Disquiet

When is a netlabel not a netlabel? When its first releases largely predated the term’s rise in popularity, and when those occasional at best releases appear less as virtual albums than as unexpected epistles in sound from exotic lands, all of which is to say: when the label’s name is “term,” the free-download arm of the 12k Records, which is run by musician Taylor Deupree.

Just up is a three-track set, 0/the/r, by 0/r, the act consisting of Nosei Sakata (aka *0) in collaboration with Richard Chartier. Each of the tracks is taken from an out-of-print collection. Thus, while meatspace record labels are increasingly hip to using free MP3s as a loss leader to attract potential customers, term is employing it as an archival technology.

The first entry, “trackb” (MP3), taken from a 2004 edition of Contemporary Music Review, has a spongy feel, with springy sounds fluctuating below a high-pitched wave (caution: the wave can be irritating, the aural equivalent of burning the skin on the top of your mouth with a hot slice of pizza). The second, “untitled…” (MP3), off Minima-List (List, 2002), is an exercise in microsonic stereoscopic play, with tiny pitter patters and short bursts of sounds threading around in 3D space. And the third, “untitled” (MP3), from Between Two Points, released in 2001 on 12k, makes the second track sound utterly mellifluous by comparison, so blank is this one’s canvas. The delicacy of these latter two is quite striking. More info at 12k.com/term.

It’ll be interesting to track the response to Alta Infidelidad‘s new release on the Thinner netlabel, Cactus y Volcanes (thinner.cc). Will it appeal to fans or detractors of the sort of music that Thinner usually traffics in, a realm of gently percolating minimal techno that for all its attention to detail would, often as not, sound right at home in a fashionable boutique, or backing up a stylish TV advertisements that aim to conflate high-minded consumerism with philosophical repose. What distinguishes Cactus y Volcanes is how despite initial appearances, it’s minimal techno constructed from broken beats. There’s nothing wrong with your MP3 player. It’s just been highjacked and taken to the outer limits of what some techno fans might find palatable. And by doing so, it meets fans of experimental music more than half way: a measure doesn’t go by that doesn’t seem ready to disrupt its own locomotion, a particulate sound doesn’t enter the stereo field without contributing to a dizzying haze.

Late last month, the No Type label reappeared following an extended absence with not one but six new releases, the immediate highlight being a tribute to musique concrete figure Francis Dhomont (see the February 24 Disquiet Downstream entry). Also among the releases was a three-track document of a live prepared-CD performance by Ensemble Camp, a group effort led by by David Turgeon and also featuring A_dontigny, Erick D’Orion, Christophe Havard and Hugues Germain. While the audio has that distant quality of second- and third-hand sound, the montages that Ensemble Camp produces are probably enabled by the slight echo, which allows the disparate sonic elements, considerable in their range, to overlap and meld. Listen as snapshot vocals collide with dank rhythms, building up to a sudden silence that’s all sudder and awe. The first two tracks deal with elements associated with pop and industrial music, all beats and melodic cues. But the final one, “Evocation de la jeune artiste en deesse des apparences” (MP3), is built almost entirely from string sections of orchestral and chamber CDs, cut’n’pasted into a dense arrangement for an imaginary symphony. Get all three at notype.com.