Leb Laze: Library Catalog Music Series: Music for Troubled Machinery (Asthmatic Kitty)

One of those cheap albums bought to knock a Boomkat order over the £50 and into free postage mode and, as usual with these punts, an interesting surprise and a worthy purchase. Leb constructed this album after his sampler/sequencer started giving up the ghost and spewing forth all manner of bizarre electronic sounds and arhythmic noises. He then took these sounds and turned them into the 17 tracks here that, by a myriad of twists and turns, bleep and buzz their way through industrial songscapes with gay abandon and, amazingly, craft some decent tunes out. Nothing too long (most tracks are 2-3 minutes long) so none of the noises really irritate, as the tracks are always meandering into something else. The whole things gives off the air of a cyberpunk soundtrack - the snatches of sound bring to mind snatches of images and expand your consciousness. Not bad for a half-arsed purchase of a throwawy album recorded with broken electronics.

Colorlist: The fastest way to become the ocean (Serein)

A limited 10" of 4 tracks and 25 minutes of experimental, but hugely listenable, jazz that bustles with invention and cyclic rhythm over gentle melodies. Jeff Parker, post rocking jazz-guitarist-for-hire from Tortoise and a myriad of other bands, guests on the second track and accompanies the loops with abandonment and takes the whole thing into another direction for the 9 minute duration - which could've been twice as long and kept the interest. This is one of those records that, although strictly jazz, could appeal to many an open-eared rock fan - which is never a bad thing as the more people that get into jazz, the better off this old unsyncopated  world will be.

Message to Bears: Departure (Dead Pilot)

I've seen this described as 'ambient', but that's really doing it a disservice. Ambient music is meant to sit unobtrusively alongside the rest of your life and just........exist. This album is too special to be ignored or to just whisper in the corner as it demands your attention to fully appreciate the gently picked guitar, beautifully arranged strings, subtle viola, softly shuffling rhythms and the occasional humming vocalisation. Solo guitar-based albums can often seem dull and uninspiring - like the tracks are supposed to be intros to longer pieces, rather than standalone pieces of their own. The tracks here work well as they build, grow and change into individual snapshots that need no extra embellishment. This is an astonishing album and one of those debut albums that make you feel excited to be there at the start, and equally excited as to what the future will bring. A hand numbered ltd edition of 250 in 180g vinyl, so be quick if you want one.

Mist: House (Spectrum Spools)

John Elliott, from Emeralds, is also Mr Spectrum Spools and has a beautifully lush shiny gatefold sleeve for his beautifully lush electronic evocations and experiments in sweeping soundscapes and kosmiche wonderment. Each track is given so much time to unwind and expand that you almost forget that the glistening chimes of one track started off as a bass-y rumble 5 or 6 minutes ago. Best taken as a whole, this album moves through the whole range of emotions with undulating textures and Klaus Schulze-like movements that never stay still for long and continuously surprise and excite.  

Forma: Forma (Spectrum spools)

I've been listening to so much of this synth laden kosmiche music lately that one wonders how i manage to hear the good from the bad but, somehow, i manage to persevere and only the great floats to the top. And this is really great - as Forma have taken the sweeping lushness of many of the other releases of this type and then morphed it into something that stands very much on its own, and in its own frame of reference. There are ten short tracks here and that information is very interesting indeed - as most of the other similar musicians seem to scorn shorter tracks and, instead, take up whole sides of records with a single track. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it just shows how formulaic this genre is becoming and, thus, something like this record stands apart. The melodies are very well structured and they seem to pack a wealth of quality music into each piece and the occasional motorik rhythms move the tracks along well and into almost dance territory (i could see 'Forma197' remixed into a mighty trance piece - such is it's illusion of power).

Great stuff and a band i'm really keen on hearing more of, also very happy to report that there isn't a huge number of back catalogue releases to buy up!

Jonny Trunk: Animation & Interpretation (Ghost Box)

Part of the 'study series' collection of ltd 7"s that i've gone and got myself locked into (although i cocked up and still haven't got no. 5). The A Side ('Le Train Fantome') uses the chuffing locomotive rhythm as the backing and then plonks vaguely familiar keyboard sounds over the top. Like most Ghost Box releases, it has the air of long forgotten children's TV soundtrack to it and, as usual, evokes memories that probably weren't there in the first place. As the record is composed entirely out of samples, there is always the chance that there is something buried deep in it that evokes something buried deep inside me. The B side ('Cardboard Boxford') sounds like something from the soundtrack of 'Tales of the unexpected' - which i'm sure was entirely intentional.

I actually enjoyed this record much more than these words would suggest - i've just reread it and it looks a bit negative and a bit lazy, i'd change it but i'm a bit lazy and a bit negative. So there.

Tape: Luminarium/Fugue/Revelationes (Immune)

After my huge enjoyment of their 'Milieu plus' album (see older post) i just had to investigate further and bought these three and, although quite different to that album, these are all astonishingly good. They took a step forward from the earlier album's subtle mix of many disparate instruments and concentrated mainly on electronics, bass and keyboards - with the occasional vibraphone and guitar thrown in. This is particularly rounded on the most recent album ('Revelationes') where the bass notes thread themselves around the hint of darkness that filters through the record - this one, more so than the others, seems to be their 'serious' album. By this i mean that it gives over a sense of solemnity and i can visualize their brows furrowed when they created it - it seems much more concentrated on and less free.
'Luminarium' takes the earlier sound and moves it forward into more melodic territory. A much more acoustic guitar based collection of songs, the prettiness of the tunes almost stray into the twee area of things - were it not for the electronics and found sounds going on in the background, which put it firmly into the 'hold your breath 'cos you don't know what's coming next' category. I love the hushed resonance of the sound on this album - the squeaking of the strings, the distance between sounds and the expectation caused by the electronics in the background.

'Fugue' - a collaboration with Bill Wells, plays at 45rpm. I mention this because i played it many many times at 33 and i didn't notice. I'm still not sure which speed i prefer. Bill Wells contributes minimal keyboards and melodica to this collection of 4 beautifully minimalist pieces. Each piece slowly grows with minimal changes in repetition until you reach a point of ending that is criminally too soon. Many times during this album (and the others) i found myself holding my breath at the total beauty of the sounds.

I really can't recommend Tape highly enough, although it is true music for concentration and cannot be treated frivolously. It has to be really listened to, to be truly heard.