woven seamlessly into Kacirek's subtle sublime productions. It definitely makes more sense once you realize Kacirek is in fact a virtuoso jazz drummer and percussionist, thus the rhythmic focus of The Kenya Sessions, but that background in drumming hardly prepares us for this, a heady, propulsive, effusive, dark and mysterious bout of electronic folk music. And minus the voices, it's practically impossible to discern the Kenyan field recordings from the studio productions, there are moments of skittery Kompakt-like techno shuffle, but just as often, it Kacirek playing Marimba, or playing on a snare with brushes, and wrapping those sounds around the buzz of some African stringed instrument, or taking the various rhythms and weaving them into a lush, pulsing backdrop for some lovely vocalizing, the results are incredible, and range from the dark, buzzing and brooding opening track, "Arsenal Aluny Village", which almost sounds like a super minimal African Portishead, to the twangy shuffle of "Old Man Small Studio", the electronics dialed way back, but the marimba and tuned percussive melodies adding a distinctly Western pop element to the more traditional sounding vocals, or the murky almost Oval-esque shimmer of "Dear Anastasia", the backdrop smokey and sultry, the melodies dark and minor key, but then the vocals again transform the song into something completely original and very much unlike anything you've ever heard.
Imagine your favorite Sublime Frequencies compilation, or one of the Ethiopiques collections, if they were released on Kompakt, or imagine How To Dress Well composing a chill out soundtrack for late night Kenyan clublife, there aren't any 'beats' proper, instead the rhythms pulse and throb, shimmer and shuffle, skitter and stutter, usually super subtle, as textural as they are rhythmic, tangled up with pianos and marimbas, and then the Kenyan recordings, traditional instruments, twang and buzz, and those vocals, soulful and emotional, sometimes call and response, other times moody and crooned, and the sounds while often electronic, borderline 'techno' sounding even, just as often, veer toward something else entirely, more concerned with evoking a mood, creating a gorgeous ambient space, one that often explodes into something rhythmic and propulsive, but just as often slips into something hushed, and minimal, mysterious and lovely.
The record finishes off with the amazing "Takaye Preaching", which does indeed seem to be some preacher preaching, whose almost song like sermonizing, is accompanied by some perfectly matched up rhythmic flurries, skittery muted grooves and shuffling percussion, the rapidfire vocal delivery somehow softened by Kacireks's instrumental accompaniment, the result sounding like some moody jazzy drift wrapped around a hyper hip hop flow, but again, once the two elements are melded, it's hard to imagine that this was constructed in a studio, and not some sort of unlikely jam session, which is pretty much the magic of the whole record. A fantastically unique sonic document, a sort of avant world electronica, or minimal electro Kenyan soul, or maybe downtempo electro worldmusic, whatever you wanna call it, we're loving it, and odds are you will too.
We completely flipped for Sven Kacirek's The Kenya Sessions, a record where Kacirek, a producer, drummer and percussionist, traveled to Kenya to record local musicians, in their homes and on the street, and then took those recordings and wove in his own. The result was a fantastic electronic / world music hybrid, so seamlessly executed it was often difficult to tell which was which.
The Palmin Sessions are from a few years earlier, but seems to employ the same method, with Kacirek playing real acoustic instruments, vibraphone, kalimba, drums, glockenspiel, as well as brushes, books, paper, film, doors and other unlikely sound making devices. And like The Kenya Sessions, these tracks are incredible, the fusing of real drums, and programmed electronics, all woven into songs lush and organic, sometimes dreamy and laid back, other times intense and super propulsive.
Opener "Heinrich & Helene" is the perfect example, with its warm, soft focus vibraphone melodies, all wreathed in little streaks of electronics, glitches, bloops and bleeps, all very subtle, total bliss out drift off minimal electronica, but then the drums begin to surface, gradually overtaking the hushed shimmer, the playing getting more and more busy, until they erupt in a fantastic squall of wild drummage, still surrounded by electronic blurs and smears, only to blink out, and revert to the opening hushed drift. Awesome.
