The 17 tracks that comprise Compulse by Skiks are varied enough to come across, collectively, less like an album and more like an expression of the musician’s varied capabilities. These brief sonic items include retro synth heroism (“Emphatic Res”), ecstatic Fourth World shaman techno (“Chamong”), off-kilter MIDI-inflected tunesmithery (“Arnest”), and percussive post-rock (“Tenner Two”). Much of it, as the garbled syllables of various (though not all) titles suggest (“Veeks,” “Xypher”), smacks heavily of Autechre. One highlight is “Birovy,” whose complex piano phrasings bring to mind the proto-post-human endeavors of Conlon Nancarrow and whose spacious canvas suggests the spiritual yearnings of Morton Feldman (MP3).
Track originally posted at split-notes.com. Skiks is a pseudonym of composer/percussionist Bruce Hamilton, more on whom at alonetone.com/skiks and spectropol.com. It’s the ninth release on the Split-Notes netlabel, which focuses on legally free downloads of microtonal music. Compulse is the first Split-Notes release to be featured on Disquiet.com.