#the melodies also sound slightly distorted and choppy

[mdddante]

SO UHHH IA GANG.... HOW WE FEELING ABOUT THIS

[azwriting]

The Only Hope (Forget Me Please, Kylo Ren x Fem!Reader) - Chapter Two

A/N: FUCKING FINALLY!!! I’m so sorry that this took so long, life got a little crazy and yeah. But I think im back in business so yay! Anyways here’s chapter two, we are still in Rey’s POV but next chapter we will finally start delving into who’s under the mask ;) 

Also! I know Ben took his lightsaber and turned it into the cross guard one, but for the sake of my imagination and this story he just made a new one... Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist! Feedback is always appreciated ;)

Summary: The Resistance Three try to convince the mysterious Jedi ally to aid them in the fight against Palpatine. All while Rey begins to piece together some of the Jedi’s hidden past. 

Warning(s): Me retconning TROS, a made up species, angst, a moment that feels like Reylo but its not, Finnpoe rights baby

Word Count: 4658

“The dagger’s translation gave the coordinates for Kef Bir, we informed the General of where we were heading and she insisted we come here, to find you.” Rey finished explaining, her eyes darting across the faded and worn mask in search of any sort of response. All she found were stone cold eyes locked forward, observing the three of them. The woman was not even surprised to hear Palpatine had somehow survived and if she had, she showed no sign of it. If it had not been for the quick and overpowering assaults she had thrown at Rey earlier, the young Resistance fighter would have assumed she was a statue or perhaps a protocol droid.

The four of them sat around a small unlit chamber, in the dead center of all the huts above. There had been small villages on Jakku, ones that were primitive and rural, but this was entirely different. The forest moon of Endor was silent, no one passing through since the end of the old war. No trade, no work, no nothing. The planet appeared deserted in a sense. One would grow to suspect it held a secret, as does every corner of the Galaxy, but Rey suspected this secret was far greater than what her eyes could see.

Finn and Poe sat stiffly unsure of the ally while Rey was just dumbfounded. She had been led to believe that all the Jedi, besides Master Skywalker, had died in the destruction of the new Jedi Order at the hands of Kylo Ren. Yet the woman across from her wielding not one, but two lightsabers proved otherwise.

Had this woman even been present at the Jedi temple? If so, how had she survived? How did General Organa know her? What did the purple kyber crystal represent? Why was her face hidden behind a mask? What was her name? Rey had far too many questions and nowhere enough answers. Nor did they have the time…

“Kef Bir?” The woman inhaled sharply, her posture straightening. Her head dropped down for a moment before the emotionless eyes met their gaze once again. There was a quick gleam of emotion hidden in them, but Rey could not read it. The subtle reaction made her nervous though, what was awaiting them on Kef Bir?

“I don’t know how I’ll be of help there.” She was right, Rey did not know what to expect there or if they would even need the Jedi’s help, but Leia had sent them here. Rey knew this ally was of importance, she could feel it through the Force, and Leia had known this too. The woman in the mask was strong with the Force, it flowed through her like a vivacious stream. It was why the forest moon had felt so utterly rich when she had first arrived, the mask creating it all.

Although Rey could still feel an abundance of energy, that felt far away as if it had been hidden behind a thick black cloak, hidden from plain sight. She was unsure how to describe it, but it felt distant, out of reach, guarded. Despite whatever Rey felt, it was clear that the last Jedi could be of tremendous help in whatever they faced.

“I don’t know either, but General Organa knew we’d need help and she sent us to you, you may be our only hope to prevent Palpatine’s Final Order.” Rey confessed, a gentle plea evident in her tone. She could not defeat the vile Emperor herself, many had tried and failed in doing so. The mask stood abruptly, eyes narrowing down at her.

“I’m nobody’s last hope, I’m sorry but I can’t help.” She moved to leave, but Poe caught her upper arm and roughly yanked her back. Sharp eyes turned back to glare at him in disbelief over his sudden actions, but Poe ignored it.

“Why? Why won’t you help?” The woman tugged her arm free and took a cautious step back, but Rey suspected it was so she did not harm the pilot, not the other way around.

“It’s just an endless cycle. I was born into a Galaxy still healing from the Empire and I’ve lived long enough to see something take its place.” The woman winced inwardly, eyes playing an endless amount of suppressed horrors. “You may defeat Palpatine and his Final Order, but what about the First Order? What about the next ones seeking total power or the ones after that?”

Her questions had them all looking off in thought. The Resistance was barely equipped to stop the First Order, how would they continue to prevent others from attempting to rise and suffocate the remaining freedom out of the Galaxy? It was an easy answer, one that left a bitter aftertaste in their mouths, they would not. “The Galaxy will never know peace, I’ve accepted that.” The somber tone that slipped into the modulated voice caused Rey to question if this woman truly had accepted such a dreary fate. The blank (Y/E/C) skipped across each of their faces before resting on Rey’s. “It’s time you do too.”

The woman spun on her heel and was quick to leave. The three Resistance members watched in silence, in disbelief, a look of stupor on their faces. Why would General Organa send them here if this ally would only refuse to help? There was only so much time before Palpatine released his doomsday upon the Galaxy. Rey’s stomach twisted at the sinking in reality, how was she supposed to save the Galaxy alone? Kylo would only want to assume the position, the vacancy the Emperor would leave behind and the woman refused to help, chalking it up to an already doomed attempt. They would be alone in this fight and they would lose.

Rey was truly as alone as she had been on Jakku.

The peculiar sound of birds chirping broke through the silent forest. The mysterious ally froze mid stride, head snapping up to the thick lush tree coverage. Rey’s eyes followed, searching for the source of the sweet call. The sound reminded her of a much softer, sweeter, musical rendition of the wind chimes constructed from useless scavenged parts that she had had hanging inside her small home on Jakku. When the rare dry breeze of the desert swept through the interior of the fallen AT-AT walker, the rusted parts would clink together and fill her ears with a choppy noise that signified to her that one day she would find her belonging. Her already twisted stomach dropped at the realization that she had not found that belonging yet, not with the Resistance nor with the ways of the Jedi.

The chorus continued on for a moment longer before slowly dying off leaving the forest and the four of them surrounded by an uncanny stillness. With the absence of the melodic sing-song of the birds, Rey pondered if the sound served as the same hopeful reminder to the lonesome Jedi. With the unwavering rigidness of the woman’s stature, Rey began to believe it did.

“Wait-” Poe started before cutting himself off. He hummed the melody of the birds to himself over and over again until his narrowed eyes lifted with confusion. “That was the call of the Dalae.” He announced, head snapping back to look at Rey and Finn.

“Okay and you know this why?” Finn questioned lifting his one eyebrow, unsure where his significant other was heading with such odd information and how he knew it. Rey was curious too, especially as to why the pilot felt compelled to inform them of such a thing now when their only possible assistance was leaving.

The woman was still frozen in place though, but her head now held onto the moist and moss covered ground. The Force swirled around her as she seemed to be focusing inward, her hands clenching and unclenching as she grappled with some internal conflict. Whatever this bird was, the harmony it had emitted greatly unsettled her.

“When I was undercover on Kijimi posing as a Spice Runner to obtain intel on the First Order’s weapon dealings, I had a lot of spare time. Read a lot.” Poe explained stepping closer to the two. Rey was still reeling in the fact that Poe had been a Spice Runner even if it was to help the Resistance. She was even more baffled that he had not told her or Finn about this covert mission. “Educated myself on various species across the Galaxy and the Dalae bird was one of them.”

As he moved closer, Rey did not miss the way the mask discreetly peered over her left shoulder at them. Even in a state of concentration, she still was aware. Although with multiple points to focus on, her once hidden aura started to bleed through, revealing her state of mind to Rey. She was anxious, tense, and something else Rey could not put a finger on. The woman’s body trembled slightly, the thin hairs on the back of her neck stood up, goosebumps erupting across the rest of her skin despite the layers she wore. Her heart was racing and over the quiet hum of the forest, Rey could hear the distorted and labored breaths that escaped the mask.

Fearful… the word bounced around Rey’s already cluttered mind as she came to the conclusion as to what the other emotion that had seeped through to her was. The woman who had single handedly taken her down with an unforeseeable and unparalleled skill was scared? What did she have to be fearful of? Was it them and their uprooting of her life here in this forest? Was it the looming and imminent threat of Palpatine? Or was it the past that was hidden beneath the fading paint of the mask and the barrier of two crossed lightsabers? Rey was not naive, she knew the mask hid more than a face, but she was unsure as to what.

As quick as the Jedi’s aura had slipped through, it disappeared. In an instant, Rey felt the overpowering emotions retract with the simple action of tightening a clenched fist. Besides for her curling fists, the woman was still locked in place fighting her inner turmoil, one Rey could not decipher.

“Okay Babe, this is great that you educated yourself about this stuff, really it is, but I don’t think now is the best time to brief us on all your bird knowledge.” Finn attempted to terminate Poe’s somewhat delirious ranting, something Rey had begun to tune out. Perhaps the injury he had acquired on the Star Destroyer was beginning to get to him.

Poe only shook his head in defiance, he was never one to back down from expressing himself, especially when he believed it to be of dire importance. Whatever he knew of this bird, the Dalae, Poe knew it was essential to share and be heard. No matter how inopportune the timing was…

“The Dalae bird is only native to one place and I’ll give you a hint it’s not the forest moon of Endor…” Poe trailed off, eyes skimming the surrounding trees for the incongruous bird.

“What do you mean? Where is it from?” Finn probed, his thick eyebrows furrowing once again. Rey’s did as well, but she remained silent. Her mind was a whirling disaster filled to the brim with possible catastrophes, her newly illuminated origin, and the hopes of saving a dying religion. She did not have room to digest the curiosity behind a migrating species.

“The Nayli countryside.”

Rey’s eyes snapped up, the stories she had heard over the course of the last year replaying in her mind. The General had told her many stories of how she used to visit the quieter countryside, Nayli, when she could spare time away from the fragile rebuilding of the New Republic. “Of Chandrila?”

Poe nodded reading her visible shock, “Yes. So what is a bird only native to a planet in the Core Worlds doing in the Outer Rim?” Rey and Finn exchanged a look, Poe was right. What was it doing out here? Especially a bird from the former capital of the New Republic. The former home to the General, Han, and their son…

Their internal inquiries were soon brought to a screeching halt though. “Let me get my things and then we can be on our way.” The three Resistance fighters spun to face the direction the modified voice had called to them. The woman now stood tall, hands unclenched, and head locked straight forward on them. She nodded rapidly confirming her words more to herself than to them before she took off back towards the small huts. Three pairs of eyes followed her, neither one fully processing the meaning of her statement. The Jedi would be coming with them Rey realized, she was going to help them. Perhaps Leia had been right to send them here.

Rey watched as the woman launched herself off the dirt ground and landed onto one of the many hovering bridges, only to disappear into a small hut to her right. As the small wooden door closed behind the body of green and brown fabrics, Rey began to ponder why the sudden change in the ally. The woman had been reluctant to help, seemingly accepting the inevitable defeat against Palpatine and his new Empire, but something had changed. As a cool breeze swept through the surrounding woods, the leaves brustling loudly in the trees up above, Rey recalled the terror that had frozen the ally in place… all beginning with the call of the Dalae bird.