And the rest of the record is just as good. Some tracks are a bit jazzy, others are almost house-y, still others sound like Kompakt style pop ambience, there are horns, tinkling chimes, occasional vocals, all the tracks based on rhythms, and Kacirek's playing in particular, while the production transforms all the sounds into washed out, dreamlike, ethereal skitterscapes, and warm, woozy, soft focus drifts of electronic shimmer.
Kadet Kuhne is a San Francisco based media-artist, who often pulls the worlds of experimental video and avant-garde electronics closer together through her seamless audio-visual explorations of digitized fragments and mulched sonic detritus. Matter Of Mind is her first full album in nearly 8 years, although she certainly had plenty of performances, screenings, installations, and collaborations during that time. That said, this album does follow neatly with the previous record Thin Air in its ghostly abstraction of softened glitches, polished surfaces, and rounded tones not to far from the orbits of Jan Jelinek or Oval, with melodic fragments emerging sporadically through the time-stretched filigree and pixelated gaseousness. On "Ruminant," Kadet brings to the foreground the unprocessed sounds of a clarinet (courtesy of Giselle Eastman) amidst the digital smoke and mirror sound design of refracted noir, sounding like an updated version of the Vangelis soundtrack for Blade Runner. Her track "Encoded" responds to a process that Lucky Dragons used on John Coltrane's A Love Supreme to turn it into a visual score; here, she transformed the Coltrane classic into binary data and reassembled the audio signal output into a thoroughly abstracted corollary. Obviously, some of the original has been reintroduced with a subtle groove from a deconstructed bassline and a skittering rhythmic sample emerges amidst the digitally scrubbed and mulched-to-graynoise data. Her most refined work to date!
Listening to this new release from SF solo IDM/electronicist Kadet is an almost multi-sensory experience. A plethora of wonderfully itchy glitches, thick tenuous throbs and metallic percussive gasps probe your ears. Some sounds actually made my teeth buzz as if I'd chomped down on some aluminum foil - an impressive feat unto itself. The latter tracks gradually sink into a much
Here is Ms Kadet Kuhne's follow-up to Seismic, her fine IDM album from 2001. Since then she's relocated to LA, but she hasn't made any radical departures in her music. That's a good thing 'cause her past endeavors have been pretty darn great, wholly enveloping listens. Now, whether the "thin air" of the title is in reference to that which you might "vanish into" or that which you find at high altitudes, we do not know. But we can say that regardless, the title suits this album well. Some of her sounds can be fleeting and ghostly, while the more severe and imposing ones may leave listeners a wee bit out of sorts or short of breath. Characterized by swishy, cricket-y textures, gentle cloudy drones and rounded deep bass thuds, This Air is a considerably more subdued ambient affair overall than its kinetic, glitchy predecessor. Also, although these sounds were originally part of Sensorium, her audiovisual installation collaboration with Reto Schmid/testrun which showed in Switzerland, LA and here in SF, Thin Air may be best listened to on headphones in isolation. Nice!
Certainly much more dancefloor friendly than the recent output from Kompakt, Kaito's "Everlasting" features a laid back shuffling tech-house groove flushed out by low slung basslines and constantly syncopating Carl Craig like synth pads.
Get your dancin' shoes polished up and ready to go 'cause Kaito (aka Japanese producer Hiroshi Watanabe) has offered up over 75 minutes of sleek and sharply executed trance-meets-house grooves. There's all-out thumpin' bass rumpshakers to total gonna-love-you-downtempo numbers and a super spacy atmospheric closing track mysteriously called "Awakening (Beatlesstrumental)". This is his first full length, but please note, it compiles his three previous 12"s with a few new tracks.
Another winner from Kompakt, made even more of a winner in that like much of Kompakt's output, it is contributing to the gradual conversion of the techno hating holdouts around here. Trust, the latest disc from Japanese producer Hiroshi Watanabe aka Kaito, takes the trancey house sounds of his past releases, and infuses a bit more of the Pop Ambient the Kompakt is also known for. Lots of swooshing shimmer, with warm waves of lush whirr, draped over lilting piano melodies. Skittery 4/4 rhythms, and hazy streaks of high end M83 style synths wrapped around thumping grooves and tinkling melodies. "Nothing Could Be More Peaceful" might be our favorite, super murky and ultra dreamy and pastoral, a sort of Chain Reaction meets Pop Ambient sound, that slowly builds to something more trancey and propulsive.
