There’s nothing inherently funny about instrumental hip-hop, but that didn’t stop the Stones Throw label from hooking up with Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network block, to post a free compilation, Chrome Children 2. Amid the blaxsploitation soul and word-drunk rap are several studio concoctions, including three from Madlib, two credited to his Beat Konducta moniker, the video-game-stylin’ title cut (MP3) and the fuzzy blips of “Selah’s Children” (MP3), plus a space jam credited to the Jazzistics (aka Marcus, Martin and Malcolm produced by Yesterdays New Quintet, all of who are, by some accounts, producer Madlib flying solo), with UFO keys and free horn blurts above a steadily swinging jazz kit (MP3). Also in there, the sampled funk of J.Rocc‘s “Bubbha’s Dance,” which shows how a ratty horn break can become a percussion tool through proper editing (MP3) and a purposefully sloppy faux-live living-room jam by James Pants (MP3). Electronica fans take note: two of the album’s vocal cuts were produced by Four Tet (aka Kieran Hebden), who’s so busy he makes Prefuse 73 look like a slacker: radio-ready “Happy Now?” by Aloe Blacc (MP3) and the more underground (i.e., blippy and half-spoken) “Money Motivated Movements” by Guilty Simpson (MP3). Get it all at stonesthrow.com.
Juicy Japanese MP3s
Tokyo, Japan-based musician Moxuse (born Koichiro Mori) is the author of three lightly skittering explorations of tone and rhythm that comprise the latest release from the netlabel mirakelmusik.se. Uploaded late last year, Moxuse’s set, Ito-kumo, balances the stark distinctions between foreground and background, ranging from the video-game (pachinko?) quirks of the more garrulous “Moe9” (MP3) to the tonal halos of “Eda,” which is enlivened by gentle burbles (MP3). Coming somewhere in between, perhaps closer to “Eda” than to “Moe9,” “Moe6” opens with an earful of swell that subsumes a glitchy salvo, but soon settles into a surprisingly loungey groove (MP3). More info at his homepage, moxuse.org, where he hosts a Japanese forum for the software SuperCollider, and at his youtube.com page, which includes several videos of this “automatic painting” device he created, complete with rambunctious audio accompaniment that matches the Pollock-droid creations. There’s also footage of an experimental MIDI-controlled mixer. That’s mixer as in juices, not turntables. For real.
End-of-Noise MP3s
Hmm, this sounds unfortunate. The latest release by the trenchant netlabel Noise Jihad (noisejihad.dk/netlabel) includes the following, less than promising statement: “These are the surviving recordings from the Noisejihad Festival, which marked some sort of end or break for Noisejihad.” Let’s hope it’s just a respite. In addition to a video of MaaletHelligerMidlet666 playing live for the first time in a decade, there are four lengthy performances, ranging from a quarter hour to a full hour. Eske Norholm turns in unfettered industrial maneuvers (MP3) and Dennis H. some orchestral synths that dissolve into full-frontal static (MP3). Interzone follows Dennis H.’s path from whisper to scream literally, using vocal samples as its primary source throughout (MP3). The highlight is the hour-long set by Christian S (featuring Tone), who turns in one of the quietest recordings Noise Jihad has ever posted (MP3). Sometimes, it turns out, ending with a whimper rather than a bang is a good thing.
Songs About Buildings MP3s
Based out of Columbus, Ohio, the Abandon Building label has posted over a dozen tracks from its half dozen albums thus far. Highlights include Back Ted N Ted‘s “Opening Credits” (MP3), in which a mix of acoustic and digital drums provide a rough blueprint for tentative melodic play, and Crillix‘s “False Starts,” which follows a similar blueprint but at a quarter the volume and half the speed (MP3). Also recommended are Color Cassette‘s ventures into dreamy pop electro-acoustics, as in electro beats and acoustic guitars, “Here We Go Again” (MP3) and “Passing Time” (MP3). Several of those tracks employ vocals more for texture than verbal content.
The Abandon Building catalog is more varied than those tunes suggest. It also includes DoF’s plaintive new-folk, Michael Johnson’s remarkably Eno-id pop, the jokey hip-hop of Nimble and Set in Sand, and Sheveks Masada’s often club-ready electronica. More info at abandonbuilding.com.
Work-in-Progress MP3s
Early last November, Richard Kamerman brought his Trace Being blog to a close, commenting on his frustration. It was an unfortunate decision not only for listeners to home-brew, workshop electronic creations, but especially those interested in explanatory annotation. In the posts he’d done throughout 2006, Kamerman showed a gift for clarifying the methods to his music, sometimes technically precise, as when laying out the materials involved, sometimes procedurally insightful, as when pondering his own compositional development. Interestingly, his blog was hosted by the netlabel homophoni.com, where it was listed as a release, right between sets by Asher and Joe Panzer.
Kamerman was also reflexively self-deprecating, as when he wrote, “Although this track isn?t the most musically inspired, the textures I got from the technique seem particularly cool as a sound source for live processing.” For his final post, he uploaded a “Duet for Cymbals and Hacked Electronics,” about four and a half minutes of ear-ringing bell tones and some sparkles akin to a circular saw in action (MP3).
He explained that this final entry on his musical diary was also something of a first, in that the track in question isn’t a live take but something edited together in post-production: “I created the best short statement I could from what I had at hand.” Here’s looking forward to his next venture.