Ewoks were… not what Rey expected. As she leaned against the rough bark of a towering tree awaiting for their new companion to return, she finally caught a glimpse of the legendary warriors who fought in the Battle of Endor. Yes the tales had spoken of a small indigenous tribe that had aided the Rebels, but the young scavenger had never realized it referred to their stature. Details like such often disappeared as the stories spread across the Galaxy. For Maker’s sake she had thought Luke Skywalker, the Jedi, and the Force were all a myth. Yet, it was all true and she had become a part of it as she embarked on her own journey.

Rey witnessed as the woman, her face still obscured by the mask, emerged from her small hut up above. Even walking on swaying lumber bridges, the ally moved with an indescribable grace and balance, features that bled through into her fighting style.

The ally bent down before two Ewoks and even though she was beneath them, Rey could still hear bits of dialogue. Although they spoke in Ewokese, a language Rey did not understand, she remained silent and eavesdropped as the three conversed. As she listened Rey could not help but wonder how long the woman had been here and why she was here in the first place. It was clear she was the only human on the moon, but it seemed like that had been a purposeful choice. Rey had been left all alone as a child, sold and abandoned, it was hard for her to imagine someone consciously making the choice to be alone. It was the one thing she never wanted to be…

“Protect.” A single word in Galactic Basic slipped through the cracks in the bridge, a word uttered by the mask. Rey focused back onto the three above and found the Ewoks to be nodding before the woman abruptly stood back to her full height. With one swift jump, the Jedi descended down towards Rey just as she had done when they had first stumbled upon the small village. The ally landed perfectly on her feet just a few steps in front of Rey, (Y/E/C) eyes focused as always.

“Where are the other two?” She alone had stayed to wait, Finn and Poe returning to the Falcon to prepare for the next stop on Kef Bir. Her voice sounded on edge, but it was possible to be just from her descent or the heavy modification of the mask. Although Rey noted the way the eyes bounced around the surrounding bridges in apprehension.

“They went back to ready the ship.” Rey answered and the woman’s chest collapsed as she let out a large exhale. What was she so fearful over? The ally was very guarded, unwillingly to trust anyone. A hand shot out and gestured for Rey to lead the way and silently the two women began their trek back to the Falcon, leaving the Ewok village behind.

The quiet fresh air of the moon encompassed them on their walk as well as total silence, but Rey could not help but glance over at the woman every so often. With such a close proximity, one where they were not attacking each other, she could not assimilate the overwhelming energy that flowed from the other Jedi.

Three words echoed through her mind and Rey shuttered. The three words had been spoken to her once during her attempt to reach out and connect with the Jedi of the past. Now they haunted her mind and plagued her sleep, never leaving her conscience peacefully. As she looked to the Force user beside her, Rey wondered if the woman knew how to help. The idea was quickly squandered, the voice had told her to restore it, it was solely up to her.

A glimmer of light reflected up and into Rey’s eyes, making the young woman wince slightly. Her brown eyes looked down and caught sight of the two lightsabers strapped to the side of the woman’s hip. One hilt was a darker gray durasteel with a black handle and the other was a silver durasteel with blue, purple, and orange coloring near the emitter. It was strangely familiar, the all silver one, something she had seen before in a dream.

Before her voice of reason could object to the impulse that flared up within, Rey’s hand hastily reached forward for the saber. As the tip of her fingers grazed against the cold hilt, flames bloomed behind her eyes and screams flooded her ears.

With a heavy gasp, Rey stumbled back in terror. The high morning sun sunk into the horizon being replaced by the pitch black night sky, full of a plethora of stars. The tall dense trees that surrounded her plunged to the ground revealing an open plain filled with small huts. One hut in front of her had been destroyed, crumbled into just a pile of rubble. Rey’s chest tightened and she felt a wave of nausea overcome her at the sight of it. It deeply unsettled her, made it feel as if something crawled up her cold and damp skin. Deep down she knew where she was, what she was looking at, but she was unwilling to believe it. She had just been on Endor how had she gotten here?

Screams broke through her disorientated state, pulling Rey away from the ruined hut. Off in the distance stood a grand temple surrounded by stone statues and pillars, a large dome in the center of the sacred framework. Her lips parted in shock as she realized the temple was encased with thick tendrils of fire. Even from where she stood Rey could hear the desperate pleas for help. She raced towards the flames before she could even think to command herself to move… it was as if something else entirely controlled her.

Dashing through the tall grass, Rey rushed towards the people in dire need of assistance but her attempt to help was quickly stopped. Long arms hooked around her waist, yanking her back and into a strong hard chest. The lightsaber she had not been aware of slipping through the fingers of her dominant hand.

“No Rey, I can’t lose you too!”

Rey’s blood ran cold, goosebumps erupting across her skin as if she was back on Starkiller base in her scrappy scavenger attire. She knew this voice, knew the desperation woven into the words, it haunted her dreams too. Twisting in the tight embrace, she turned to face her impediment.

Flushed chest to chest, Rey looked up to find frightened watery eyes looking down at her. She knew these brown irises and the hints of green speckles that were hidden in them, she knew the eyes of Ben Solo. They were filled to the brim with sadness, fear, and pain. She had seen these emotions in his eyes before; after he had killed his father, in the hut on Ahch-To, and when he had taken off his mask before her on the Star Destroyer. Yet, she had never seen them like this before; with traces of love interlaced in them.

“I tried to, b-but the fire’s too strong.” He choked out. His breathing was ragged, he was scared, and looking down at her as if she was the only thing that could save him from the torment inside. Fresh tears escaped his eyes and trickled down his ash covered face, his lips trembled as they parted and his whole body shook against hers. He was shaken to core and desperately seeking comfort, her comfort. “I never-” Ben stuttered out but his voice cracked with despair. “I didn’t want this.”

The fire behind felt like an afterthought as Rey reached upward and pressed both of her palms to Ben’s dampened face. Slowly she stroked soft comforting circles onto his skin and he let out a breath of relief. “I know. I know you didn’t but Ben! We need to help them!” The words that slipped from Rey’s mouth were not her own. Her actions were not her own. No, it was as if they were preordained, done by another through her.

The cries for help only seemed to grow and Rey snapped out of the trance that Ben had put her under. She struggled against his secure grip, feeling the undeniable cool durasteel of a saber pressed against her back despite the kiss of heat from the fire that licked up her back. She needed to help, she could not turn her back on them.

Ben’s arms suddenly released her and Rey felt the warmth of one of his palms press against her cheek. Her face was wet, she was crying as well. They were both in agony over something she did not know, something she had never experienced.

With a sharp inhale, the night faded away and the sun of Endor fell back into its rightful place in the sky above. Rey’s gut twisted as she tried to comprehend it all. She knew that she should not have touched the saber, she had learned that on Takodana what felt like a lifetime ago. But, she could not focus on that, not with what she had seen and experienced. Rey had not been there for the fall of the New Jedi Order, she had not been stopped in her attempt to help the other students, but someone else had been.

Rey’s eyes lifted up and away from the silver lightsaber to find the woman watching her intently. Traces of long buried pain surfaced in the tears pooling in the last Jedi’s magnetic eyes. “That lightsaber…” Rey’s voice was no louder than a whisper. “It belonged to someone else.” She did not dare say his name, pain that was not hers seemed to blend into her own making her heart wrench. The ally shuddered in response, tears slipping down into the depths of the mask.

“Why would you have his saber?”

As the question left Rey’s mouth, it dawned on her what she had encountered when touching the lightsaber, his lightsaber. It was a memory, the woman’s memory. She had experienced the heartbreaking night from the woman’s perspective that was why she had had no control over her actions and words. The ally and him had been close, the Force flowing strongly through them both, forging an uncanny connection. It had felt like life itself…

Rey’s eyes widened and her mouth grew dry at the realization, “You’re- you’re his balance.” Their fight only a short while ago came to mind and the familiar movements of the Jedi. She was all confident strikes, agile deflects, her attacks lying somewhere between the cross of a graceful dancer and feral animal. A way she had only seen Kylo Ren move.

The woman’s eyes narrowed swiftly and she stepped forward. Her stature was imposing as she looked down at Rey, making her feel as if she was a young scavenger again who had not brought back satisfactory parts for Unkar. “No, you don’t know anything. Those padawans are dead. There is no balance.” Her words were harsh and brimming with vulnerability just as her (Y/E/C) eyes were. As if her thoughts had been heard, the woman’s hand sprung up and closed her visor, locking away the only window into her soul Rey had. The mask quickly pivoted and stalked away, heading for the Falcon.

Rey stared after her, mentally digesting everything that had just happened. Kylo had said his balance had died and that was why the Force had connected them, her power being the only one to match his. Yet, this woman was very much alive, brimming with Force sensitivity, and hidden away in the forest of Endor. A fact the Supreme Leader did not know and Rey knew that was intentional. The woman and him had been close, she could sense it, could see it in the way he looked at her the night of the fire. Ben had looked at her with such compassion, held onto her with such need, stopped her from running into danger. The memory, the woman’s memory, replayed in Rey’s mind and she could now see that it had not been her hands touching Ben’s face, not her voice speaking to him, not her name that he had called out in fear.

“No (Y/N), I can’t lose you too!”

“Your name, I heard him speak it.” Rey called after the Jedi, the woman who’s name she now knew. She was uncertain as to why she felt compelled to tell her of her insight, maybe because the young Resistance fighter wanted to prove that she did in fact know something. It was an unwise decision though, to provoke such a powerful Force user.

The ally ceased in her steps, swinging back around with such ferocity, Rey gulped. With the visor closed all she could see was her reflection in the mask. The helmet was cold and distant without the small opening, reminding Rey of a Stormtrooper, or a Knight of Ren, or even Kylo himself… an enemy. This woman was not supposed to be her enemy, no they were allies, brought together by the General and perhaps even the Force.

“And if you were wise, you wouldn’t.” The woman instructed, voice nothing but hostile. She turned once again and left, heading towards the direction Rey had appointed.

Touching the saber and revealing a piece of her buried past had struck a nerve in their already defensive ally. Turning her from guarded and reserved to cold and bitter. Rey’s eyebrows furrowed, she had touched Ben’s saber and saw a memory from the woman’s perspective. She had to be the balance Kylo spoke of, Rey could still feel the phantom attachment the two had in the past. A bond…

Like she had been caressed by a ghost, a chill bit up Rey’s neck as her mind began to repeat the three words the Force had spoken to her months ago. The three words the Force had whispered to her as she searched for a balance. Only when she would repair it then balance could be found within the Force. She had believed that the Jedi could help her in restoring what she had to, but what if this woman, (Y/N), was one half of the broken piece?

