Disquiet

The China-based netlabel Bypass (bp.bai-hua.org) presents Noncompliance by Japan-based Mel, who’s previously recorded for Complementary Distribution, Test Tube, and other fine netlabels. Aside from the opening Noncompliance track, “Intro,” which offers free-jazz guitar squonking (credited to Junji) above light synthetic tones (MP3), the five-track album consists entirely of Mel, alone. What follows the anomalous “Intro” is percussive electronica, from a mix of gentle chimes and truncated beats on “Molecular Clock” (MP3) to the film-cue-ready dub-lite of “Steady State” (MP3). The latter track is particularly rewarding, with its momentary breaks for ear-rattling timpani. On each track, Mel displays a penchant for deploying a modest collection of melodic and rhythmic materials in a manner that suggests compositional development without overstating the promise.

Get the full album at bp.bai-hua.org. More at Mel’s website, myspace.com/melsound.

The tension inherent in Longevity Acid Gene 1 by Room101 (aka Adam Balušík) is all about pulse. It opens with a dubbily percussive track, “LAG-1” (MP3), that’s all beat and stretch, all warbly synth elements, and pinprick pounding, and seesaw sine waves, and blips that are left to slowly fade. As such, its a gradated portrait of the spectrum of synthesis. Each track that follows “LAG-1” is another snapshot of a wide range of approaches. “LAG-1.2” (MP3) is a stereoscopic bit of strobing, like Underworld’s great “Rez” reimagined as the backing score to Nintendo DSi cartridge. The other standout track is “LAG-1.4,” as mundane as a throbbing drone can be (MP3), and all the more magnetic for its seeming ordinariness. The near hush of “LAG-1.4” is no less immersive than the glo-stick scene-setting of “LAG-1.2,” but “LAG-1.4” is concerned with surveillance, not resplendence — its pulse is virtually two beats, one at the opening, the other, after nearly five and a half minutes, at the close.

More details at the releasing netlabel Test Tube: monocromatica.com/netlabel.