Pseudónimo’s Sour-Syrupy Pop MP3s

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The little snippet of clicky static that opens “A Rosy Wisp of Cloud” (MP3), the middle track on the EP Terra Firme by Pseudónimo, may or may not be an actual needle hitting actual vinyl. There’s a bounce to it that suggests as much — it has that familiar feel of a sharp object finding its groove — but the collection overall is such a feat of succulent artificiality, one finds it preferable to imagine that the little buzzy clack at the start is no more a real, physical needle than the percussion that comes later on was played with actual drums — especially after the sad-robot vocoder vocal kicks in.

This is a collection of sour-syrupy melodies played a note at a time above cereal-box-trinket beats. The loungey melody that plinks through “Estória dos Dias Curtos” (MP3) could be the score to a dating-sim video game — certainly a more likely situation than it being played at a meatspace club where human beings interact — and that’s very much to its credit. Get the full set at the releasing netlabel, broque.de.

Japanese Noise-Packed MP3s

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The elegantly named record label Cock Rock Disco, home to such noisy mixmasters as Duran Duran Duran, DJ Donna Summer, and Disquiet.com favorite Drumcorps (aka Aaron Spectre), is both a commercial label and a netlabel. Its 11th and most recent free release is an intense bit of 8bit-flavored, pop-toned, mashed-up, data-packed, whimsical aggression from Tokyo-based act CDR. The album, CDR on CRD, contains 14 tracks that sound like they were sped up to aid in compression — a mix of amped up, jocular techno with found elements such as metal guitar riffs, pop melodies, and recorded dialog, not to mention a raucous sense of humor.

For example, there’s pixie-voiced “MIKUMIKU (ran ran ru mix),” in which a digital angel squeaks her lines above rampaging automated percussion, and “DANCE fuckin RAJA fuckin DANCE,” in which Bollywood-style touches make themselves heard amid the flurry of rhythmic data. CDR isn’t incapable of reflection, though he’ll still muck it up; on a track titled “shit ambient,” after a minute of soothing if canned vocal’n’synth calm he drops in pummeling, off-kilter beats that’ll have your earbuds standing on end.

The full release is available as a single archived file (ZIP), including a little movie and cover art, with additional info available at the label’s website (cockrockdisco.com). More on CDR at myspace.com/cdr and asahi-net.or.jp/~zr3a-tnmt.

Live Jazz-tronic Roam the Hello Clouds MP3

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The Australian trio Roam the Hello Clouds works a laptop into the mix. Lawrence Pike on drums and Phil Slater on trumpet collaborate with their third member, Dave Miller, who is billed with laptop, and whose primary sound sources are the live performances by Pike and Slater, which he augments in real time. The scenario recalls the role of Brian Eno during the early stages of Roxy Music, when he was, among other things, emphasizing the use of the mixing board itself as a part of the creative process. The result, as evidence by a lengthy performance posted courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation National Radio show Sound Quality (abc.net.au), brings to mind everything from late-1960s Miles Davis to the more recent digitally augmented work of Nils Petter Molvær, to the efforts of an earlier jazz-tronic trio, Miniature, which featured saxophonist Tim Berne, drummer Joey Baron, and advanced-technique cellist Hank Roberts.

Miller’s efforts are both subtle and trenchant. They’re inherent to the playing, but generally linger in the background. For example, about 14 minutes into the hour-and-a-half Sound Quality posting (MP3), an extended tone can be heard in the background, as if a note played by Slater had been plucked from thin air and then magically wrapped around the trio like a blanket, suggesting an impossible effort at circular breathing, as if Rhasaan Roland Kirk were reborn as an ambient guru. (Also included in the MP3 is an interview with the band by Sound Quality host Tim Ritchie.)

Part of what makes Miller’s light touches work so well is that he is matched by the genteel but dedicated efforts of his partners in electro-acoustic crime. Neither Pike nor Slater are show-offs. Pike is more than happy to, when time for a solo comes, focus on small clicks and the occasional tap on a drum pedal — which Miller then refracts through effects that suggest the rhythms of a distant helicopter. As for trumpeter Slater, he is as comfortable with scratchy embouchure gestures as he is with warm, lush, held tones, and Miller knows exactly how to work with him, tossing tiny sine waves into the former and lending dubby echoes to the latter. We’re blessed these days with adventurous trios, from Medeski Martin & Wood to Dirty Three. Run the Hello Clouds is fully in their league.

More on Miller at thebodyraft.com, on Pike at myspace.com/laurenzpike, Slater at philslater.com, and Roam the Hello Clouds at roamthehelloclouds.com and the group’s myspace page, myspace.com/roamthehelloclouds. Above image courtesy of the Sound Quality website — that’s Pike on the right, Slater on the left and Miller in between.

Taut Drum’n’Bass MP3s from Cycom

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The new four-track release by Cycom, titled Isotope, packs in a compressed set of drum’n’bass that despite some occasional asides for moody filigree tends to favor of spare, hard beats — and at a time when more florid d’n’b has long since become standard TV-advertising and cop-show background music, that’s a gesture worth applauding. Isotope doesn’t have the gristle and anger of more contemporary drill’n’bass or the fetid, subterranean pleasures of dubstep, but it distinguishes itself with single-minded intent and some delicate touches. “Isotope” (MP3) opens with a glitchy salvo but dives headlong into rapidfire switchback rhythms that are accented by electronic tones; kudos to Cycom (born Thomas Fleischer) for the unexpected breaks. It’s the strongest track on the set, followed closely by “Funky Giraffe” (MP3), which does its best to locate a common ground between d’n’b and fusion jazz, with warm modulations and natural drum sounds. None of the tracks are new. “Isotope,” for example, dates from 2001 and “Giraffe” from 2004, but are previously unreleased. The closing track, a “bonus” entry titled “Down the Drain,” was first was heard on an Alphacut Records release back in 2006. Get the full set and more details at the website of the releasing netlabel, plainaudio.com.

Fennesz Interview MP3 (And Video)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The Red Bull Music Academy continues to be far more than just a quickie marketing tool for the beverage manufacturer. Up recently on its website is a series of interviews recorded this year in Barcelona. Among them is one with ambient figure Fennesz, whose first release was back in the pre-laptop days of 1995, and he talks to the RBMA audience about making the transition to digital production from analog, the importance of guitars in his work, his collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, how David Toop trainspotted his rare effort in proper sampling, and much more.

Many people around me, many colleagues around me, were doing really abstract electronic stuff at that time, and melody was kind of forbidden [laughs] — and I didn’t agree with that at all.

The podcast edition (MP3) puts the Fennesz interview alongside entries with great backpacker hip-hop act James Pants and industrial-pop mainstays Front 242. The video versions of the Fennesz, pictured below, is longer than the MP3 excerpt, and include musical interludes (redbullmusicacademy.com).