Rest assured that if an album lists the following names with the promise of new music, then it’s worth picking up blind: Luke Vibert, Squarepusher, Cyclob, Mike Flowers, Stereolab. Now, mind you, the 14 tracks on Constant Friction (Collaborations 2) (Lo/hub100, 2000) feature almost twice as many musicians, because it’s a team-up, kind of like the old Marvel comics series, in which two brand name heroes share the stage for a limited engagement. Vibert is heard with slide guitarist BJ Cole, as the two of them were on their own recent full-length collaboration (Stop the Panic), but most of these pairings are unique. Squarepusher is a single-minded solo electronic artist, though he did record a duet with Aphex Twin for last year’s Warp Records anniversary album; here, he’s heard with Lo regular Richard Thomas on a downbeat track with loping bass and stuttering scatting. Thomas is heard elsewhere with noise-making jump-cutter Kid 606. Stereolab closes out the album, working with Hairy Butter. The band Rothko is heard with both Four Tet and the Monsoon Bassoon, on separate cuts. On both pairings, you hear analog and digital fumble cumbersomely for mutual elbowroom. It’s an awkward dance, but a valuable experiment, as is much of this collection.
Category: the crate
Remix at Home
Slow Gold II (software): Ostensibly, a new piece of software called Slow Gold II ($89.95), a product of WorldWideWoodshed, renders fake books redundant — provided you have the patience to do its bidding. The software’s premise is simple: it will play back recorded music at a considerably slower rate, facilitating study by maintaining the music’s original pitch throughout, whether you slow the tune to half or even a fifth of its original speed. Trying to ape one of Janis Joplin’s inestimable yodels or one of Thelonious Monk’s leapfrogging melodies? Just drop your CD in your PC clone’s drive (Macs aren’t eligible), apply Slow Gold liberally and mimic to your heart’s content. Reviewers from PC Magazine to Guitar Player have praised Slow Gold’s simple interface and quality audio. The instructions report “a 10-second loop, slowed down 50% with the highest-quality algorithm, took 15 seconds to slow down on a 300 MHz Pentium II”; repeated experimentation confirms those numbers. The only thing that’s missing, really, is the software’s ability to provide note values at various points along the way — but since the software is aimed at the guitar enthusiast or someone with rudimentary music theory, that feature would be pretty superfluous. An additional audience, however, lays in wait. The sound quality of Slow Gold’s samples is excellent, and the paint-by-numbers controls suggest that ambient music fans may have a new tool to play with. Has repeated listening to your favorite Steve Roach or Brian Eno CD lent the music an all too familiar feel? Well, then dial it down with Slow Gold II. Make Eno’s Thursday Afternoon album last all day.
Note: When Disquiet.com first launched its “Crate” section, a distinction was made between “ethereal” and “physical” releases. Those “ethereal” ones later came to comprise the site’s Downstream section. This was the site’s first “ethereal” entry, all of which were collected under the following explanation: Web music is ethereal by nature, just data out there on the vast and, excepting password-protected FTP sites, public network we call the Internet. The big question isn’t some much “what” as “where”: where are the freshest MP3s, the great RealAudio streams, the self-generating software?
Single of the Week
Don’t look for relaxation in the Asian Dub Foundation/Atari Teenage Riot split-single on Damaged Goods (P.O. Box 671, London, England E176NF). The Beastie-influenced Asian Dub Foundation on “Free Satpal Ram” lacks the raw energy of Atari Teenage Riot’s “Paranoid” — a shout-filled drum’n’bass (and noise) track that doesn’t slow down until the needle lifts above the picture disc. Take warning: After listening to “Paranoid,” ADF sounds a little too tame, so save ATR for last.
Originally published in the August 29, 1997, edition of epulse (3.34).
Import of the Week: Kiyoshi Izumi
Rephlex Records releases are pretty much reflex purchases. The British indie label, run in part by Richard D. James (a.k.a. Aphex Twin), has delivered a select music series over the past couple of years, ranging from James’ own electronic experiments to the peculiar sunny-day vocal pop of a band called the Gentle People. Japanese musician Kiyoshi Izumi’s recent three-song (and seemingly untitled) EP may be the label’s finest moment yet — an utterly compelling mesh of funky sonic isolates sequenced into something approaching dance music but, like most of the Rephlex catalog, far better suited to headphones. “Ura” is a seven-minute extravagance of jerky forward motion, all the more exceptional for its quasi-overture of an opening segment, which jumps between drum patterns and snippets of tropicalismo. Subsequent tracks “Cheaper Cosmos,” with its eerily familiar wall of static, and “Bedroom Glow” further one-up the listener’s expectations for electronica. Plus, the CD comes in a cool octagon jewel box. The future is nifty. (Contact info: P.O. Box 2676, London N11)
Update: Many years later, I located the release on Discogs.com, where it is titled Effect Rainbow. Why I didn’t know this at the time of its release is unclear to me. I may have been writing about an advance copy.
Originally published in the August 22, 1997, edition of epulse (3.33).