Taglist: @2heures @thephantomwriter @thefandomzoneisdangerous @carol-chann @gambitsqueen @pancakefancake @zaneholtzwrites @moonprincess003

@siren-queen03​ @dixonsbugaboo​ @keithseabrook27​ @minluc​ @vampgguk​ @nhievyenne​ @robindoesntloveme​

[fluidsf]

Polar Visions Amplitude reviewing -

John Wiese - Deviate From Balance

Released on 15 June 2015 by Gilgongo Records

Reviewed format: CD album

Connected listening - there are various ways to order a selection of John Wiese’s further discography. The Helicopter mail-order stocks various John Wiese releases as well as Sissy Spacek releases and releases by by John Wiese in collaboration with associates, you can find it here: https://helicopter.storenvy.com/collections/924921-john-wiese

Several solo releases by John Wiese are also available on physical and digital format from his Bandcamp page here: https://johnwiese.bandcamp.com

Many releases on Gilgongo Records are available on physical format through their mail-order store here: https://gilgongorecords.storenvy.com

After looking at one of Sissy Spacek’s recent new albums Featureless Thermal Equilibrium in the previous Polar Visions Amplitude it’s time today for the first of two follow-up reviews in which in this case we’re focussing first on one of John Wiese’s past solo albums, Deviate From Balance. Released back in 2015 on both a 2 LP vinyl package as well as a CD version on James Fella’s label Gilgongo Records our look is on the CD version which features the packed 79 minute album in full and what a collection of pieces it is. While the Sissy Spacek album showcases John Wiese’s talent in mixing Grindcore aggression with monolithic Noise screeches as well as maxing out the energy throughout, Deviate From Balance showcases John’s more restrained side in a collection of 10 tracks encompassing mostly live recorded compositions and improvisations that are leaning more towards intense choppy sound collages and noisy electro-acoustic interplay of acoustic and electric instrumentation with John’s electronics with a more conceptual edge to them. However while some of the titles of the 10 pieces suggest a somewhat philosophical or technical meaning behind these pieces, listening to these reveals a much more playful and raw sense of composition and performances from John and all musicians and artists involved in this album. Whilst John’s sound can be related to Free Improvisation, his rapid-fire editing and manipulation of sonic material on this album is much more complex and dazzling than many other artists and carries John’s signature knack for surprise, high frequency distortion crunches as well as shifting and abusing lo-fi sound recording equipment and electronics in as many ways as possible, almost as if they turn into crumbling fragile rocks. Disintegrating broken sound and dadaist absurdist humour is a recurring theme in John’s sound, making for an album that is much more enjoyable than overly academic contemporary Tape Music can be at times. Besides John’s sonics the involved musicians on this album are definitely an important element that adds many rich colours to the 10 pieces, featuring musicians like guitar virtuoso Oren Ambarchi, violin artist Jon Rose, sampling expert David Shea and drum machine musician Ikue Mori as well as many others. Before we’re diving deep into the 10 tracks on Deviate From Balance, let’s have a look at the packaging design of the CD version. The CD comes in a neat glossy oversized gatefold sleeve showcasing John Wiese’s minimalist design, artwork as well as a very colourful artist photo of John by Martin Escalante on the back. In terms of artwork I do like the photo-collages and art pieces on the inside of the gatefold a bit more than the cover this time as while the cover does highlight the general collaged, choppy nature of the album well in a visual manner, its subdued grayscale grainy images aren’t as striking as John Wiese’s other album covers but still, it’s a decent cover and the typography is quite stylish and repeats on the spine in a similar manner. The aforementioned imagery on the inside of the gatefold showcases both grayscale abstract art in the form of archaeological artefact style fragments on the left panel as well as a film roll like photo collage of a rather disturbed looking lady blowing up a balloon. The abstract images are a bit similar to the album cover though with darker and more distinct contrast but the photo collage also adds another good visual reference to the packaging regarding the tracks themselves in that balloon like squealing and screeching can be heard on some of the pieces and it also seems to refer to the album’s quite off the wall type of abstract humour. The left panel additionally features all album credits neatly laid out so you can find out all about the involved artists and recording locations plus sources. The CD itself comes in a convenient little black envelope with plastic protection and features a more LP like label design featuring simply the artist name, album title and Gilgongo label logo, somewhat similar to a Japanese mini-LP replica package. Now that we’ve looked at the package, let’s pop in the CD and dig in.

Deviate From Balance starts with Wind Changed Direction which is one of the most atmospheric pieces on the album. The piece blends organ like drone, chopped up distorted recordings of what sounds like children’s voices, machinery as well as other Industrial noises together to form a quite surreal mysterious soundscape. Quite like the title suggests the music sounds quite like you’re floating through the clouds right after the wind has changed direction. The drone feels both calming but also a notch ominous whilst the auto-panned chops of sound are both vaguely abstract and at times recognisable with John varying between distorted and resonant shards of crunchy sound and cleaner metallic elements. The voice samples hint somewhat at sonified memories, they sound like fragments from the past, conversations or event you might remember from childhood though the actual words are unrecognizable. This first piece is definitely one of the most straight-forward compositions on here in terms of structure with the drone both introducing and rounding off the piece as in both cases it eventually fades into the background. A quite lush start of the album. Following piece 356 S. Mission Rd continues the soundscape like approach but in a more ominous manner sounding quite like a cross of dark sounding orchestral music samples with strange hollow metallic resonances and washy shifting noises. The metallic resonances bring plenty of subdued Industrial shine to the piece but the aforementioned orchestral samples are what draws me into this piece the most as the screechy dissonant strings combined with ever so slightly differently timed horn crescendo suggest an ever apparent danger which is getting closer but just like in an abstract nightmare is stuck in a loop with the danger never reaching further than a certain indiscernible point. The shifting noise elements add some rawness to the piece which suggests some kind of turntable manipulations going on in the piece, a lovely brooding collage piece this is. Segmenting Process For Language, the next piece, is where things start to get more chaotic and free-wheeling though still very much controlled. The track featuring a live performance recorded at East Brunswick Club in Melbourne, Australia consists of wild and inspired mixtures of saxophone, (junk) objects, percussion, drums, guitar and noise as the musicians move into always differing “segments” made up of shards of sound, wildly swirling melodies, chords and tones. This does make for quite some literal clashes of sound but rather than being one of the more random sounding Free Improv performances the sections of interplay follow a much more recognisable structure in that certain droning tones as well as feedback lays somewhat of a base underneath the bursts of sonic mayhem. Whilst there are a whole lot of things happening in this recording I would like to name a few particularly enjoyable bits. These include the short bursts of squelchy synth swirls, resonant ground vibrating feedback laden noise, the hilarious goofy but still playful wordless vocalisations spat out by the musicians but also the at times disturbing dissonant chords which are formed and culminate in an absurdly, almost 50’s Horror film soundtrack like waves of organ droning at the ending of the piece after which we can hear the only applause that could be fit in on the tightly edited CD. An inventive juxtaposition of out of the blue musical absurdism with the more dadaist lightning strike like approach of collage based Harsh Noise carrying John’s seal of quality. The next track Superstitious does match its title rather well in terms of the sounds within and it’s the most Noise focussed piece on Deviate From Balance though still more along the lines of a layered soundscape. After the instrumental interplay of Segmenting Process For Language we’re back to a more noticeably composed piece which moves through various phases emitting a definite ambience of superstition through somewhat disturbing concrete sounds, noise and tones. Its beginning featuring chopped and quite heavily scrambled recordings of a scared woman wailing as well as various other waves of distorted sound and tone overtime moves to the climax of the piece which is an extended section of the aforementioned noise from by a nicely low end grounded stream of screechy sound featuring especially piercing high frequency sound manipulations quite like some kind of dystopian alien machinery, though your interpretation might definitely be much different. Regardless of how you interpret it, the piercing noise does give off quite an intense feeling of dread and fear and while the sounds used in the piece are sometimes somewhat recognisable, like dirt like crumbling sounds, coffee cups, car related sounds etc., again they’re manipulated and structured in such shifting and distorted manners that they feel like sudden waves of mind imagery than things you can really grab onto. The finale of the piece in which John frequency manipulates a continuous tone is quite gripping too and Superstitious as a whole sounds quite like both a physical and mind gripping piece. Cafe OTO is the track that follows and it’s obviously a live recording that was made at Cafe OTO. Moving back to the more improvisation based style of collaborative group performances that John Wiese has done together with other musicians this piece has a more continuous flow of sonic events and instrumental interplay and a generally might lighter edge to it than some of the other pieces. Especially the percussion blended with effect manipulations and saxophone performances are particularly good on here with percussion clattering, clinking, jumping around the room in quite hilarious surprising manners moving from crystal like tinkling to shells and wooden percussion whilst the saxes wildly swirling melody lines and screeches form sweet tonal abstraction that are wild but not going overboard and staying well in tune with the other elements of the performances. The “spat” out vocalisations are quite matching with the saxophone performance and whilst somewhat more subtle for most of the recording, there’s also some tasty, albeit less abrasive crashes of objects near the end of the recording. Again, John Wiese’s talent in highly abstract but always varied and uncompromising electronics and instrumental performances combined with the excellent inspired energy of all musicians that appears in his group performances shines through with the fun and details in the layers created making this suitable for many repeat listens. The following track Battery Instruments (Stereo) does work quite like an extension of the sounds from the Cafe OTO recording, though in a bit more minimalistic fashion being made up of mostly small, clicky and quite sounds. A collage of instrument, objects, electronics as well as short vocal bursts the piece puts the freely moving aspect of John Wiese’s group pieces into more of microscopic lowercase territory. It’s the shortest piece of the album at 2:12 minutes and works as kind of transition from Cafe OTO to the quite abrasive walkman Noise collage piece Memaloose Walkman, showcasing various crackling, scraping, spiky sonic details, a mysterious subdued drone as well as some quite tasteful bass string scratchings all panned quite widely (as this was originally a multi-channel piece). A sweet short piece this one. The aforementioned piece Memaloose Walkman then follows and it’s quite straight-forward in nature consisting of a mono tape collage of various recordings of gunshots. Besides splices and perhaps a bit of pitch adjustment there’s not much manipulation added to this but as a Noise piece it’s quite effective letting you hear the different swishing phased textures of shots from various guns as well as some bits of talk and music in between with a layer of crunchy saturation on top of everything. Simple but effective. Afterwards Dramatic Accessories continues within the Noise territory as a piece of quite a lot of instrument / object and especially turntable abuse featuring quite a lot of bassy and wild distorted screeches mixed with chopped recordings all presented through some crazy panning. One that will especially please harsh heads, within Dramatic Accessories there are various sections in which John and the other artists involved use all kinds of methods to create a variety of sounds ranging from the shifting kind of turntable warble, clicks, grating washes of distortion, chunks of feedback, amp hiss and metallic ringing. However whilst there are a lot of distorted sonic events happening within this piece, there is some sense of dynamics within however, created by the wild panning as well as shifting the phase and using some of the room acoustics and feedback of equipment to create some loud / softer / loud sections leaving some headroom for the sounds to not fully max out and become a bit overblown. The garbled object and instrument chops are clattering around often but strange distorted disturbing recordings of voices are also thrown in the mix making for an at times frightening but thrilling ride of unpredictable sounds. One element that is recurring throughout the wildly fluttering barrages of different sounds are certain grounded tones that bring forth some kind go base for all sounds to lean on as they continue changing in at times rapid manners. All in all Dramatic Accessories is another enjoyable sonic ride on Deviate From Balance in which rich and uncompromising textures are brought out in memorable ways through some fine inspired performances from all people involved. Solitaire follows, which is one of the two longest and final pieces on Deviate From Balance, at 11:15 minutes. In terms of approach the piece is somewhat similar to Dramatic Accessories but with the difference that rather than using vinyl, tape is being used here as one of the elements that create the various sounds within the piece. Solitaire follows a more continuous structure than other pieces on Deviate From Balance in that it’s mostly based on a set of repeating patterns within it's structure acting a bit like the compositional and performance equivalent of mechanical processes. Whereas Dramatic Accessories featured experiments with both clean and distorted sounds, Solitaire moves more into a quite crunchy rough direction featuring shards of chopped up instrument and music recordings, junk objects, voices as well a various especially percussive and resonant concrete sounds that ever continue to change in form. These repetitive patterns do give some kind of rhythmic drive to the piece but change often enough to not become sampler like and are more akin warbled broken tapes as the recordings are mercilessly abused through speed manipulations and ever increasing distortion. This is combined with a constant shift of stereo phase, through which on headphones you get the idea that the shards of sound are flying over your head and are forming 3D shapes in between your ears. A great listening experience which even works as the distortion gets quite murky and harsh nearing the end of the piece. Whilst the pattern style, on the fly pitch warbles and crunching noises carries on throughout, it’s great how some depth is slowly forming near the end of the piece, in which soft ticking percussive bits are being scattered between out ears and rimshot like ticking sounds are added for nice clean percussive accents. A very fluid piece in terms of progression and sound work which shows that whilst John Wiese’s solo and band works might at times sound very free-flowing and chaotic, he’s always got quite some noticeable control and focus within every piece, inspired and always different. Final piece Segmenting Process (Oregon) is indeed somewhat related to the earlier Segmenting Process For Language although in the case of this recording the segmenting of the several parts of the piece is even more clear. Being the longest piece on Deviate From Balance at 21:45 minutes the piece is also one of the most introspective and “organized” sounding tracks on the album as in here we can find the by now familiar mixture of acoustic, electric instrumentation with both electronic sounds and manipulations but also a more restrained approach to the Noise elements John Wiese has explored in various ways in most tracks before this one. Rather than almost overtaking the non-electronic instrumentation either through loudness or sharp (harsh) frequencies, the Noise is more in tune with the instrumentation as being a part of a blend of various sonic elements. This is also helped by the fact that with the larger group setting featuring brass, percussions, drums and more the piece required a larger venue to be performed which gives the piece some welcome acoustic space, adding some room ambience and keeps the piece nicely dynamic. Sounding most similar in approach to Electroacoustic Improvisation the pieces segments blending vibrant instrumental performances which vary from fluttering percussive tones, noises as well as more drone focussed falling and rising tones with crackling, noisy, humming, distorted, sample based and glitchy electronics sound quite like the piece is based on a mixture of dreams. Like a sonic interpretation of a dream world the piece moves from segment to segment with all of them featuring somewhat recognisable sounds like the instruments themselves or voices mixed with shaped abstract noises but everything carries some kind of mystery within it, which is especially caused by the somewhat unnerving textures created by the brass instruments within the performance. The absurdist humour element is still apparent within the piece however with at times goofy squeaky noises, drum kit hits, tinkling bells and other pointy bits of abstract sound keeping things nicely playful and light but still powerful as always. The flow of the piece also helps to keep things captivating and interesting throughout as its length might take some listeners a bit to get into it but with so many different events happening throughout there’s never any idleness in here. And with this last piece I’m getting into the conclusion of this review of John Wiese’s Deviate From Balance. I award this album a Polar Visions Amplitude of 85 dB, recommending you to definitely check out this album. Deviate From Balance showcases both John Wiese’s compositional and performance talents through a varied selection of recordings in which you can hear John’s approach in various settings ranging from surreal sound collages, Noise infused instrumental improvisations to rough tape manipulation and Electroacoustic Improvisation. Never resorting to mere academic musical studies John Wiese’s pieces on Deviate From Balance keep hitting the ears and mind in excellent and inspiring manners and will be a great discovery for fans of free spirited contemporary music, both analog and digital based sound collage works, (Harsh) Noise fans as well as anyone into inspired improvised music and will be a great addition to the collection of fans of John Wiese and Sissy Spacek.

