Avant-garde musician Matthew Herbert welcomes spring with the release of the first installment in his “One” trilogy, entitled One One. The album’s title is fitting, because the man of many samples has chosen to use just one here — himself. Herbert wrote, performed, produced and recorded everything on the album, and also decided to add vocals in the mix, sung all by his lonesome. Sounding somewhere between Alexis Taylor and Erlend Øye, Herbert lulls with soft vocals and self assured lyrics detailing a day in the life of one man.
For those hoping for the return of Herbert’s signature deep house, you’ll have to wait for the last installment in his trilogy, One Club, because with One One, Herbert displays his soft side, and in many ways this record could be considered a sort of eclectic folk album. Each track has an intimate feel to it, as Herbert confides in his listener, asking: “Who knows where this journey will be taking us? Who cares?” on “Leipzig”, and croons about his second home in the stripped-down and emotional “Berlin”.
Each track’s title is the name of a city, and this quiet collection of songs is like a travel guide through Herbert’s thoughts and memories. Highlights are “Dublin”, “Porto” and “Milan”, which best reveal his knack for melody and newfound vocal chops. For those of you looking for a subtle and introspective album by an ever-changing musician, One One is for you. Overall it is slightly forgettable, but it’s a nice album worth checking out, even if only to hear Herbert sing. Peace.
Ross Birchard aka Hud Mo played to a wild and packed house at Wrongbar Thursday night. Returning to Toronto after two years for his proper Hogtown ‘debut’, the young producer (who recently released his full-length Butter on Warp), had the crowd acting as if they were at a rock concert. People were crowd surfing, moshing, jumping up on stage, and just going ape shit as he ripped through tracks from his last few releases. It was a great vibe and Hud Mo seemed totally excited at the capacity crowd’s reaction as he threw down his bass heavy crunked beats and “wonky” sounds. To be honest, I find Butter hard to listen to all the way through. It’s a really eclectic mix of almost too many things slapped together, however, it totally worked live, and I was glad I was able to catch this upstart musician at a small venue, cuz he’s about to blow right the fuck up.
A big props has to go out to local promoter and DJ mymanhenri who has helped bring some great talent to Toronto: Flying Lotus, Falty DL, Nosaj Thing, Mayer Hawthorne, Joker, DâM-FunK, and Hudson Mo are just some of the artists he’s helped usher in over the last year. He’s becoming known as a tastemaker around town and deserves all the cred he can get. Please keep it up my man! Good times all around.
Warp Records stalwarts Autechre return with their tenth, count ‘em, tenth album. Rob Brown and Sean Booth usher in the new decade with the complex and intriguing “Oversteps” — a melodic and strangely emotive record that emits far different sonic vibrations than the duo’s last three full-lengths.
There’s no conscious way one can fully understand the compositional mind of Autechre, you just put them on and know that patience will reward. But with this new album the duo’s vibe will immediately pull you in and have you convinced machines must feel love before opening track “r ess” is done. Their signature klings, klangs, and syncopated rhythms are in full effect here, and with repeated listens they become infectious, full of darkened corners strobed with light. Yet, one wouldn’t call this a beat heavy album at all, the tempo is more subdued and textured, which reveals a definite maturation of the duo’s sound and synthesis. All this to say for non-fans: this is Autechre’s most accessible album in over a decade, and for non-non fans: their most solid release since “LP5”.
Tracks “see on see” and “O=0″ are the most heartfelt electronic songs I’ve heard in quite some time. I have no specific explanation as to why, but they hit hard and true and feature those brief moments of light I was talking about amidst darker and more heady tracks like “ilanders”, “known(1)”, and the fantastic “Treale”. My cousin Chris said he was unsure what to make of “Oversteps” after his first playthrough, but after a few days and a couple more ‘relaxed’ listens he likened it to BOC meets Blade Runner. I find the comparison fitting, and highly recommend the album for all fans of more challenging electronic music.
Another win for Ae. Please play Toronto this year.
Co-founder of Dial Records, Paul Kominek, has finally released a full-length under his Pawel moniker. The self-titled long player was years in the making, but well worth the wait, because it’s a surprisingly tight and refreshing collection of smooove tech-house beats reminiscent of Audion, Theorem, and his Dial buddies Sten and Pantha du Prince. This album grows on me with each listen and has been a daily staple on my playlist for weeks now.
