| #648 |
|
2003 |
Perilous 648 In the new issue of Stealth Magazine, Sydney hip hop pioneer Blaze, launches a tirade against the fascination with new ‘urban’ producers like Timberland and the Neptunes. It makes for interesting reading and extends beyond his Stealth column into his music reviews in the issue also. At one point he asks why music needs to be judged on whether or not it is progressive rather than whether or not it is ‘just good’. And it’s a valid point, in a time when computers and rapid advances in telecommunications have meant we’ve all had an obsession with new-ness, futurism, modernity, sometimes we lose track of the purpose of what art and music might be made for. Rather than some experiment in new software sound processing, or ‘innovative’ cut and pasting from the easily accessible global palette of sounds, Blaze is right that music needs to be judged on better criteria. And so we come to an excellent new compilation of largely instrumental beats from Melbourne called Ants Farm Aphids. The compilation is the first release on the Symbiotic label, and features productions related to the members of Tzu, Curse Ov Dialect, Music vs Physics and their many side projects. Like the Music vs Physics album of late 2001, there are echoes of the more successful records from MoWax and Pussyfoot in the mid 90s, and tracks like Pitch Bureau’s Left Handed, Pasobionic’s Echoes Of Blue, Guitarkus’ Balance Of Nature, LKK’s Listen, and Echo’s Foetus opt for epic spacious strings, piano or blurred voice arrangements over loping breaks – ideas that were explored in the mid to late 90s period. Others betray the hip hop fascinations of their producers, Dengar’s Arch Nemesis is an instrumental awaiting bold MC, whilst the two tracks with MCs, Curse Ov Dialect’s House Of Clocks and Beatrix’s Porcupine with Vulk and Raceless from Curse, carry the weird freak hop tropes you would expect from Curse – nursery rhyme nonsensical rhymes and an over abundance of odd voices. The standout track of the compilation is the dark and bleak Dusted from Melbourne’s Terminal Sound System that marries sub 80bpm crunching breaks with some evil rinsing bass drops that would not be out of place coming from Tipper. It’s a simple track with an atmosphere carried by a hollow synth like a wind through a graveyard and a piano couplet out of a horror film. The compilation should be available stores that carry local independent product, and is refreshing for its lack of glitches or flashy DSP science over substance concerns. In many ways the new EP from Pole, 45/45 is similar. Now signed to Mute, Pole has moved away from his trademark broken filter glitched up stressed dubs and in the direction of stripped back minimal beat tracks. The soft dub styled chords still appear but the beats are consistent and on the four EP tracks click away like slowed down dancehall-influenced typewriters. It sounds like such a low gloss record for Pole and in some ways quite anonymous. More alert is the new Kit Clayton EP When Cedars Fall recorded for Soul Jazz’s new electronic vinyl series. A 12” with two tracks, Clayton, a software engineer for Cycling74, makers of [], drops two lovely dub techno numbers with his trademark slightly off kilter beats and soft squishy synths, and in the end turns up sounds that don’t seem so far removed from the rest of the Soul Jazz catalogue. Apparently the next in the series will be from Clayton’s regular San Francisco collaborator Sutekh. It will be a series to watch. And to wrap up this column, we have New Zealand’s Black Seeds, a live many-membered (fnarr fnarr) dub/funk crew live at Frigid on Sunday April 6 followed by a special night on April 13 featuring some of the many designers who will be in town for the Semi Permanent conference. On the 13th Rinzen deliver both video and sound performances along with Brisbane’s Ponyloaf, Sydney’s Given vs Ray Diode (Dumphuck and Alphatown) and Superlight, plus Ollo. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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