Deviate From Balance is available on CD from Gligongo Records mail-order store here: https://gilgongorecords.storenvy.com/products/20648396-john-wiese-deviate-from-balance-cd-gggr-077

[futuresandpasts]

Futures & Pasts | MRR #423

Words on some new & recently unearthed recordings from Plastic EP & the Records, Nylex, Blowdryer, Germ House & Far Corners, from Maximum Rocknroll #423 (August 2018). 

On their debut 45 from 1981, Melbourne’s PLASTIC EP and the RECORDS crashed through a whole jumble of outsider DIY reference points, where Nuggets-on-a-budget garage stomp with a wobbly organ collided with the economical punk of first-wave UK bands like the SUBWAY SECT. It’s a holy grail obscurity of the early ‘80s Aussie weirdo underground, but it turns out that the group’s most flipped-out sounds were actually committed to tape shortly after the release of the first record, intended for a two-song follow-up single that never materialized due to the studio losing the masters. Luckily for all of us, PLASTIC EP and crew had dubbed rough mixes of the songs to cassette, and they’ve finally seen the light of day as proper 7” (alongside a combined reissue of the first 45 and 1982’s New Wave-ish “Secret Love” single, by which time they’d changed their name to the EPs) thanks to a new Australian label called Xerox Music. A-side “Well You Want to Make A Record” is total untrained post-punk madness, in which PLASTIC EP and the RECORDS ditch their original drummer for the clatter of a Dr. Rhythm drum machine, add some wild, buzzsaw guitar scrape, and top it with deadpan hollering about how to make a record (“add a bit of bass / not so much snare!”), which basically winds up sounding like some long-lost electro-punk successor to the DESPERATE BICYCLES’ do-it-yourself incantations. On the flip, “I’m Not Coming Back” is more subdued in an off-kilter TELEVISION PERSONALITIES kind of way, with psychedelic meandering piano only slightly tempering the frenetic drum machine pulse and flurry of distorted guitar. A lost classic, and very much in line with the shambolic and surreal industrial art-punk that the equally great SUNDAY PAINTERS were crafting several hours away in Wollongong during the same era, if you’d like to do some further digging. (Xerox Music, xeroxmusicaustralia.bandcamp.com)

Outside of the FALL, PYLON have arguably been the most important band in shaping and influencing every conception that I have of what could be considered the post-punk ideal. I’ve made references in the past to PYLON bassist Michael Lachowski’s assertion that the group’s primary intention was to make art with instruments, and just as modern art is often dismissed as something that could be easily recreated by anyone due to the seeming simplicity of its technique or forms, PYLON’s brilliantly minimalist art-punk approach seems to be evoked as a misguided comparison for more and more contemporary bands just because they also happen to have an affinity for mutant disco rhythms or sharp, brittle stabs of guitar. So a PYLON reference isn’t something that I drop casually, but if anyone is deserving of one these days, it’s this new quartet from Adelaide, Australia called NYLEX, whose self-titled debut cassette has all of the tightly-wound and danceable tension of Gyrate, with the addition of some goth-leaning smudged eyeliner melancholy. The shimmering guitar and ethereal, shadowy melodies in “Heavy Air” and “Against the Knife” conjure some serious early 4AD-level drama, but it’s the dark and understated but deeply propulsive basslines that really give each of the tape’s six songs their shape, allowing the vocals plenty of space to zig-zag from subtle whispers to stern, obliquely dissociated narrations. And when they’re at their most stark and jagged (see: “Fascinate” or “Decide”), NYLEX’s coolly restrained post-punk paranoia really does draw a perfectly shaky line directly from Athens in 1980 to Adelaide in 2018. (Tenth Court, nylextenthcourt.bandcamp.com)

Philadelphia’s BLOWDRYER are back with a self-titled tape consisting of their first new recordings since 2014’s Deprogrammed cassette, and they’ve apparently spent the last few years stripping their previous sugar-spiked, BREEDERS-ish noise-pop framework into some seriously taut nouveau-wave. The fuzzed-out group harmonies in the relative jangly “Over and Over” help connect the dots between BLOWDRYER and guitarist Sarah Everton’s previous band BLEEDING RAINBOW, but it’s a relative outlier this time around, as the anxious, jittery precision of songs like “Underdeveloped” and “Photocopy” more often suggests early WIRE as translated by modern punk women in a basement with a four-track machine. Lyrical phrases are shouted out and repeated like anti-slogans pulled from Jenny Holzer’s Truisms series (“you know I’m well aware of my self-satisfaction,” or “your life is in balance, you have total control”), backed by needling slashes of guitar and bashed drums for some of the best lo-fi URINALS-besotted racket since the arrival of those first two NOTS singles, before they tumbled down the synth-punk path. Really hope it takes them a little less than four years to put something else out after this one... (blowdryer.bandcamp.com)

Justin Hubbard has been knocking out angular, nervous-edged post-punk and damaged DIY pop with both GERM HOUSE and FAR CORNERS over the last several years, and a new split cassette collects eight songs from each project that were recorded between 2015 and 2017 in the midst of a relocation from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Rhode Island. Hubbard handles all of the instrumental duties in GERM HOUSE, crafting skewed and scrappy melodies that generally recall the Xpressway Records bands who lobbied a noisier and more experimental response to the Flying Nun-dominated 1980s Kiwi pop scene, by way of the tape hiss-saturated hooks of various home-recording, Ohio-based oddballs in the GUIDED BY VOICES/TIMES NEW VIKING continuum. In contrast, FAR CORNERS are a full-fledged band in the paranoid future-punk style of the A FRAMES or ANRGY ANGLES, all loping basslines, choppy guitar and stuttering rhythms, urgent and agitated and appropriately blown-out because reality is a mess. The shared DNA between the two sides of the split becomes a little more apparent in GERM HOUSE songs like “Inside the Room” or “Over/Under,” which center the sort of ramshackle keyboard squeals and buttoned-up/waved-out bounce that earned any number of late ‘70s/early ‘80s Midwestern art-punk bands a spot in the Hyped to Death hall of fame. When was the last time you came across a non-compilation C60 of wall-to-wall hits? This one certainly seems to fit the bill.  (Fuzzy Warbles, fuzzywarbles.bandcamp.com)

[dustedmagazine]

Dusted Mid-Year Exchange: 2018, Part 2

Part two covers mid-year favorites from H. C. McEntire to Yuzo Iwata.  If you missed part one, check it out here.  

H.C. McEntire — Lionheart (Merge)

Who recommended it? Justin Cober-Lake

Did we review it?  No. 

Ben Donnelly’s take: 

 Country music likes to provide bona fides in the lyrical details. Be it bad boy specifics of a truck model or coffeehouse ballads spiked with animal bones and rusty weathervanes, the singer signals that they know life out on the dirt roads. What's striking about Lionheart is how it delves into the particulars of a North Carolina life, from textile miles to chicory and gardenias. Indeed, nearly every song mentions the local flora, yet such details fall into place incidentally. McEntire describes places where nature is growing over every outbuilding and brick alley. There's a sense of discovery in theses settings where relationships with friends, family and a lover play out. All those vines were too common to notice until now, when love and the gratitude that follows make the mundane vivid.

McEntire longs for the present moment perfected, not a past reconstructed, and that's why her rootsy details don't have anything to prove. She’s comes to this twang a decade after playing the knotted indie rock also endemic to the region, a style that leaves nary a trace musically here. When she sings “I’m the clown who feeds the crows,” she’s both a figure in her natural habitat and someone who knows the other locals are smirking and murmuring, as she wanders on her own.

 Efrim Manuel Menuck—Pissing Stars (Constellation)

Pissing Stars by Efrim Manuel Menuck

Who recommended it? Jonathan Shaw

Did we review it? Yes. Jonathan said that a “mind-scrambling collision of plasticized media culture and geopolitical rapacity provides the thematic impetus for Pissing Stars.”

Bill Meyer’s take:

Words and notes are mere platforms; it’s the blasted, low-definition, high-contrast sound of Pissing Stars that hits you first and leaves a mark. Menuck (founder of Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion) uses grimy sonic filters to amplify an emotional anguish whose extend deeper than the current geo-political situation. The album’s organizing preoccupation is a love affair between TV personality and an arm dealer’s coddled son, which caught Menuck’s attention when he was in his teens (he’s well into his 40s now).  The songs address love and money, and the impossibility of redemption and the yearning to transcend that impossibility, not as binary relationships but as far boundaries of a vast and incomprehensible field.  Menuck sounds broken and partially remade, awash in sounds made to match.