This is definitely not a record for folks who don't already dig techno, it's not an ideal gateway record, it's not super weird or avant or abstract, it's pretty housey, definitely trancey, there are some warm warped and murky moments, but the core of the record is something much more sleek and dancefloor ready, and definitely more classically techno. So if you dig that sort of thing, odds are this will hit the spot, and if you're new to all this techno stuff and are looking for a place to start, this would definitely be a good one to try.
Another outing of hazy, jazz-dappled beauty from this instrumental German collective, I mean, kollektief, who are long-time AQ faves. Burbling drones, noirish atmospheres, electronic beats, lush melody, sampling and improv all combine on this gorgeous fifth album of theirs, Absencen. They've been compared (by us and others) to everyone from Fridge to Mum to AMM to Miles Davis... we're not gonna add any new names to that illustrious list for this review, rather we'd like to make the point that not only do they deserve such comparisons, Kammerflimmer now have pretty much established themselves as a standard for others to be compared against -- anyone who makes lovely, densely woven, textural soundscapey instrumentals that fall somewhere betwixt post-rock, jazz and electronica should be glad to be told they sound a bit like the Kammerflimmer Kollektief!
If you regularly peruse our New Arrivals list (of course you do!) then you're probably aware that we sometimes review an album the week it's released, or sometimes the week after, or even the week before, or a few months later, or even a whole year later. This is due to a lot of random factors, and also some constant ones -- like the number of hours in the day! All this by way of saying, this excellent new album (the sixth) from Germany's always dependable Kammerflimmer Kollektief came out a month or two back, and it's about time we got it up on our website!
A slowly unfolding, gloriously pretty affair, dense with buzz and shimmer, a mix of acoustic strings and electronic embellishment, gentle rhythms and lovely ambience. Never can tell just what to call 'em: post-rock, jazz, electronica, definitely a heavenly hybrid of all those things. Heck we could just call it krautrock couldn't we? Definitely falls into that tradition. Their moody mood this time around is even more calm and crackly and contemplative than we recall in the past, replete with harmonium and double bass drones... percussion and piano intertwining... and the abstract but alluring vocals of Heike Aumuller. As we like to say (feeling very self-reflective at the moment): quite nice!
Abso-fucking-lutely brilliant record that got little attention when it was imported to the US last year. Temporary Residence has finally issued the all-instrumental Maander stateside, and perhaps now the German 6-piece will get the recognition it's due.
The title pretty much says it all... and the cover art tells you the rest. This cd features ten remixes of Kammerflimmer Kollektief tracks by Noze, Sutekh, Radian, Secondo, Lump200, David Last, Jan Jelinek, Aoki Takamasa and Hans Appelqvist. Each track sounds exactly like a textbook definition of "remix" -- skillfully dismembered, edited, and augmented glitchy electronica in which both artists are sufficiently 'represented'. That said, the Jan Jelinek and Aoki Takamasa tracks were particularly pleasing treatments of these German faves.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Some of you are probably familiar with Kapotte Muziek (which translates roughly to 'broken music') a recording project of Dutch sound artist Frans De Waard, who also runs the Korm Plastics and Bake Records record labels. Kapotte Muziek has recorded, released or contributed to hundreds and hundreds of records, so it makes sense that an odds and ends collection would end up sprawling over the length of FOUR cd-r's. De Waard has explored all facets of sound, from minimal electronics to somber drones but KM would have to be qualified as 'noise music' wethinks. Not noise like Merzbow, although their are moments, but more like simple forms of noise, sculpted into new shapes, and alien sounds. White noise, pink noise, static, distortion, electrical currents, all deftly maneuvered and recontextualized. Each disc is packed to the gills with lost recordings, alternate versions, sound experiments, ambience, harsh noise and everything in between. Slow soundscapes of staticky hiss that ebbs and flows like some strange electronic sea, drones constructed from what sounds like wind and crickets and a million marbles rolling down metal stairs, siren like sinewaves twisted and pitched into clicks and bumps and squealing swoops, shimmering lowercase worlds of rumbles and clicks, creepy and subterranean, lunar landscapes of space-y woosh and robotic bleeps and bloops, and that's just part on one disc. This is definitely not easy listening. This is difficult listening, but as we know, that can often be the most rewarding.
