Adoption: “Hair”
May 21, 2013
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If you’re looking for an antidote to the sudden influx of pop “noise” music coming out of the laptop underground, the Copenhagen duo known as Adoption has 10 sharp anti-cures that will cut your throat on the way down and hit your gut like its incomprehensible verbal scrawls have something to say. That won’t really help anything, but that’s kind of the idea. Adoption’s music draws on a hardcore, grindcore heritage to create fractured constellations of heavily designed aggression. With each track of Nineteen Ninety coming in hard at an average of 32.1 seconds a piece, the result is a piece of out with a loud, louder, loudest approach and a staying power that outsizes its tiny temporal imprint. So, let’s start you off in the middle at track 5, titled “Hair,” and see how that works out.
Nineteen Ninety is now available from Skrot Up and on Bandcamp
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: Adoption, Copenhagen, Denmark, noise, Review, Reviews, skrot up
Reviews
Rarely has a wild audio ride been so full of twists and turns as the one we undertake with the latest music by Femminielli. Shanghai, C’est Beau is a beautiful, spooky, and lysergic trip of a record. Evoking Serge Gainsbourg with his French-Canadian whisper vocal style, while putting that influence through instrumental passages of noir-disco and new age synth tone colors, Femminielli’s created a work of real depth and something that can be listened to on repeat for hours. Throughout the experience of time spent deciphering his compositions, we were never clear if the darkness inside the music is meant to terrify because it is almost as equally gorgeous. When beats do pop out of the haze they don’t invite us to dance so much as to sit upright, look straight ahead, and pay close attention. One of the better releases thus far this year.
Shanghai, C’est Beau is now available from Clan Destine Records
Written by Jeff Daily
Tags: berlin, C'est Beau, Canada, clan destine, Femminielli, Germany, Review, Shanghai
Reviews
I think we all can agree that enough time has passed since life has moved to online space to assume that this process can be reversed. Maksim Bykanov from Belgorod region looks at the TV industry through the eyes of a man who is obsessed with all that tumblr fashion like vaporwave, seapunk and many other shades of modern hypnagogic music. His recent work «Archived Location» is the compilation of songs recorded during the past year.
If we think about this zip-archive as a modern installation, the closest thing that comes to mind is a TV that was not switched off since 80s. Wild fashion shows, erotica, dramas and non-fiction movies in a weird mix. Here Maksim adds some elements of Japanese culture as a catalyst that confuses the listener and speeds the perception of bittertv trash. With all the retrospectiveness, these songs do not copy the styles of music of that era, but rather belong to the present time.
Listen to “F1 Japan GP” here
Bittertv’s archived location is now available on Bandcamp
Written by Dmirty Vesnin
Tags: bittertv, experimental, house, Review, Reviews, russia
Reviews
Tom Hall’s Beyond Light, his 2nd release under the AXXONN moniker, is a clear demonstration of his flexibility. Since relocating from Australia to LA a few years ago, his output has touched on wide smattering of electronic genres. The only truly consistent factor of his work, apart that reliable diversity and his keen sound choices, has been an ongoing dedication to experimentalism that supercedes the conventions at hand and turns each composition into unique opportunity for a uniquely impactful execution. Case in point: “Sequel to Acid” is a maximalist track that melds big, synced up synths with a hyrbid song structure and a live feel that eradicate any looming sense of an out of the can dancefloor banger. As the track begins to explode into a branching melodic mass, the layered projections and polychrome flashes of the video draft in behind, then blaze forward with force. This track has more in common with power metal than some popular dance genres, but is still well suited to micro raves held in the confines of your own skull. Not a suggested experience for people sensitive to bright colors and off color twists on popular ideas.
Stream the full album here:
Beyond Light will be available from Sonoptik on October 19th
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: australia, AXXONN, beyond light, los angeles, premiere, Review, tom hall
Reviews
Kyoto, Japan’s Cuushe isn’t afraid of a little complexity, even more restraint, and a healthy dose of bliss. Those sensibilities have resulted in a contemplative and astutely nuanced music that fully capitalizes on her soft but controlled alto vocals to shape tracks which are as self-contained as they are sprawling. Turns out that there’s a whole lot to love in the happy dream pop zone between spartan minimalism and chilly effects slabs. “I Dreamt about Silence” embodies that balance as it flows unchallenged through its six minutes. From the opening notes, it’s clear that this track ideal fodder for daydreaming, but the cliffhanger ending only makes it more so. After all, we can’t have you staring out of windows all day.