  Mesarthim — The Density Parameter (Avantgarde Music)

The Density Parameter by Mesarthim

Who recommended it? Ian Mathers

Did we review it? Yes Ian admired the way that Mesarthim, “seesaws from something even the staunchest, pettiest gatekeepers would have to admit are metal, to sections featuring patterns and instruments that, in a different context, would make perfect sense at a rave.” 

 Eric McDowell’s take:

“Safe to say that black metal’s got what it takes to make innocent listeners uncomfortable: the corrosive distortion, the pummeling drums, those terrifying roars — not to mention all that netherworldly symbolism, mythology and branding. But if Mesarthim’s keeping somewhat more experienced listeners (Bandcamp dabblers, Dusted midyear exchange reviewers) on their toes, it’s not because they’re doubling down on those tropes. It’s because they take such a free hand with gestures to genres that seem to take the legs out from under their black metal persona.

 Not to overstate the case: The music on The Density Parameter, the Australian duo’s third full-length, is plenty dark and crushing. But then there are the unsettling touches — the synthetic arena-rock drums and boxing-movie-montage keys of “Ω,” the bleeding-heart strings of “Transparency” or the ghoulish club beat of “74%.” To say that Mesarthim sounds like a band bored with convention is really to say that they sound pumped about the possibility of subverting it. And when they want to indulge, they can do that, too, as they prove in the album’s final overpowering minutes.  

  Roscoe Mitchell and the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra—Ride the Wind (Nessa)

Who recommended it? Derek Taylor

Did we review it? Yes. Derek said: “Flimsy idiomatic descriptors like jazz, classical and the like are irrelevant to the proceedings, replaced by the umbrella adjectival phrase of organized and energized sound.”

Jonathan Shaw’s take:

Adequately describing music this enormously complex, aesthetically confrontational and confident requires a technical vocabulary and understanding of jazz history that this reviewer lacks. For this 2016 set, Mitchell wrote and worked and played with the 19-piece Montreal-Toronto Art of Orchestra. Their varied instrumentation and dexterous, evocative playing create some dizzying experiences: see the transition out of the choppy clatter of “Splatter” into the lyrical grace of the first few minutes of the title track. From staccato, oddly percussive reeds to undulant brass and strings—it’s a sharp and then gorgeous progress.

A couple reference points occur: Mingus’s orchestral and ambitious Let My Children Hear Music (1972), especially the whirling, swirling “The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive-ass Slippers”; “A Brain for the Seine” (1969), a long composition by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, in which Mitchell has been a key player throughout its long and bewilderingly experimental existence. Those dates invoke the high point of the American free jazz avant-garde, and few personages loomed as largely, or productively, in that period as Mitchell’s.

That begs some questions: Can we still have an avant-garde in the early 21st century? Can a figure as established and prominent as Mitchell produce authentically avant-garde art? If the avant-garde is thought as a political and historically specific phenomenon, likely not; the postmodern and late capital have reduced those possibilities all but completely. But if by “avant-garde” we mean a style, and a style specific to jazz, then this music carries its mark and its intensity. It’s also lovely and bracing to hear Mitchell work through a new arrangement of “Nonaah” here, a song that recalls the mid-1970s cultural environment of its original composition and appearance in Mitchell’s oeuvre. The song caps this set, and in doing so insists that we hear history at work. Thanks, Derek, for recommending this stirring and provocative recording.

 Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour (MCA Nashville)

Who recommended it? Patrick Masterson

Did we review it? No.  

Derek Taylor’s take:

“Jazz is dead” — it’s a declamatory provocation at once reductive, alarmist and cavalier that’s been floating around for the better part of a half-century, uttered by the idiom’s traditionalists, progressives and detractors alike. The same fatalistic phrase could equally and erroneously be applied to country music. Twenty-nine year old Texan Kacey Musgraves isn’t exactly a corrective to that combative line of thought and her brand of musical expression is fraught with certain stylistic choices (concessions?) that appear cardinal in this age of Country Music Awards commodification. But embrace of pop conventions has always been efficacious strategy going back to Countrypolitan, Western Swing and even The Singing Brakeman.  

Golden Hour, Musgraves’ fourth album, is reportedly a reflection of recently-found, matrimony-rooted optimism, audible in the gilded acoustic guitar melodies that serve as the skeletal frames for the songs around which a warm-blooded corpus of lap steel, banjo, drums and noninvasive keys is fleshed. Her voice is a modest wonder, musing on solitary afternoons leavened and enriched by the safety that comes in knowing that loving companionship is the current and foreseeable norm or using the kitschy metaphor of a “Velvet Elvis” to elucidate her lover’s left-of-center appeal. Apart from others of her age and ascendant success, she seems to cotton that the gifts of prosperity and stardom need not come through the mercenary espousal of whatever pop chart-calibrated admixture the A&R suits and million-bean counters deem worthy of exploitation.

  Olden Yolk—S-T (Trouble In Mind)

Olden Yolk by Olden Yolk

Who recommended it? Ben Donnelly

Did we review it? Yes. Jennifer Kelly said, “The vocals slide over one another like colored transparencies, creating shifting shades and moods.”

Ian Mathers’ take:

“Je suis les enfants/in the barrel of a gun” is a heck of a way to open an album, and the mix of the slightly sinister and the slightly baroque carries throughout the first Olden Yolk record. Which means, yes, building on that proud legacy of twee bands not afraid of the Velvet Underground, and I see those Clientele comparisons and can agree with them too. At points though I also think of early, spikier Go-Betweens. All of which is to say that the considerable charms and pleasures of Olden Yolk are coming from a distinct and well loved (if sometimes underestimated) lineage. There are discernible traces of psych-folk, jangle-pop, even a bit of the tang of the garage in there, but as with any act producing music worth paying attention to, here all those referents are just attempts to point at the contours of the very specific, individual thing Olden Yolk are doing. Whether it’s the brasher likes of “Esprit de Corps” or the lovely eternal sigh of “Gamblers on a Dime” or especially the forbidding sprawl and tangle of the closing “Takes One to Know One,” Olden Yolk build on the past with such verve and panache they never feel of the past.

  John Prine — The Tree of Forgiveness (Oh Boy)

Who recommended it? Isaac Cooper

Did we review it? Yes, Isaac said, “Prine finds his warmest balance yet between boundless empathy and joking detachment.”  

Eric McDowell’s take:

Portrait of the artist as an old man, the cover of John Prine’s first album of original music in 13 years says it all. He looks a bit tossed around, sure, but sly as ever. He’s surrounded by darkness and wearing black, but his face glows. Perhaps he’s “seeing the light,” but he’s gazing right at us, eyes skeptical, mouth ready to crack an acid joke.  

On The Tree of Forgiveness, Prine’s intimate and gruff voice doesn’t so much guide us from light to dark as show us their inseparability. Often they’re embodied in the figures and narratives characteristic of Prine’s music. There’s the down-and-out beggar of the trucking-on opener, “Knockin’ on Your Screen Door” whose family “up and left me / with nothin’ but an 8-track / another side of George Jones.” On “The Lonesome Friends of Science,” there’s the poor washed-up Pluto, “once a mighty planet there / now just an ordinary star / hanging out in Hollywood / in some old funky sushi bar.” While other tunes have an earnest tenderness that makes us want to pin Prine himself as not only their singer but also their subject — the strings-saturated “Summer’s End” or “Boundless Love” (“If I came home, would you let me in / fry me some pork chops and forgive my sins?”) — that risky move is no more tempting than on the closer, “When I Get to Heaven.” “I’m gonna get a cocktail / vodka and ginger ale / and I’m gonna smoke a cigarette that’s nine miles long / I’m gonna kiss that pretty girl / on the tilt-a-whirl / yeah, this old man is going to town”: The plan feels pure Prine, but it’s also sketched as a sing-along, inviting us to share in the fantasy.  

If everyone’s already pointed out that Prine’s always been this way, singing with wit about old age and death and wearing black since the early days, then I guess he’s done his job.

Alasdair Roberts, Amble Skuse & David McGuinness — What News (Drag City)

What News by Alasdair Roberts, Amble Skuse & David McGuinness

Who recommended it?

Bill Meyer

Did we review it? Yes. Bill Meyer said, “Turns out, the news is that Roberts has made the most unabashedly gorgeous record of his career.” Bryan Daly’s take: This inspired trio has shepherded both the songs and the traditional instruments on which they were played from deep in the past and conveyed them to the present, with all the care and fortitude it took to deliver news through the wild countryside in the age when they were written. An old Britain comes vividly alive not only because of the scholarly work that has been done in presenting them faithfully, but also because of the emotions that streak these songs with color. After spending some time with these characters in the world where they live and die, casual understanding of the song's history and meaning becomes insufficient. Digging through the archives for context becomes its own rewarding pursuit. But just as digging through the archives these days can mean typing few words into your phone, the world is another place from when these songs were written. Amble Skuse's subtle weaving of shifting modern noise provides the most sublime moments throughout, like the ambiguous but familiar clacking that opens the album. Is it a camera? A typewriter? A horse? What news is being prepared? Lest we forgot we haven’t slipped into the times when these songs were first sung, a familiar hiss and static of the current grounds us in the now.

Alasdair's ageless tenor also plays well against McGuinness's period instruments (grand piano, dulcitone), illuminating timeworn themes like betrayal and confused notions of honor. Characters are portrayed with such sensitivity that the dust that might have gathered on their stories has been shaken off in travel through time. When the players imbue such reverence for presenting the past as is done here, songs arrive freshly felt. The news travels fast, even through the space of hundreds of years.

 Caroline Rose — Loner (New West)

LONER by Caroline Rose

Who recommended it? Justin Cober-Lake

Did we review it? No

Patrick Masterson’s take:

Loner leads off with a song called “More of the Same,” but such a description could hardly be less apt for Caroline Rose’s third full-length. In the wake of 2014’s I Will Not Be Afraid, Rose took her catchy but simple country-tinged folk, her insecurities and her formidable wit and lathered a thick coat of synth-tinged pop on it. Press materials cite Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears as inspirations, both of which seem like more than lip service (check the FutureSex/LoveSounds vibe of “To Die Today” and, well, this cover of “Toxic”), but perhaps the most clear pop parallel is on the significantly altered (and, hence, appropriately titled) “Soul No. 5,” where her shog-off attitude toward admirers recalls Nicki Minaj or peak-era Ke$ha before she dropped the dollar sign: “I like to hit ‘em and quit ‘em / That’s just my style,” she shrugs with flair.

Bang, bang and away she goes is right: Whether it’s this kind of forthright pop approach or something more serious (and seriously invested) like “Jeannie Becomes a Mom” – I’m still thinking about how she ends with “Now you’re in real life” reverbing out to the point that you can barely understand it before metaphorically clarifying right at the finish – and closer “Animal” or even the funny, cringe-worthy cat-call escalations of “Smile! AKA Schizodrift Jam 1 AKA Bikini Intro,” every song on here moves at a swift clip to showcase some point along the spectrum of Rose’s talent. Call in Britney, call in Ke$ha, call in Angel Olsen, call in The Replacements — none of it seems quite sufficient. Caroline Rose is a league apart and better than she’s ever been.

 Salad Boys — This Is Glue (Trouble in Mind)

This Is Glue by Salad Boys

Who recommended it? Jennifer Kelly

Did we review it? Yes. Jonathan Shaw said, “The contrast of blithe pop with alienated, distraught lyrics is nothing new. This record reinvests that contrast with liveliness and complication.”