Includes extensive liner notes, with in depth text about the genesis and execution of each and every track.
Packaged in separate sleeves and held together by a Japanese style obi.
Panacea, our favorite formerly-corpulent German beat terrorist returns under another pseudonym (after also going by Rich Kid, Bad Street Boy, and M2) -- Kate Mosh. The music is trademark Panacea -- crushingly heavy beats and super doom-laden atmospheres, staccato highs and scattered static-laden vocal samples. It's very fun, very aggro and heavy. Everyone from fans of Atari Teenage
An older single from 1996 by Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic, Tekonivel, O, etc.) on the perenially good Austrian label Cheap. Hyper-minimal phaseshifting techno constructed on a handful of one-off analogue machines like the complex sound generator. As with all Vainio productions, highly recommended.
We NEVER see any actual documents from Opal Tapes, the cult electronica imprint run by Stephen Bishop (aka Basic House). Well, we've never seen anything until we got in a pitiful number of copies of this Ketev tape, and this one is a gem of Andy Stott / Demdike Stare / Regis inspired grimy, dirty techno seemingly composed on an overdriven 4-track whose internal gain compression creates much of the dankly phased patterns crunch along the hypnotic, sinister techno. Hopefully a preamble for another album, as this stuff is too fucking good just to exist on tiny (and currently out of print) cassette edition! Modern Love would be our bet for the label of Ketev's future.
We continue to wade through the shimmering technocolour world that is France's Gooom Records. First there was the amazing shoegazing electronic pop of M83, then the Autechre-ish fuzzy bliss of Mils, and the dreamy propulsive buzz of Purple Confusion. So next on the hit list is KG, who somehow manage to string all of that together into one glorious sonic bloodbath. The first track takes you on a quick guided tour of KG's soundworld, with some straight up techno that slowly unravels into ambient-ish electronica and is then subsumed by huge squalls of white noise, whirling eddies of sonic detritus while frail melodies struggle desperately to stay afloat. Like listening to M83 on the radio but then driving under a bridge and losing reception! Only better. The rest of the record is a melancholy sonic travelogue, from skittery electronica to almost-industrial clang and clatter, to throbbing techno to New Order-ish new wave, but always wrapped in bittersweet melody and thick warm swaths of synth fuzz. Fans of M83, Lali Puna, Postal Service, Dntel, Morr music and all that sort of stuff will definitely dig this.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
KGB Man & Oneohtrix Point Never are both the work of Daniel Lopatin; however, neither of these tapes are marked as to what sound is to be ascribed to which project. Ultimately, it matters not; as everything that Lopatin has touched over the recent year has been golden.
So, here we've got two cassettes, each clocking in around 20 minutes in total length. The first OPN track (well at least on what was the first tape that we grabbed) is a cold undulating set of slightly modulated tones set on glacial cruise control; the flip side of this cassette (which might also be by OPN) continues in this sentiment with a more wash, blur, and synthetic shimmer, still wrangling all of those nostalgic images of a future once imagined but now abandoned. What appear to be the KGM Man tracks finds Lopatin in his subaqueous, sampledelica vein somewhat like those earlier Caretaker recordings but with Lopatin twisting and bending maudlin piano notes into seasick electronic flanges and slippery looped structures. His luminous synth melodies do occasionally flicker through these mutant constructs; and oh yeah, drum machines, you don't find that in OPN. A very nice touch!
Limited to 125 copies of which we only have 10 copies, never to restocked!!!
Heavy on the quirk and camp in a StereoTotal sort of way, but somewhat more sexed up and raucous. Some French girl vocals, some very Euro, Fred Schneider meets Jon Spencer vocals. Well actually, maybe that *is* Jon Spencer, 'cause he does sing on here, along
Hot on the heels of all those Morr Music label releases that have arrived in the last few weeks, comes some more pretty electronica. This time it's from UK label Type Records.
