|
cd -- selection NOVEMBER 2005 |
|
|
|
 |
| Artist: |
IKEDA, RYOJI |
| Title: |
30 years of service |
| Label: |
RASTER MUSIC (GERMANY) |
| Format: |
CD |
| Price: |
15 E |
| Catalog #: |
RASTER 068CD |
|
|
"Dataplex is the much-anticipated new release from leading Japanese electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda. Since the mid 1990s, Ikeda has pioneered a radical and highly influential minimalist approach in the worlds of electronic and contemporary music. His seventh solo album and the first musical composition in the datamatics series -- a new body of work across various media that uses data as both its material and its theme -- Dataplex presents a significant and stunning progression in Ikeda's career. Aside from demonstrating Ikeda's unrivaled standards of technical precision, minute sound construction and engineering, the album also introduces an extraordinary and fascinating overall structure. The first eight tracks of Dataplex consist mostly of high-frequency raw data. Their structures are located clearly outside the cosmos of music. Instead, these linear tracks seem to be source code transformed into an audible medium; a constant stream of data, they represent the basic material of the album. The following pieces become longer, increasingly complex and distinctly inter-related, before the rhythmic structure itself metamorphoses. Rhythms and tones are refracted progressively, until, with track 18, data.vortex, Ikeda opens up an apparently infinite acoustic space with an expansive piece that contrasts dramatically with all that precedes it. And following this caesura the album almost ends in the way it started, sinking back into the data flow. Through meticulous attention to detail and the most minimal of gestures, Ikeda succeeds in expanding and enhancing his sound design to reveal a new universe to the listener. Dataplex opens up avenues of pure musical abstraction whilst simultaneously embracing complex, unique and elegant individual composition. In its entirety, Dataplex remains inscrutable; a mystery whose secrets require individual investigation and discovery. Its defiance of appropriate definition, description or comparison, ultimately underpins the pioneering nature of this long-awaited release. Datamatics. Dataplex is the first musical composition in the datamatics series, a new body of works by Ryoji Ikeda that explores the aesthetic potentials of data by using data itself -- from its transparency to its materiality, from its ultra-speed to hyper-diffusion. The project derives the hidden constants of data-ness from the vast data ocean that ranges from DNA and the everyday world to the universe and pure mathematics." |
|
|
--
|
|
 |
| Artist: |
IGNATZ |
| Title: |
S/T |
| Label: |
KRAAK |
| Format: |
CD |
| Price: |
13 euros |
| Catalog #: |
Fatsp10
|
|
|
ALL KRAAK CD’S NOW AVAILABLE AT 13 Euros !
George Herriman created Ignatz in 1910. It was a vicious mouse in the comic Krazy Kat. Ignatz' favourite occupation was throwing bricks at Krazy Kats head, who thought it was a love declaration from the mouse. The Brussels based artist Bram Devens uses Ignatz as his alter-ego for his own pile of bricks. Acoustic songs wrapped with effects and driven by improvisation and spontaneousness
Growing up on a diet of '90s lo-fi, old blues and the Smithsonian Antology Of Folk Devens calls himself a lo-fi fascist. When he was just 15 years old he used to unroll old cassettes, rumple the tape and roll it back on. While recording he kicked his four-track to experiment with the wow-and-flutter effect or he just layed down his tapes in the pouring rain. And like a mouse always finds the way to the cheese, Ignatz stayed true to his roots. He wraps up his folkish guitar music in a cloud of effects and electronic noises and his scarce lyrics are a mixture of broken English and unintelligible mantra-like repetitions. The songs are very open and covered with echo and delay. In that way he keeps fucking up his songs, but in that way that it provides him the freedom to experiment and improvise. The effects dictate his way of playing the guitar and the way the song will follow. Improvisation and spontaneity are two basic statements within Ignatz' musical universe. The final recording of a song is for Devens the end of a musical journey. Once the song is on tape, he erases the sampler that he uses for the effects what makes it unable for him to play it in the future. Everything is recorded in one take, so that nothing from the spirit of the moment will be lost. Structured songs and prepared pieces don't exist. Songs are build up while played and every time the next sound is a reaction to the previous one. Ignatz is the first cd of Bram Devens and is a compilation of songs that he recorded over the past year. The only instruments used are a guitar, effects, a sampler and Devens' his voice. The result is a simple but extra-ordinary sound that takes your breath. Ignatz' music stands for freedom, toughness, melancholy and foolishness. KRAAK
|
|
|
--
|
|
 |
| Artist: |
COCOROSIE |
| Title: |
Noah’s ark |
| Label: |
TOUCH AND GO |
| Format: |
CD (LP available ) |
| Price: |
14 euros PROMO |
| Catalog #: |
TG281 |
|
|