Patrick Masterson’s take:

The cover to This Is Glue is almost comically accurate, an album of pastel shades. Listening to “Blown Up,” which kicks off Joe Sampson’s 12-song, 45-minute-long sophomore LP under the Salad Boys name into gear with a propulsive indie-rock fling before segueing into “Hatred,” which… sounds like anything but, gives you the two major speeds of the record in just about nine minutes. So yeah: The Christchurch, New Zealander loads up on soft-baked indie jangle like it’s 1986. In one of Dusted’s first reviews this year, Jonathan described it as “compulsively listenable from the jump,” which is nearly as damning as it is praising. Put it on! Forget it’s on! And on and on and on.

But look at the album art closer and you’ll see the bright speckles of red and that smear of darkness to the left – there’s more going on than initially meets the eye. Same goes for the music; working harder to hear the details rewards multiple plays. Stuff like “Psych Slasher” or “Under the Bed” are fairly overt hits, sure, but there’s also “Scenic Route to Nowhere,” where Sampson’s accent is most evident and there’s this almost Oneida-esque stretch at three-quarters distance; the über-jangle of “Exaltation”; the frontier strings in “Dogged Out”; and “Right Time,” which had me remembering some of my earliest indie-rock encounters listening to 3WK and realizing I had no idea what I didn’t know. Trouble in Mind tells me these lyrics are “more claustrophobic and yearning” than 2015’s more upbeat Metalmania, but the way Sampson barely ever rises above an inside voice even at full emoting had me focusing harder on the guitar tones, frankly; in this way, Salad Boys’ closest analog to me isn’t whatever I forgot from the Left of the Dial box, it’s another Antipodean group increasingly lost to the salads of time: Ides of Space. I mean that as a compliment, and I almost never give stuff like this compliments. Eat up.

 Tove Styrke — Sway (RCA)

Who recommended it? Ian Mathers

Did we review it?  Yes, Ian called it, “ a perfect sparkling little showcase for how much the craft and delivery of this kind of pop song can matter.”

Jennifer Kelly’s take:

Um, yeah, Swedish electro-pop, not my favorite. Ian’s right, though, Styrke is good at what she does, imbuing glossy, focused-tested beats with soft, engaging humanity. “Sway,” one of the singles, has a big sweeping chorus, a sugary blast of “Swaa-aa-aay” that could melt the hardest heart, while “Say My Name” slathers staccato rhythms with giddy female empowerment. Styrke’s girlish voice has a nice touch of vulnerability to it, shading marketable hooks with recognizable human feeling. Production is immaculate, meticulous, air-tight, engineered for maximum impact. You could do worse, obviously. But really, when so many good, less commercially viable bands are vying for your attention, why spend time on stuff that’s doing just fine without you?  

 Yuzo Iwata—Daylight Moon (Siltbreeze)

Daylight Moon by Yuzo Iwata

Who recommended it? Bryan Daly

Did we review it? Yes. Bryan said: “these are deeply thrilling guitar-driven instrumentals with the room-live warmth and sense of play found on the Matrix Tapes, and mentally chasing a melody on any of these songs captivates fully.”

 Jonathan Shaw’s take:

It’s hard to know if “Gigolo” intentionally alludes to ���Gigolo Aunt,” one of the most coherent songs on Syd Barrett’s eponymous final record of studio material. But Yuzo Iwata’s delightful tune has the same lively, blithely bouncy quality as Barrett’s, and it plays a similar role on Daylight Moon. “Gigolo” is a space of unadulterated joy on a record that’s otherwise redolent with more difficult feelings. The difficulties are suggested by variations in tone; the record’s instrumentation is invariably simple, with Iwata backed by a straightforward rock combo. That anchors the record in a consistent sonic vocabulary. But Iwata’s playing projects the record onto multiple emotional planes: the meditative lilt of “Up on a Dragonfly”; the foreboding, spaghetti-western shamble of “Border”; the gently somber “Goodnight, Daylight Moon.”

The most intense sounds on Daylight Moon assert themselves on the fuzzily metallic “Drone Beetle” (recorded in 1999, unlike the other songs on the LP, which date from September 2015), and on “Daylight Moon II,” easily the record’s most incendiary performance. It’s got an aching, terrible beauty, and it feels like the fiery catharsis that offsets the goofball charm of “Gigolo.” Both songs are terrific, but “Daylight Moon II” is more vividly present, Iwata’s soloing seeks transcendence. It gets there. I wish it were here longer.

[hndu16cml]

Report

Introduction

Within this report, I will be analysing three provided songs of varied styles and genres. Reflections, identifications,  and overall comparisons will all be covered throughout.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - 'Dani California'

Flea, Frusciante, J. et al (2006) Stadium Arcadium. California, Warner Bros.

Produced by Rick Rubin.

Music

Musically the song starts with the drums looping a rhythmic 4/4 beat. Elements of slight syncopation can be found within the snare because of its off rhythm tendencies. This raw introduction provides and supports an overwhelming sense of a typical rock genre, with additional 'funk' elements. 0:05 sees the introduction of the electric guitars main riff. Its accents on beats two and four greatly accompany the snare with it also being slightly syncopated. This addition is used for purposeful over-emphasis, however, because the recording as a whole is panned hard left, its effects are less noticeable. Being such a repetitious guitar riff,  a balance was needed to be found.  This being said the bass's introduction is used as an overall counter because of its mass variation and widespread uses throughout the track.

The vocals within the verses are rhythmic in terms of their delivery, with elements of rap/hip-hop also being present. They are sung in a straight fashion and remain relatively consistent throughout the section up to 0:25. At this time the vocals begin to accent the off beats within their deliverance for added emphasis towards the genre.

The bridge section embodies a subtle genre change when in comparison to the track in its entirety. The vocals are shifted from their expected style by including accents of a falsetto alongside the snare and electric guitar, with additional harmonies.

The vocals within the third chorus have been arranged in such a way that they imitate the rhythm of the electric guitar. To add layers and increased textures to this section, an additional electric guitar was introduced at 3:36. Its far left placement within the stereo field provided overall balance and harmonic qualities within a higher octave to drive the song along.

Sonic

'Dani California' boasts a simple array of reverberation techniques. Throughout the track, it remains relatively dry. When in comparison to Ellie Goulding - 'Anything Could Happen' where the reverb has been used to create an almost dreamy, atmospheric sound, the intention within this track was to create a direct and distinct rock sound that remains relevant to the genre.

The lead guitar at 0:25 produces a 'Wah Wah' pedal effect. Amongst the rest of the instrumentation within this section, it creates an overwhelmingly funk based texture, making full use of a staggered staccato-based plectrum technique.

The chorus guitar as a whole is driven by mass amounts of heavy distortion. The drop of the distortion in itself is highly anticipated within the build up to the chorus, not only is it audibly satisfying for the listener,  it also provides a great contrast to the verses.

The bridge guitar is enhanced with either a phase-like modulation effect, or a chorus input with an increased rate. The reflective, bouncy noises merge within the rest of the instrumentation, therefore filling any given frequency spaces.

The flanger at 3:45 creates a strong, wave-like transition from the chorus to the solo. The flange's frequencies at the point have been immensely inverted. A strong sense of submersion is felt when it starts, however when it ends, one is left with the feeling of relief with the tracks original resonance being restored.

The drums throughout have been appropriately balanced to emulate a classic, bass driven drum kit. The stereo image and given frequencies provided by the drums within the mix helps with the tracks overall movement.

Ellie Goulding - 'Anything Could Happen'

Goulding, E. and Eliot, J. (2012) Halcyon. London, Polydor.

Produced by Ellie Goulding and Jim Eliot.

Music

The introduction of the song is composed of a series of cut and layered vocal takes. Being the sole focus of the section, they are purposely used as an instrument on their own. Their delivery entails the wide use of both staccato and acapella vocal techniques. The vulnerability of this technique proves itself within a working, live ensemble. Pitch and breath control can easily become an audible issue.  However, because this song follows a strict set of techniques associated with the pop genre, all possible bases have been covered to ensure its overall consistency.  

A large majority of the instrumentation provided within this track has been composed with midi inputs. The piano is derived from a series of simple, repetitious triads played throughout the entirety of the track. Its tempo has been purposely doubled to play in double time over the tracks existing tempo. The bass as a whole is also simplistic and repetitious. Being a computer based creation, it naturally lacks rhythm and general human qualities. This, in turn, means it needs to compensate for what it lacks.  With its notation being limited Its main use is to emphasize each beat of every bar in tandem with the mildly syncopated kick drum.

At 0:58, though subtle, it is audibly noticeable that on the word "panic" one vocal take slightly overlaps the other. Though it is clear that this mistake should not exist, the idea of layered vocals proves to be a regular occurrence within the pop genre.

Within each passing chorus, the synthesizer shows a gradual increase in gain, because of this its efforts to emulate the main vocal lines become clearer. The mixture between high and low frequencies creates a happy medium, in addition to an enhanced listening experience.

The vocals within the middle 8 are delivered within a falsetto range. This sudden change breathes life into an otherwise repetitive tagline by adding a sense of unexpected variety. In terms of projection, they are delivered in a concise and rhythmic fashion. Her breathy tone truly compliments the track in every way.

The vocal harmonies provided on the tag line  'Anything Could Happen' adds a sense of warmth and variety from the same familiar frequencies heard throughout. This contrast heightens the song's overall appeal, therefore leaving it open to future listens.

With the start of the drop out apparent at 3:05, the section as a whole is split into two, four-bar lengths. The first four bars are used as a form of click to keep the track in time with the tempo, however, after the fourth bar the kick drum begins to play double time and upon analysis appears to be slightly off rhythm and therefore syncopated at times. The drop out provides high anticipation for the rest of the instrumentation to jump back in again.

Sonic

Within this song, reverb has been placed on each vocal take to sustain each passing note throughout a given section. High reflectivity rates and response times would suggest that the entirety of the song has been created with reflection in mind. The vocal notes within this section have also been flooded with large amounts of delay. Each reflection of the notes has been manipulated to pan within both the left and right ears, alternating as such within the set tempo.

Mass central panning ensures a more user-friendly experience. This enables for each instrument to compliment the other and makes it easy to listen to on a wide array of platforms. However, with little variety the central experience after a period of time becomes dull, allowing no room for independent instruments to shine through amongst each other.

A gradual rise in modulation can be heard at 1:20. Leading directly into the chorus provides the perfect balance between the rise and fall of one section into another.

Being a typical pop song, it is clear that its intentions in terms of layout and post production techniques differ greatly from most conventional songs.

The vocals within this track in particular, at times, appear overly compressed and choppy. The frequencies given off by the vocals appear near flatlined because of how difficult it is to identify a noticeable change within them. The techniques associated with a pop performance are both strict and highly supportive of the accompanying melody, whereas within 'Dani California' the overall performance is long lasting and more free flowing with the support of the genre. Its diverse melodies and widened variety produce a more appealing, anthem driven sound. Though the quality of sound and projection provided from the lady cannot be questioned, it is feared that the post-production techniques used on them have masked the vital natural qualities of the human voice that most long for within a song.

David Bowie - 'Let's Dance'

Bowie, D. (1983) Let’s Dance (CD Single Remastered Version). New York, EMI.

Produced by Nile Rogers.