Okay, first things first, our initial beef with this cd was the record label's decision to plaster not the shrinkwrap, but the digipak itself (!) with stickers of ten unreasonably pants-shitting review excerpts. It not only makes the cd look like a promotional copy, but also may elevate your expectations of an album that can't possibly stand up to those over the top superlatives. For example, Grooves sez, "No one, anywhere, has melded indie rock and electronics as perfectly as this... The most jaw-dropping debut since Music Has The Right To Children". What the?! Gimme a fuckin' break!!! No, more simply stated, Khonnor (aka teenager Connor Kirby-Long) would fit quite well on the Morr Music label alongside the likes of Styrofoam, LaliPuna and Ms. John Soda (all of whom do this kind of music as well if not better that Khonnor). It's nice and dreamy and pleasant, especially the tracks without vocals. That said, Khonnor might not be as successful as the aforementioned label's artists in fusing the pop with the electronic -- he's much stronger at crafting layers of dreamy textures than pop hooks -- but if you're seeking an album to wrap yourself in fuzzy blankets of digital shimmer with fleeting glimpses of pop melodies, this could be the one for you.
The latest record from the electronic wunderkid that can seem to do no wrong these days. 'Down With the Scene', released for some reason on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, is a brutal and schizophrenic junglist hodge podge of samples, loops, crushing jungle breaks, all sorts of fucked effects, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Includes an awesome sample from 'Fear of a Black Hat' which seals the deal for me. I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but, this is an awesome and overwhelming record. Although I can't help but feel like he owes an enormous debt to local electrofucker (and Kid 606 co-hort) LESSER, who has been making records like this for years now, but fails to get the recognition he deserves. Regardless, this is a kick ass record and Kid 606 kicks ass, but definitely keep your eyes peeled for LESSER's Matador debut 'Gearhound' in the fall. It'll set everything, and everyone straight.
By the time this list is sent out, it will be useless to qualify "GQ on the EQ" as the latest album for the Kid, since he'll probably peddle his wares to another label and have another record out in a week or two. At this rate he's looking to surpass the excessively prolific output of Muslimgauze and Merzbow combined in less than a decade. But before the Kid 606 box set of 606 cds comes out in the year 2012, we give you "GQ on the EQ" -- a compendium of the vinyl only releases that the Kid made for 555 records over the past three years. At times quite lovely with crystalline shards of skipped and timestretched hard disc edits, at other fast and loose drill 'n' bass work.
Electronica's wonderkid/schmooze-extraordinaire displays an all-star line-up of remixers including Hrvatski, Electric Company, Aube, Christoph de Babylon, Twisted Science, etc. for a noisy, crunchy drum n' bass fest.
Kid 606's press agent acclaims that "the Kid has consistently sabotaged categorization of his work by remaining true to its core; his violence is against sound, against the sounds of comfort; against the sounds listeners expect." This record is pretty good, but that's a bit much. What this album does offer is a really cool drum & bass party album, with lots of sweaty Amen breakbeats, dum dum Rotterdam rhythms, ragga toasting, and a refined understanding of where all of the samples should go within a pretty great jungle record. The Kid's choices of samples includes police sirens, sci-fi effects, and rave blasts, following the standards of jungle set by Metalheadz and Ed Rush almost a decade ago. Maybe it's an homage? Either way, this is just the thing for your boomin' system.
It's been a while since we've heard from Kid 606, we've long been fans of his wild and warped, super fucked up, gnarled, glitched out electronic pummel, every record a dizzying, ADD, short attention span, sonic onslaught, but apparently things in the Kid's life have been rough recently, and this record is a dark, surprisingly restrained chunk of meditative and melancholy minimal synth heavy reflection. Gone are the sliced and diced, chopped and screwed, blown out beat-blasted freakouts, and in their places some seriously droned out mesmer. Opener "Godspeed You African American Emperor" (at least he hasn't lost his knack for irreverent song titles), is all blurred synth shimmer, and muted skeletal skitter, wreathed in dark swirls of ethereal thrum, and soft focus cosmic FX, a darkly dreamy, cinematic dreamscape, that sounds a bit like a remixed Tim Hecker. "Gimme Summer" takes the same sort of gauzy sonics, stirs in some swirling synth melodies, and adds another stripped down beat. "New Boss Same As Old Boss", cranks up the volume, adding some grit and gristle, but the sound remains blurry and bleary, and woozily melancholy, the beat all but buried in the mix, the vibe almost like a more abstract M83, sort of shoegazey retro electro-pop, but smeared into something much more fuzzed out and druggy.
