Recent Twitter post by Josh Santangelo (endquote.com, stimulant.io), a Seattle, Washington-based web developer:
Ordered a Tenori-On (tenori-onusa.com). Soon, there will be one more crappy amateur electronic musician in the world.
Original at twitter.com/endquote.
When downloading Joseba Irazoki‘s new EP, Negurdin, from the con-v.org netlabel, if your time and bandwidth is limited, stick with the odd-numbered tracks. Irzaoki is one of the most interesting guitarists today working outside of traditional song form. The vocals on the album, to the extent there are any, appear on the even cuts as mournful, even bereft. The odd numbered tracks (MP3, MP3) tone down the vocals in favor of delicate instrumental drones with complex chordal interplay and tireless attention to texture and atmosphere. The material was recorded in the Basque region of Spain last autumn, and released last month. Get the full set at con-v.org. (Irazoki was the subject of another recent Disquiet Downstream entry, back in April: disquiet.com)
The aspiring hip-hop producers who populate the forums at cratekings.com work together for mutual musical benefit — and not only by commenting on each other’s work and pushing the collective to tweak each sample, hone each beat, and better craft each instrumental track that they post. They also collaborate, as on the 14-track compilation of remixes of themes by Hollywood screen-music legend Henry Mancini. The set, Crate Kings vs. Henry Mancini, is available as a series of individual tracks (ZIP) or as a single mix, put together by Rafferty, one of the tribute’s contributors (MP3). Participants include Figment, DJ Oaty Love, DJ Tru Blu, Olivertone, Kid Konnect, Illstylus, Pyro. More info at cratekings.com.
There’s something about Eastern-bloc electronic music that often suggests a heavy influence of synth-rock, the soundtracks of Golem, the space explorations of Cluster, the melodic drones of Tangerine Dream. Veron, of Budapest, Hungary, fits that mold, judging by a recent four-track release on the Stasisfield netlabel (stasisfield.com). It’s most noticeable on “Early Morning” (MP3), a synth bed of slowly decaying notes. But the other material here ventures away from the recognizably artificial tonalities, most effectively “Flower” (MP3), which is all gently blipping pin-prick percussion above undulations so soft you could mistake them for organic near-silence. Since that’s the track on which the set, titled Dreamtime, closes, perhaps it suggests the direction in which Veron is headed — away from tone synthesis, and into texture and rhythm. Get the full set at stasisfield.com.
A new collaboration by Adrián Juárez and Juan José Calarco provides one of those situations wherein the sum of the parts is considerably less than the constituent parts themselves. Except in this case, that statement is not just a compliment; it’s a formal measure of the duo’s accomplishment. The material that Juárez and Calarco plumbed for their 14-minute soundcape, titled “Tierra Abierta, is, self-evidently, field recordings — rain and wind and other real-world noise working together to form an artificial but semi-natural realm (MP3). Only with repeated listens can the attention to balance between those elements can be appreciated, as can the means by which apparent light processing has allowed looped elements to yield rhythmic and compositional impact. More information at the website of the releasing netlabel, restingbell.net. Don’t turn it up too high, as there is one loud moment, but it serves primarily to emphasize the relative quietude of the rest of the piece.