Music

The introduction of this song is composed of a series of layered harmonies and a gradual climactic drum fill played within a crescendo. This rise in volume builds the much-needed anticipation for the subsequent drop. Post drop the drums are based on a straight 4/4 rhythm. Within their deliverance, the snare appears to be slightly syncopated in comparison to the vocal lines. The staggered rhythm of the snare drum provides a humanlike quality within the song. Whereas in comparison to Ellie Goulding - 'Anything Could Happen' the drum sequences are blatantly robotic in their nature with no real variation in velocity. Being live recorded, fully concise timing is a difficult thing to maintain. This contrast in style provides a warming timbre for the intentional dance track.

Both the genre and deliverance of the track are highly supportive of the songs upbeat nature. The bass guitar is played in a staccato, stab-like fashion. This, in turn, creates the foundations for the rest of the instrumentation by providing the relevant passing notes of each chord. The electric guitar has been arranged to play a series of trills, allowing the reflectivity of the delay to do all the work.

With each passing of the saxophone, its syncopation is noticeable alongside the snare drum. With the emphasis placed onto the second beat, it accompanies the electric guitar in delivering a contrasting melody that provides both rhythmic and dynamical variation.

2:54 sees the accompaniment provided by a set of bongos. Not only is this used for added emphasis within the climactic chorus, it also provides a welcomed contrasting rhythm amongst the already familiar straight 4/4 percussion.

Sonic

A series of percussive taps can be heard within the first beat of every second bar. The interest is placed within the production of the track and how it has been writhed with delay. The original taps are played within the right ear and the reflections are slowly panned towards the left ear. This slow transition creates an echo-like effect. With the illusion that it has been panned hard right, the vibration are carried forward throughout the rest of the room for a wider sound.

The reverb and overall delay within the vocals is very similar to that of the electric guitar. The use of reverb is similar to that used within Ellie Goulding - 'Anything Could Happen'. The mass amount of reflection surrounding the vocals provides ambient textures whilst assisting with its overall movement throughout the piece.

Subtle amounts of distortion have been placed onto the electric guitar within its improvised section. Being placed towards the ending on the song, This addition provides great amounts of drive to the recording. This, in turn, brings the instrument further into the foreground amongst the focal instruments providing perfect resonance to a layer heavy recording.

[fluidsf]

Fluid Label Focus on GENOT CENTRE 14

ICE_EYES: INDIVIDUAL DROPS (2019)

COVER BY H5IO6I54K

Reviewed format: advance WAV download of album as kindly provided by GENOT CENTRE

Welcome to 14th review I’m doing of music released on the GENOT CENTRE label, which is why I adjusted the labelling of this review finally. What I have for you today is the brand new GENOT CENTRE release of INDIVIDUAL DROPS by ICE_EYES, released this year (2019). This is a 10 track album released on limited edition cassette tape and digital download featuring 5 original tracks by the Greek duo ICE_EYES (side A of the tape), accompanied by 5 reworks by an exciting selection of artists in the contemporary underground music scene (side B on the tape). Once again we can find some exciting new sonic manipulation, post-club deconstruction, high quality sound design and thrilling surprising compositional turns in the relatively short original tracks and remixes which are all exciting, imaginative and on point pieces of music with that wild contemporary mark of quality that is the GENOT CENTRE label. This is accompanied by H5IO6I54K excellent fitting artwork which features a blend of organic elements of nature, sci-fi typography and Metal themed logo hand drawn letter manipulations which looks especially gripping on the physical red coloured tape version, which also comes with a neat abstract sculpture shaped out of a recycled piece of PET similar to the organic rock like masses you can find on the artwork on the J-card and digital album cover file. The artwork definitely embodies this release really well, as INDIVIDUAL DROPS’ 5 original pieces and remixes feel at times almost like “masses” of organic material and synthetics that move, evolve, change shape and ultimately feel like true otherworldly soundscapes that at times almost feel like Club music but always hit you with unexpected sounds, harshness or changes that keeps the music feel very fresh and new. For this review I got sent a great press kit by GENOT CENTRE which features various additional materials, but for now I’ll mention only the main contains of this release which are the music, which I got in WAV format (of which the original tracks are in 24-bit/44.1kHz high resolution audio and the remixes in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality audio) and the excellent album artwork which you’ll get as a full J-card with the cassette version and as a square version of the album cover in the download. The artwork varies slightly at these formats, but you will get a good resolution image whichever format you choose.

Now, let’s move to the music on INDIVIDUAL DROPS which is really awesome. This album really is one of my favourite releases I heard and another favourite from the GENOT CENTRE label catalogue in general. As I read in the accompanying text file in my press pack the album’s concept is focused on really fluid organisation of sounds and an approach to making music which is really focused on relationships between rhythm, pitch and the fargoing usage of sound bending granular and other stretching / manipulation based techniques. And this fluid manipulations of sound into pieces that are blending or diffusing the borders between groove, soundscape and sonic structure are ultimately a really great main focus of the GENOT CENTRE label in general, which I’ve discovered after reviewing many of their releases by now and ICE_EYES music in here and the energetic remixes on here are a great example of that right from the start with CYAN GRADIENTS. The piece introduces us to the sound of INDIVIDUAL DROPS with scattering, tumbling percussive rhythms featuring crackles, stuttering kicks, pitch shifted stereo claps, hissy synth stabs and various chopped samples of voices. The music feels like an organic mass that is alive with movement, blending earth and both metallic and plastic materials together to create a kind of ambience that almost feels like Earth as a living creature. It’s moving, changing, taking all human made artificial objects with it, throwing these all around itself as well as absorbing some of these within its clay. Indeed, in terms of style this music can definitely be labeled as Deconstructed Club music and while people will always debate about the validity of such tags I personally like the style as it takes on many shapes like what we have here with music as a living organism of mixed concrete sound and artificial elements. The glitchy atmospheric synths also give this piece a quite brooding background but fear not as the sun is still shining, even in this piece. Afterwards we move onto title track INDIVIDUAL DROPS which feels like a Dub Techno track analysed and reprocessed as a data structure and then exported into a sound file, but again, a living file. Deep synth style hinting at that smooth flowing deepness of Dub Techno scatter around and seem to be resting on wooden planks, drums have been completely repurposed into data-synced high pitched stutters and glitches of sound and squelchy synth effects and alien voices are only remnants of originally human samples. It’s a piece that feels alien, but even at this level of abstract, the stabs are calming and the music feels like hope. Good to point out also is that this album has some impressive thick bass and sub bass in the kicks and low percussion used, so I do recommend you to listen with a good bass on headphone or your sound system to experience that. ARGO follows with a more melodic sound that’s got quite a lot of Bass Music elements, choppy phased synth melodic synth patterns, a funky bass arpeggio and even some continuing rhythms as well. But the music is definitely a lot more mechanical sound full of squeaky drill and bass like granular stretches as well as a thick saturated kick and the rough edges of the pieces combined with the cyborg vocal samples make the music feel more Industrial. I really like how the simple melodies in this piece intercut, glitch, get distorted in such grinding abstract ways that it feels like the music is almost turning inside out, breaking its phase yet still wanting to give us something recognisable to hold onto with its melodies. In the next piece EXOGENOUS blends elements of Bass Music, Plunderphonics and Glitch to create a soundscape groove full of musical details, fragments and quite a lot of high frequency effects which feels like a film soundtrack remade with code firing off elements and bits of both the sound effects and original music of the original film soundtrack at the environment the film takes place in. Like the music both gallops over and aurally describes a calm gorgeous landscape with a blue sky and brightly shining sun but triggered by many randomised captures of areas of film frames. KHOROS is the last piece from the original tracks, feeling like a collage of processes, actions, human sounds and technical sounds the piece harkens back to classic dadaist Sound Collage techniques but brings these into hi-fi digital territory. Like an alarm clock not just going off with a sound or bit of music but throwing out a mass of impressions from a full day’s worth of activities and details thereof reminding us that every day, even when we are just relaxing is filled with sounds, details, movement that shapes the sonic environment we live in. A great final track from the first half of this album release. Then we move on the second half of INDIVIDUAL DROPS, the 5 remixes. In CYAN GRADIENT (RENICK BELL REMIX) RENICK BELL rearranges the elements from the original into a very driving jumpy piece of experimental club music in which he scatters around percussive sounds from the original in Plunderphonics style over a FFT filtered bassy groove that keeps changing overtime. The hiss from the samples is also quite pronounced, making the piece feel like a “melodic” piece of “future Industrial” music in which we’ve long forgotten about the old hissing, steaming, clanging sounds of machinery and digital clean glossy artificial materials emit hyper sound designed noises to identify which actions are taking place. There’s a lot to this remix that harkens back to the organic “living” element of ICE_EYES original but the FFT filter effect and fuzzy edges of the remix to remind us of a certain fragility and that we might actually be listening to a recording of the future, but a very exciting one nonetheless. On INDIVIDUAL DROPS (BENELUX ENERGY REMIX) Wim Dehaen, who’s also one of the GENOT CENTRE label heads puts on his other jacket and brings us an amusing piece of sonic mayhem in this completely plundering remix. As part of the BENELUX ENERGY sound he adds massively compressed Hardstyle kicks, beats and Noise filled synths to the mangled samples from the original piece to create a piece that sounds like Industrial machinery getting impulses to completely rave out. It’s a very noisy and at many points harsh remix, but definitely very fun and the quick progression and short length help to make this a sweet burst of sampledelic energy. Then afterwards things calm down a bit on ARGO (CXLO REMIX) on which CXLO turns the Bass Music vibes from the original into a gorgeous atmospheric Braindance piece in which elements of one of the melodic patterns in the original are looped, filtered and reverberated to create gorgeous resonating glassy pads which are backed by awesome glitchy filtered drums. I love the attention to detail in the sound design and composition of this piece, wherein the elements are constantly changing and evolving into new forms, fluidly shifting between various details of the resonances and texture of the drums. The bassy kick is also utilised wonderfully in here and the metallic layer of drums adds a nice Industrial shine to the piece, very nice. EXOGENOUS ({ARSONIST} REMIX) is quite true to the some of the Deconstructed Club elements that are audible in the original piece, but here the separate elements seem to be triggered by a percussive rhythm, so rather than galloping through a landscape, the landscape seems to be galloping with us. Ambient pads form a warm glow in the remix and quirky synth effects and glitches rain softly down on us creating an experience both quirky and serene. The piece also quite a clean sound to it with the ambience as background and foreground synth and percussion forming to clear layers which add a good sense of depth to the music. KHOROS (GALEN TIPTON REMIX) is the last remix and final track on INDIVIDUAL DROPS ending this album with a fiery banger of a remix. This is probably the most Club oriented piece on this release, remixing the elements from the original into a very catchy driving fast groove with punching kicks, rhythmic stabs of original samples from KHOROS, metallic hi-hats, as well as various other Industrial manipulations from stems of the original piece. It’s a great cross of a contemporary underground Club track, ultra-wide stereo effects and the metallic shine of Industrial into a short and fiery remix. A great closing piece to this album.

INDIVIDUAL DROPS by ICE_EYES definitely shines as one of the strongest releases of this year so far. The impressive sonic landscapes of the original tracks by ICE_EYES are grippingly organic in nature but also invitingly layered with sonic details, surprising evolution within the compositions and a very personal touch to the wonderfully shaped sound design of the music. The remixes rework these pieces in exciting, often groove-based directions and form a great complimentary sonic exploration to the first half and can also invite listeners to go back to the originals to find details in them the remixes lay bare or magnify, thereby also crossing over in terms of sonic imagery. I highly recommend this album to anyone who likes the more sonically rich side of underground Club music, Deconstructed Club, Glitch and also Industrial and Plunderphonics but also anyone looking for a unique listening experience that is both immersive and organic as well as having really strong bassy grooves. Go check this album out.