We sort of kept waiting for the record to explode into a burst of tangled rhythms, or a grinding squall of blast beats, or some wild junglized drill & bass, but instead, the record remains pretty sedate throughout, slipping into some serious, hushed ethereal ambience ("Cardamom's Gone Soft"), delving into dreamy dubby outer space drifts (I'm Sick But I Ain't Dead"), blossoming into swoonsome electro gaze club jams ("Night Club Vs. Book Club"), and slipping into smears of soft swells and percolating dreampop melodies ("Big Black Ketamine Jesus"). There are moments, where it seems like the sound is about to explode, but it's more about a delicate balance of tension and release, the whole record fantastically mellow and moody, and easily the darkest dreamiest thing we've heard from the Kid yet.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It's hard to keep up with the Kid, but here's his (for the moment) latest release. And it's certainly different from the distorted drill & bass workouts found on his recent "Down With The Scene" opus. Instead, "PS I Love You" has found a very comfortable home on the abstract electronica label Mille Plateaux, with its blend of almost chill out swirling cybernetic ambience and glitch driven rhythms. Just beautiful!
On Kid 606's website, he's peddling a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: "I did a remix for Kid 606 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." At least the Kid is recognizing his ubiquity within the electronica scene with a good sense of humor. "PS You Love Me" is the requisite remix album of his Mille Plateaux "PS I Love You," featuring the production techniques and electronic twiddle of
Kid 606 keeps up his prolific nature with another release on his Tigerbeat 6 label. This time out the tongue in cheek title gives a hint to the sounds he's brewed up on this outing. Unapologetic '90s sounding techno, with all song titles followed by a listing of the beats per minute. With most songs falling around the 120-136bpm range this is some four on the floor dance till it gets bright out again, pills be kicking in, peaking so nice, dance tracks. Rave Rave Rave. With his heart & spirit in a disco somewhere in Berlin but his body still planted in our backyard in Oakland. Wild.
Is it any coincidence that Resilience -- quite possibly the most unobnoxious, non-in your face Kid606 release ever -- is dedicated to his mother? And is it just us or does it also seems like this album took him way longer than any of his previous ones. Unrushed loving care? More sincere contemplation? Not sure, but we can tell you that he's toned things down so much that the tracks have reached the point of being downright subdued by his standards. The Kid goes dooooowntempo? A very different and unexpected approach but not entirely alienating, dare we say, at times it verges on pretty. His trademark ominous splatters of distorted glitch are all but absent. Makes us think that maybe this release should have been titled Repose rather than Resilience. Whereas on past releases such as Down With The Scene he was all about sonic agitation, here he begins the album somberly with "Done With The Scene". Deep, slow sliding synth lines, delicate tinkly melodies and ghostly voices peek out here and there.
After all these years Kid 606 is still kicking out the deranged electro/techno sounds. Now living in Berlin which seems pretty sonically ideal...
Along with folks like J. Lesser and Matmos, Kid 606 has been one of the key figures in bringing the world of techno and electronica to a more punk minded listenership. And over the years the music of Kid 606 has taken many twists and turns, never one to shy from diversity and eclecticism he's put out everything from hardcore four on the floor techno to drill n' bass to ambient blissed out dreamscapes.
We have to admit we haven't always been the biggest fans of all his releases, but he's hit us with enough moments of total musical bliss and magic that we make sure to at least check out every new release he puts out. And while we weren't in love with the last few, we are beyond BLOWN AWAY with what he's created on this deliciously smart-ass-titled new outing. In fact there is something to be said for how smart ass the title and back cover artwork on this record is, because for as clever and mindfucking as Kid 606 can be, it's sometimes the problem with his music. Fortunately he's gotten the snarkiness out of his system via the non musical aspects of this record, and allowed the sounds within to just totally flourish in immaculately crafted, wide ranging electronic sounds.