Tracks like “Coke” and “Dawn” get things cooking with that classic Kompaktesque four on the four vibe that’ll have you up and groovin’, until he slows it all down with “Mate” — a beautifully atmospheric and subdued composition marking the album’s middle. Kominek then turns it right back up with “Muscles” and “Crillon”, the disc’s heaviest hitters, and closes shop with two excellent tracks: the emotive and pulsing “Kramnik” and the fantastic, vocally-charged, “Wasting My Time”, which may actually be the album’s highlight. Kominek’s music fits nicely in the space left open on Dial after Pantha du Prince’s departure to Rough Trade, and with Pawel’s debut sounding as true as it does, Pantha need not be sorely missed.
Inaudible teamed up with Headphone Commute and scored an interview with Kompakt Records founder and electronic music legend Wolfgang Voigt to discuss Kompakt’s latest Pop Ambient collection, the infamous Cologne sound, and his work as Gas!
I am new to this whole interview thang, and realized afterwards that my questions kind of suck because they don’t allow room for much elaboration, but hey . . . I’m learning and still pretty damn happy with it.
Post-rock darlings Tortoise played to a packed house at Lee’s Palace on Thursday night in Toronto and effortlessly showed the crowd why they are one of the best bands in the business. Playing choice tracks from their extensive repertoire, they had us hanging on every note, synth line, and cymbal crash — and I gotta say, the crowd at Lee’s was one of the most agreeable Toronto audiences I’ve experienced in recent memory. Strangers cheered and slapped each other five, all of us momentarily morphing into a contented collective that was simply enraptured by Tortoise’s good vibes.
Tortoise are professional musicians that love what they do, and it’s wonderfully apparent on stage, as they’re grooving and smiling and rocking out a fabulously tight set. With two drum kits up front, and synths, Vibraphone, guitars, and an electronic xylophone set up around them, the quintet played tracks from their latest release “Beacons of Ancestorship”, and fed the crowd hits from “TNT” and “Standards”. They came out for two encores and ended with one of my all time faves, “Glass Museum”. It was an emotional, nostalgic, and mature set that never failed to impress. Simply put, you can’t go wrong seeing these guys.
Tortoise and I have a long history together. I have been with them since the beginning. I’ve seen them play live 7 or 8 times. I saw them at The Magic Stick in Detroit for their “Millions Now Living” tour way back when, where they showed up on stage silent like automatons with little headlamps and played “Djed” in its entirety. Jeff Parker wasn’t even with them yet. And now over a decade later, they’ve only gotten tighter and classier at their craft, and it’s amazing that at the same time they remind me of good times and great memories from the past, they’re also launching me into this new and bright decade. Love ’em.
Kompakt Records kicks off the new year with the tenth installment in its annual Pop Ambient series — a decade of densely layered drones, tones, and sounds, showcasing the best artists making music in modern classical and ambient genres. The compilation is curated each year by label head and music legend, Wolfgang Voigt (aka Gas), and has basically been a staple in my morning and late evening playlists for an entire decade.
The musical discoveries I have made because of this yearly comp are unparalleled — over the years the series has acted as a who’s who in forward thinking electronic compositions that aren’t concerned with beats, bass, or the dancefloor. Artists like Marsen Jules, Klimek, Andrew Thomas, Markus Guentner, Donnacha Costello, Triola, and Thomas Fehlmann have all been mainstays throughout the decade long series, and all artists I respect and adore.
The opening track for the 2010 edition starts with quite possibly the best Marsen Jules track I have ever heard. The aptly titled “The Sound of One Lip Kissing” sweeps from right to left channel and builds around a single dark and reverberating chord that is accompanied by the hesitant tinkle of piano to amazing effect. Brock Van Whey is welcomed into the Pop Ambient family this year and lulls listeners with two beautiful tracks under his bvdub moniker. “Lest You Forget” follows the opening track and offers a sense of air and light, after Marsen Jules’ somewhat ominous beginning. Van Whey also closes the album with the sprawling “Will You Know Where to Find Me”. It features haunting vocals and rich delay that peacefully dissipates as the 17-minute track comes to an end, leaving you calmed and happily brooding.