Limited edition cassette tape and digital version are available to pre-order from the GENOT CENTRE Bandcamp page here: https://genot.bandcamp.com/album/individual-drops

[fluidsf]

Fluid Label Focus on CRÓNICA 013 TRONDHEIM EMP: POKE IT WITH A STICK / JOINING THE BOTS (2019) Reviewed format: advance review copy of Digital Album as kindly provided by CRÓNICA Today I’m featuring an interesting and nicely long release as part of my Fluid Label Focus series on the CRÓNICA label. I received an advance review copy from the label from this new album by Electroacoustic music project TRONDHEIM EMP, titled POKE IT WITH A STICK / JOINING THE BOTS, so at the time of writing this review this album hasn’t been released yet. The release date at the time of writing is March 5, 2019. POKE IT WITH A STICK / JOINING THE BOTS is an album that’s the result of recordings made of experiments done with a cross adaptive performance system created by TRONDHEIM EMP band leader and instigator Øyvind Brandtsegg on the first part POKE IT WITH A STICK (which is DISC 1 on the 2 CD physical version of this release) and on JOINING THE BOTS (which is DISC 2 on the 2 CD physical version of this release) these experiments are edited, joined and developed into several longer pieces. Øyvind worked with the large number of musicians that make up TRONDHEIM EMP on the experiments as well as the later composed pieces as part of his Crossadaptive research project at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Øyvind’s Crossadaptive system uses audio analysis data from one instrument to influence the processing of the other as well as data feedback manipulating the processing from the first instrument by the analysis of the second one (and often third one) POKE IT WITH A STICK / JOINING THE BOTS features a total of 23 tracks over 2 hours 11 minutes playing time, most of which are the relatively short POKE IT WITH A STICK tracks. The advance review copy I’m using for this review features the album cover in decent resolution as well as a press release PDF file featuring artist name, album title, catalogue number and release year, release format, release link, album credits and release date and promotion contact info as well 3 pages describing this album. All pages of the PDF feature artwork as well and there is also a tracklist, financial support credit, list of researchers and performers as well as a list detailing all musicians featured on this album per track. First part POKE IT WITH A STICK starts with the track Unwitting Accomplice (the tracks in the download version feature labels relating to which part they are part of that repeat per track). The piece is a vocal improvisation in which two female vocals are mixed together. In this first piece the Crossadaptive processing is still a bit hard to discern as mostly delay and reverb effects are used. You can hear a certain movement (very slightly fuzzy compression) in the vocals however, which does hint that the vocals are effects by each other’s dynamics and loudness. The improvisation definitely has some kind of dadaist playfulness to it but also feels nicely “classic” in a way, as the abstract, sparse sound and minimalist effect manipulations makes me think of 60’s electroacoustic compositions and sound compositions made by contemporary music composers of that time. Very abstract but also very fun to listen and a well paced improvisation. On Voluntary Convolution we can hear saxophone and guitar in a recognisable Free Improvisation style, the performances and manipulations do follow quite an intriguing direction and the glassy sound generated by the processing add a great glimmering colourful sound to the guitar and sax’s funky and jumpy improvisations, it adds some mystery to the sonic palette as well. Vision Of Hope Surpassed features two female vocal layers, against with dadaist vocal improvisations, in this case we also have delay and reverb effect manipulations but also lovely stereo stutters effects, making the vocals sound like liquid. Sweet squeals and wild performances in general on this one and the stutters and delays create a great glitchy metallic edge to the vocals, very nice. Then we have Rapid Random Response Unit which features flute, guitar and female vocals. The piece feels quite like a soundtrack of a tropical forest, the vocals are subdued and the flute is choppy high pitched, quickly moving like wild animals and the guitar has a mostly percussive role in this track, clicking and shifting like little drops of water. The ring modulation on the flute further adds to this animal like sound and the reverb adds this nice sense of space in the music. Then we have Just Add Gravity, on which wild male vocal improvisations are further enhanced by stutters delays, creating a very animalistic primal texture. Pretty funny as well, nice piece. On Artist in Resonance we have Bass and Guitar which are manipulated into liquid and resonant baths of effect processing, there are very nice string sounds in here as well as pitch sweeps, I love the bass string buzzes especially. On Backbeat Sketch female vocals and bass form an ambience that feel pretty similar to Arthur Russell’s music (though with female vocals instead), though it also features some cool stereo panning buzzing effects. Overall a more straightforward melodic piece but with a great classy acoustic sound with touches of effects processing. Then we have Now We Try It My Way in which the Crossadaptive processing is much more subtle. It’s quite Free Improvisation freakout but the piece also has plenty of cool touch in the percussive bass playing and detailed airy sound of the saxophone. It has a very physical sound to it and great improvisational energy. Screechy sax sonics at times almost turn into wild squeaking birds, great sonic textures created in this piece by the instruments. I Confess is another piece that has an Arthur Russell like sound to it, again great performances in this and tasteful effects processing as well as a captivating positive melody which has some Middle Eastern touches of mystery to it. Then we have title track Poke It With A Stick on which mostly hissy “noisy” vocals create abstract clicking and metallic structures, some of the vocal sounds ending up sounding like scattering bits of plastic stuttering and falling. Lovely abstract rhythmic soundscape in this one. In Total Internal Reflection saxophone and bass create resonant waves of atmospheric glassy sound through their “staircase” like improvisations of staccato rhythmic melodic patterns. A great mixture of ambience and jumpy rhythms in this piece, very nice. Heavy Meta only features drums but still there are guitar like drones audible, most likely derived from resonances in the drums themselves. The track feels like a cross between a percussion improvisation and a both atmospheric and experimental Post Rock track. The subtle drone resonances combined with the clattering, filtered and subtly distorted drums create a curious vibe that feels like the music is sometimes moving in a melodic direction, whilst at other times shifting more into percussive soundscape. On Not Invented Here saxophone and (mostly unrecognisable) guitar jump around in a swamp like water filled ambience. It’s a very odd sounding free piece with the notes jumping all around as well as the quirky sonic textures of the instruments making it sound like animals communicating with eachother, very wild and fun track. Then on So Much For Subtlety spoken vocals are manipulated into resonant panned and ghostly echoes blended with subtle sung vocals. There’s a great nuance in the separate words being especially put into focus in this piece which gives it a great expressive movement both in the content of the words as well as the textures created. Final track of POKE IT WITH A STICK, Zero Credibility features a lot of cool stuttering glitch effects in the mouth sound heavy vocals but also features some subtly resonant droning vocals creating an alien artificial soundscape of disembodied voices, very good. On the first track of JOINING THE BOTS, Hollow World, a bass gets turned into the sound source for a hollow glassy resonant round atmospheric droning composition. Many shifts in sonic texture occur in this piece as they keep evolving and changing shifting from cleaner bass sound to droning filtered images of bass resonance. Plucked strings add extra percussive details to the composition as well, a hypnotic, meditative but also active piece of music. You’ll Thank Me Later is the first piece on this album when the music shifts into a much noisier kind of sound than we’ve heard before. Wild dadaist female vocals are combined with electronic percussion and a digital instrument called the Marimba Lumina, creating constantly changing waves of heavily filtered and effected vocals, distorted thumps of percussion as well as equally distorted Marimba Lumina parts creating a very free composition, oftentimes abstract, aleatoric and fuzzy but at some moments also more recognisably melodic. A curious blend of jazzy marimba improvisation and avant garde Noise experimentation in an often quite deep sonic stage, very nice. Within Reason has the same instrumentation as You’ll Thank Me Later but moves into metallic and harsh Industrial sonics. The distorted and ring modulated percussion takes more of a foreground part in here though the vocals are still an essential part of the piece, there’s even some bursts of Noise and hard hitting distorted kick patterns. There’s definitely a very different approach to the Crossadaptive processing and different instrumentation on here than on POKE IT WITH A STICK and it adds some great variation to the two part album release as a whole, very nice. Then we have the track Irregular Apocalypse which features some very extreme sounds and performance, think of Within Reason but with much more Noise bursts and Industrial percussion hits and wild wild strange alien female vocals and screaming. Great intense vocal and instrumental performances and processing on here. Tactical Grace is a more sparse piece featuring tinkling bells resonating in the quiet space, haunting ghostly female vocals and mysterious synth tones, Marimba Lumina and both funky and jazzy guitar tones (especially in the last part of this piece). I love how this piece evolves from the calm ritualistic improvisation in the first half to the space jazz improvisation in the second half, it’s got a classic performance feeling to it yet still with contemporary sonic textures, very nice. I did notice however that on the JOINING THE BOTS part of this release the instrumentation of the music is organised in sets featuring the same or similar instrumentation rather than the varied mixture on POKE IT WITH A STICK, fortunately however the music on JOINING THE BOTS is varied enough to not make it sound repetitive or similar. On title track Joining the Bots we can hear the stutter glitch effects from POKE IT WITH A STICK on female vocals combined with a sparse but also expressive resonant drum performance, after some time into the piece the guitar (which at the beginning is only playing rhythmic staccato notes) turns into more of a haze of dissonant Noise which adds some great edge and energy to the piece as well as building towards an exciting climax. Great combination of minimal instrumentation with glitch elements and Noise in this piece which also features good usage of silence in its composition. Synchronize Your Dogmas follows pretty much directly from the previous piece and features the same instrumentation and processing but the vocals get more chaotic both in performance and processing and the music builds towards a calmer and more atmospheric end with repeated mysterious guitar drones shifting in the background while the glitched vocals and scattered drums slowly “disintegrate”. Works well as a second part of Joining The Bots. Then we have final track Echo System which features drums, vocals, guitar and Marimba Lumina. The piece moves from an ethereal atmospheric first half into a more jumpy improvisational second half. The first half features some great female vocals creating glowing drones through the delay and reverb effects which are accompanied by additional tones and subtly rattling percussion, very calm and meditative. Around the second half the music starts to move into a wilder and funkier direction with waves of noisy sound, funky bass synth, distorted guitar melodies and ambience as well as more intense rimshot percussion. The quirky synth melodies and waves of fuzzy guitar are particularly nice as well. Great closing piece. POKE IT WITH A STICK / JOINING THE BOTS by TRONDHEIM EMP is two part album that features quite a lot of variation in both the (improvised) performances and Crossadaptive processing and through its series of experiments on POKE IT WITH A STICK and more composed pieces on JOINING THE BOTS showcases many interesting often free moving pieces of Electroacoustic music with Jazz, Funk and Noise influences that is sometimes quirky and dadist anarchistic in approach, at other times it’s atmospheric, hypnotic and meditative. The expression by both the musicians Øyvind Brandtsegg’s processing give the music a very lively, human feeling but the element unpredictability of the processing also adds new waves of inspirational feedback from the system to the musician’s approaches of playing there instruments and singing / vocalising. And with its extensive tracklist and long playing time the two part album never feels like simply a documentation of an experiment but is also an intriguing journey of a listen and the creativity and musicality of all people involved make both the style and textures of the music to be very free from genre boundaries. I would therefore recommend this album to any listeners interested in experimental music, Electroacoustic music but also to listeners who like free, expressive music that leans towards Jazz at times. Pre-order the Digital Album and Limited Edition Double CD from the CRÓNICA Bandcamp page here: https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/poke-it-with-a-stick-joining-the-bots