Disquiet

At just under six minutes, Michael Bross‘ “Oscuro,” off his new Everything Is Now album, is fine instrumental pop, slowly acquiring layers of percussion, sounds, rifflets and nuance as it makes its way toward the six-minute mark (MP3). Perhaps best known for his video game scores (two Oddworld titles, Black Dahlia, Ripper), Bross has a pop aficionado’s instinct for the pithy melodic moment and a sound designer’s sense of how much depth can be instilled in such a moment. More info at bross.com.

The latest album by Clark, Body Riddle (Warp), was preceded by a flurry of his own blogging promotion: three free downloads in quick succession at throttleclark.com; all of them were mentioned as part of the Disquiet.com Downstream. A model Warp Records musician, he torques rhythms until they bleed melodies and enjoys the pliant space between abstraction and danceability. Over at his myspace page (myspace.com/throttleclark) are a handful of additional tracks, two of ‘em downloadable, one from 1998 (MP3), the other from 2002 (MP3). The former is elastic and fuzzy, the shifting give’n'take percussion of drum’n'bass filtered through a minimal-techno sound pipe, all compressed and tensile. The latter is more vibrant and chaotic, with a gooey, chiming lead line amid the drummy madness. It closes on a snippet of what sounds like TV theme music, which in this context brings to mind the great Throbbing Pouch of Wagon Christ, which in 1998 may well still have been ringing in Clark’s ears.