Disquiet

A lot of electronically mediated music and sound is described as “brainy,” usually with the term employed to suggest (or perhaps cover) dismissive intent. The word, though not the negative connotation, applies fully to Ganzfeld State by FSK1138, aka musician Donald Baynes. To record the lightly rhythmic works, Baynes used electroencephalography to map his own brainwaves back in August, and then used that data as the basis for the album’s sound. Some of the tracks add in vocal samples, among them an opening remix (a “Roshak Edit” of a song titled “Beneath Me,” which features a voice over from the Watchmen movie adaptation) and a track titled “I See Calculus,” in which the phrase is spoken over the electronica equivalent of an old radiator spewing metallic rhythms and hiss.

The standout track may be “Hushed,” which dispenses with the verbal toying and puts all its eggs in a fragile basket true to its title (MP3), a lightly flanged whir over the tribal beats of dust mites.

Get the full release at the Panospria netlabel (notype.com) or at its archive.org page.

The Complex Silence series is an effort by the TimeTheory netlabel and musician-curator Phillip Wilkerson to engage musicians in long-form compositions that explore the titular aesthetic. The sound on the four entries thus far is at once quiet yet dense, understated yet nuanced, singular yet rich. The latest, Complex Silence 4, is by Dave Seidel, whose contribution takes the Golden Ratio as its starting point. Its two pieces, “Meridian Transit” (MP3) and “Solar Midnight” (MP3), are super-slow drones — their beat, such as it is, proceeding at a gap of several seconds. What’s complex about the unassuming simplicity of Seidel’s pieces is the variety intrinsic in those seemingly ordinary drones — there are numerous overlapping waves in each track (to my ears, even more in “Meridian Transit” than in “Solar Midnight”), which means that when played loud, the room fills with overlapping patterns. It’s a bit like staring for a long while at some massive cliff and slowly making out the striations that have occurred over vast periods of time.

Get the full release at archive.org. More on Seidel at mysterybear.net. More on TimeTheory at archive.org, jon7.net/timetheory, and myspace.com/timetheorynetlabel. More on Wilkerson at phillipwilkerson.net and phillipwilkerson.blogspot.com.