Girl you know that I am here but the dream is available as a set of three three-inch CDRs from flau and features remixes by Julia Holter, Motion Sickness of Time Travel, Kixnare, Teen Daze, Botany and Blackbird Blackbird
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: Blackbird Blackbird, Botany, cuushe, dream pop, Japan, Julia Holter, Kixnare, Kyoto, Motion Sickness of Time Travel, Review, Reviews, teen daze
Reviews
London three piece Bomber Jackets’ new Centurion Travel 7″ EP delivers a clearer, crisper take on the syncopated casio shock treatments of last year’s home recorded Larching cassette. Along with the revamped instrumentals from fellow Pheromoans bandmate Dan Bolger and Sian Dorrier of Plug, vocalist Russell Walker’s droll delivery has taken on a more playful aspect, dipping around the beats with a careful awareness of melody and timing that only contributes to the feel that if the band chose to crank the tempo, slap on some vocal effects, and play four times as many notes, these tracks wouldn’t be too far out of place next to your fav semi-balearic dance hit du jour. Instead, the trio presents a gloomier reflection of the spare parts of pop culture they so avidly and selectively vampirize. As the only previously unrecorded track on the EP, “Male Bimbos” makes the most of the upgrade from mid-fi upgrade expands on their often misanthropic mystique. Give it a listen while you stare at a stranger on the street and see if the look that appears on your face doesn’t creep them out.
The Centurion Travel EP is available on 7″ vinyl (with download code) from Night School Records and for streaming on Bandcamp
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: Bomber Jackets, Europe, London, minimalism, Review, Reviews
Reviews
Live improvisation of the experimental ambient variety is captured in a new release by Russian label Full of Nothing. Featuring the collective spontaneity of UK’s Woodpecker Wooliams, psychedelic Italian act Golden Cup, and Russian duo Love Cult (Anya Kuts/Ivan Afanasyev), the album is titled In Russia because, well, why get fancy? The improbable family of auditory ecstasy creators performed in Moscow, Saransk, Saint Petersburg, and the Baltic’s in April 2011 and two of the improvs make up this set. “Saransk” and “Saint Petersburg” form a satisfyingly big picture listening experience. The improvisations utilize intuition because this music could easily have come from one composer’s mind instead of four individual, yet clearly likeminded, souls. Nary a single sound dominates, as balance is remarkably tight and controlled. Field recordings evoke eerie forests of ancient histories; electronic squeals and drones add texture, tonal dynamics, and movement to both compositions. We travel with the performers and are taken on a journey we won’t soon forget. The only question left to ask is, are there recordings from the rest of the tour?
In Russia is available on Bandcamp
Written by Jeff Daily
Tags: England, Europe, Golden Cup, Italy, love cult, Review, Reviews, russia, UK, Woodpecker Wooliams
Reviews
The prolific New Brunswick popsters known as Honeydrum just released a video for “Can’t Wait To Meet You,” the second track off of their Do You Party? EP. The vid represents the bands’ first stab at the “classic” music video format, cutting back and forth between the band playing/chilling in a very deliberate way on a stately lawn and a semi-narrative montage of a house party that’s replete with the strange formality, obligatory free booze, and measured jubilation of one of those engagement parties that gets increasingly common towards your mid-20s. That tale comes into focus, even as track emerges from filters and delay to reveal a lazy day jammer that hits its stride and calls it a day just under the two minute marker. This blend of punk terseness and heavily affected NJ guitar music doesn’t revolutionize either, but does represent an approach that bears exploration.
Honeydrum’s Do You Party? EP and Stranger Calls 7″ are now available from AMDiscs
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: honeydrum, North America, Review, United States
Reviews
Finnish/Brooklyn-ish producer Albert Swarm has returned with the a new track titled “The Sea That Calls All Things Unto Her.” AS recorded this track at the same time as he was crafting his last release, the Held EP. It’s interesting to speculate as to why this track went unreleased then, though it can’t have anything to do with its quality, but we’re certainly glad it’s here now. At first, the aquatic gurgling that begins the track masks the deeper rumblings beneath its surface. These pieces slowly emerge to form slow moving drifts of synth tones, marshaled along by the martial sway of the steady drums. The build is slow and steady, until the first beat breaks halfway through the track, which allows the melodic elements to take a firmer hold. Suggested uses include: a substitute for the opening minutes [the part before the super evil T-Rex] of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” segment in Disney’s Fantasia, a soundtrack for watching jellyfish at your local aquarium, or just good old fashioned chilling out.
Watch for a new release from Albert Swarm on Ceremony in the coming months
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: Albert Swarm, brooklyn, Europe, finland, North America, Review, Reviews, The Sea That Calls All Things Unto Her
Reviews
Taschism is a rock and roll duo out of Zagreb, Croatia. It’s two members, Hrvoje and Eva, started recording just a few months ago and quickly resulted in their first song, “Le jean sale,” a track with edges rough enough and swagger big enough to act as the opening track to many a garage rock mixtape yet to be made. Don’t you dare, we called it first. The track kicks off simply enough with a buzzy groove and simple drum line, growing a buoyantly hyperactive energy, until finally unleashing it in bursts of disorted vocals and manic guitar. The video that Hrvoje stitched together out of old (mostly French) films and TV reinforces that good-time-that-could-go-too-far feel. We’re looking forward to more from Taschism. After all, they’ve already convinced us that Zagreb could be a really great place to party or, as Hrvoje puts it, “I bet that seems kind of exotic to you, but I can tell you there are some real cool bands here.”
Watch for more from Taschism on their Facebook page
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: Croatia, Europe, Review, Reviews, Taschism, Zagreb