Kompakt’s own Dettinger, returns with “Therefore”, his first new song in nearly a decade — a smooth and droney track that features a slight hi-hat shuffle buried deep in the mix. Label head, Wolfgang Voigt also shows up with the excellent “Zither und Horn”, which sounds like nothing I’ve heard from him before. It’s a pastoral and string-based track that feels more traditionally “song-like” in its composition, and much different than his work as Gas. Offerings from DJ Koze, The Orb, and Jürgen Paape are equally as strong, and overall, this is another sterling edition to an already fantastic oeuvre of ambient music.
INAUDIBLE has expanded a touch as of late and is now writing music reviews for Juno Records. Click on the album covers to check ’em out. The Scuba mix is dope and the new Pantha du Prince is fucking fantastique!
Scuba – Sub:stance Pantha du Prince
I also had the pleasure of doing an interview with Rameses III and reviewed the band’s latest album “I Could Not Love You More” for Headphone Commute. Click on the cover to magically take you there. And thanks for reading everyone.
Hendrik Weber aka Pantha du Prince returns with his follow-up to the much acclaimed “This Bliss” avec “Black Noise” and it does not disappoint. With chimes and marimba acting as aural touchstones throughout, “Black Noise” shows the further evolutions of Weber’s melodic-robotic dichotomy and his penchant for deep and infectious bass. And speaking of infectious, “Stick To My Side”, Weber’s collaboration with Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox will leech itself into your memory banks and have you humming and singing it for days. It’s a truly great crossover hit that is just as groovy as it is catchy, and will no doubt help Pantha gain some new listeners.
Beyond that, tracks like “The Splendour”, “A Nomad’s Retreat”, and “Satellite Sniper” are amazing 4/4 burners that build carefully and envelop you in lush tones and Detroit-tinged techno beats. There’s much more warmth to “Black Noise” than “This Bliss”, and it’s somewhat reminiscent of The Field’s second album in its execution and musical aesthetic.
Weber seems a bit of a Byronic Romantic. The concept of the album stems from a trip to the Swiss Alps with some musician friends to record sounds and philosophize about music, technology, and silence. Next door to where they were staying was an enormous pile of debris, the remains of a landslide that had buried an entire village, and this is where the album’s concept was born – with the notion that ‘black noise’ is heard like a sonic omen before a natural disaster.
The second half of the album is more sedate, yet still no less compelling. The last two tracks “Im Bann” and “Es Schneit” are warm and melodic come down tracks, “Es Schneit” working those chimes into a subtle frenzy before dissipating like smoke in the air. “Black Noise” is another excellent release from Pantha du Prince, and another great electronic album for 2010. Dig it.
Leftfield electronic producer Kieran Hebden returns this year with his true follow-up to breakout record “Rounds” with “There is Love in You”, the first great album of 2010.
The abstract organic melodies meshed with beats, noise, and weird samples that made “Rounds” so compelling have returned in full flourish. I kinda lost interest with Hebden after “Rounds”, but he returned bright and glowing on my radar last year with his fabulous collabaration with Burial (their track “Moth” being my favourite single of 2009), and so I felt it was time to give him another try. I’m glad I did because as soon as “There is Love in You” begins with the beautiful stuttering female vocals on “Angel Echoes” I was immediately pulled in. What a great opener, and it just gets better from there. The driving two-step beat of the nine-minute “Love Cry”, will have you up and shaking booty in your living room, as the track builds to a fractured 4/4 tempo and female vocals purr the song’s title over and over. It’s hypnotic and beautifully produced and will no doubt be subject to many a remix. A definite hitter of a track.
The album fluctuates from beat-oriented tracks like “Sing” and the awesome “Plastic People” to more esoteric compositions like “This Unfolds” and “Circling”, which build on loops of sound and guitar, and could end up sounding jarring in the hands of one less skilled in his craft. Closing track “She Just Likes To Fight” is the album’s most accessible, an almost poppy, guitar-based song reminiscent of The Sea and Cake that ends the album quite nicely.
Kieran Hebden has released one hell of a satisfying recording, and he’s set an excellent standard for electronic music in 2010.
Bring it. Love it.
Check out a live version of “Angel Echoes” from a session done with the BBC’s Radio One…
INAUDIBLE 