How good is this? With a set of photos that look as if they're destined for a passport, CocoRosie are glumly detached on the album artwork, a framework which permeates throughout 'Noah's Ark'. Yet whereas people are all too often moody-as-you-like, resulting in introspective bollocks, CocoRosie have turned their tarnished side to much greater things. Having toured here, there and everywhere with the likes of Devendra, Bright Eyes and Antony and the Johnsons, CocoRosie are predictably grand and unbeleivably intimate in their output, with songs such as 'K-Hole' existing in a charmingly run-down Mum-meets-Moldy Peaches-meets- Joanna Newsom side street. Putting their connections to good use, 'Beautiful Boyz' features the fabulous Antony (of the 'we won the Mercury' Jonsons), putting in a suitably octave defying performance alongside the lovestruck (Bjork-esque) warbles and oaktronica shuffling in the background. Elsewhere,'South 2nd' is a classic Devendra Banhart Cut featuring the great beard himself, 'The Sea Is Calm' shares that special breed of diffused piano based electronica that’s impossible to adequately describe whilst the opera/beats of'Bisounours' is that pretty your ears will melt. This will end up on countless end of year lists, and for good reason, being as it is one of the most spine-tingling, beautifully intimate album’s you will hear for quite some time. A Huge recommendation. |
|
|
--
|
|
 |
| Artist: |
FENNESZ SAKAMOTO |
| Title: |
Sala Santa Cecilia |
| Label: |
TOUCH (UK) |
| Format: |
CD |
| Price: |
12 euros |
| Catalog #: |
TONE 022CD |
|
|
“Every once in a great while, a collaboration comes along which hints at a brighter future, a collision of giants that indicates a convergence of method and music. This is one such event. Sala Santa Cecilia documents the meeting of worldwide laptop guru Fennesz and Japanese electronic music legend Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Auditorium Parco della Musica for the Romaeuropa Festival in Rome, November 2004. This is a unique and complete 19-minute piece which marks the recording debut of this new collaborative unit. It is exclusively available via this CD EP and will not be released elsewhere, and not as part of the forthcoming Fennesz Sakamoto album. The impact and importance of this recording is difficult to overstate. Christian Fennesz is far and away the standard- bearer of laptop music, his thawed sound of fractured guitar chords and warm noise melts hearts around the world. Ryuichi Sakamoto, meanwhile, a contributing force in electronic music for almost three decades in Yellow Magic Orchestra and his vast solo oeuvre, takes his place on laptop next to Fennesz for this historic meeting. Anyone concerned with the future of sound, or interested in modern music composition, or anyone who simply enjoys sweet ambient music should welcome Sala Santa Cecilia as a herald of what is to come. This is brilliant music from brilliant talents... towards a more brilliant world.”
|
|
|
--
|
|
 |
| Artist: |
DAVID-IVAR HERMAN DUNE |
| Title: |
“Demented Abduction” Nova Scotia Runs for Gold
|
| Label: |
SMOKING GUN (UK) |
| Format: |
CD |
| Price: |
17,5 euros |
| Catalog #: |
LVD066/067 |
|
|
“Taking a short brake from the busy Herman Dune schedule David has crafted his second solo album. The eight tracks of heartbreak, humor and insight are recorded with a slight yet intricate texture made up of guitar, ukulele, recorder, fiddle, piano and the backup of the Dunes little sister Lisa Li-Lund. Following up his first solo album “Ya Ya” 2005 sees the intriguingly titled “Demented Abduction, Nova Scotia runs for gold”, a compelling and considered collection of songs. The whole album is accompanied by a 28-page comic book by David the story referencing lyrics and songs. A new Herman Dune album is out now on Track & Field”
|
|
|
--
|
|
 |
| Artist: |
LIDELL, JAMIE |
| Title: |
Multiply |
| Label: |
WARP RECORDS (UK) |
| Format: |
CD |
| Price: |
20 euros |
| Catalog #: |
WARP 131CD |
|
|
"Jamie Lidell, soul vocalist extraordinaire, is finally set to release his first solo recordings in five years! Erstwhile co-pilot in the digi-funk colossus Super_Collider (alongside Cristian Vogel), Jamie Lidell has spent the intervening period since 2001 conquering, nay, vanquishing, the stage with a blazing solo live show, (costume and live VJ enhanced), pitched somewhere between 'a 21st century reincarnation of Little Richard' with 'a soul voice fried in honey like Sly Stone or Prince, and a beatboxing talent to make Muhammad Ali quake in his Everlast,' delivering time and again 'a thrilling, visceral performance,' 'pure, visceral power: a scintillating display of demented musical and physical energy,' both 'exhilarating' and 'astounding,' A British soul vocalist beyond your wildest imagination, , Jamie Lidell has crafted a twisted R&B album with all the hallmarks of a vintage classic. Multiply is a refreshingly modern update that retains all the power, pop and emotion of singers like Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Al Green and even peak period Michael Jackson, immersed in the energy and virtuosity of production masterminds like Quincy Jones or Herbie Hancock, done in inimitable Jamie Lidell style. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentleman -- a new vocal star is about to take flight.
|
|
|