The albums opener, is almost like some amazing lost kosmiche kraut gem, tones that are so rich, patient and inviting. We were immediately reminded of some of our favorite Kid 606 releases from the past that get overlooked as they show off the non techno side of his musical leanings and are more about creating rich atmospheres with true emotion. Records like The Soccer Girl EP, PS I Love You, PS I Love Me, and the utterly beautiful Resilience. As the record unfolds, Kid 606 still shows that he can draw from a wide range of electronic palettes but it never veers into techno land, instead it reminds us of those glorious days when IDM actually meant something. Those records by Oval, Aphex Twin, Matmos, Autechre, that made so many of us embrace a form of music we had for so long no relationship with.
But this isn't just some kind of IDM rehash, Kid 606 also shows that he can soar, drone and bliss out with the best of them. As there are so many amazing moments on this record that you could think was coming from AQ favorites like Emeralds, Tim Hecker or Oneohtrix Point Never. He also works in some influences of some of our favorite 20th century minimalist composers like Terry Riley and Steve Reich, especially on one of the album's hypnotizing standout tracks "Periled Emu God". And fear not, for those who like a bit of dissonance with their electronica, the Kid still interweaves some more challenging sounds into these tracks, yet manages to do so in a way that creates something larger and organic instead of just being difficult for the sake of being difficult. While there are brief moments with an almost Mego vibe (mostly just on the album's closer) the record while touching on many shades of electronica has an overall unique viewpoint that just sound so so perfect. This is the kind of electronica we haven't been able to find lately. Sure we love dubstep, space disco and drone, but we've been craving the kind of innovation and nuanced composition that so many of our favorite electronic albums of a prior age intoxicated us with. Somehow channeling both the best of electronica's past and creating a vision of its future at the same time, Kid 606 has proven that someone who has created something you love in the past, is surely capable of doing it again. Totally stunning!
I know we seem to be kind of hard on Kid606. We are. He's the artist du jour. He's on practically every electronica compilation that came out in the last two years, everyone wants to put his records out, everyone wants to remix him (or be remixed by him),
No great departures from Mr. 606 here, so if you know him and love him particularly his more disjointed, hyper side... what are you waiting for? The Illness contains a heap of his trademark digital spasms and frantic noise spurts. Just might leave you feeling all caffeinated and a little bit itchy. The cd version includes: The 12" mix of the title track, the pleasantly named "Ecstacy Motherfucker" as well as the 'bonus' tracks "Maybe", "Evasion" and "Circumvent". The 12" version includes: The Illness 12" Mix (duh!), an extended dance mix of the same, along with the pleasantly titled track "Ecstacy Motherfucker".
Vinyl only remixes of tracks from P.S. I Love You by Matmos, Twerk, Farben, and two by the Kid himself. Five tracks in all!
The beat don't stop when Kid 606 is at the wheel. Nearly 67 Minutes of booty bass-meets-hard step-meets-drum n' bass fun. The crowd pleaser Miguel mixes in such CRAZY and ECLECTIC sources as Manu Chao & South Park!
Veering sharply from his recent full length The Action Packed Mentallist Brings You the Fucking Jams, the Kid shows his sensitive side again, invoking the word "love" as he did on his similarly mellow, pretty PS I Love You record. Seven pieces in 20 minutes on a li'l 3" cd, this is LOVE-ly. The bulk of the music here is slow- to midtempo lulling electronica, stark and simple, reminding me a lot of early German experiments in electronica -- Cluster, Harmonia, all that post-Neu stuff that concerned itself with purity and beauty. There are delicate arpeggiations of clean, rounded notes, sad chord progressions, and warmly skipping records. Only one track makes use of the spinning-the-radio-on-the-dial-as-fast-as-you-can method of appropriation... and here it is used for its texture, not its abruptness. One electro-tinged piece, all stuttery and jerky, sounding more like Mouse on Mars than anything else. But the rest of the tracks here are pleasantly gentle and wistfully sweet. A very charming record. Recommended.
