Trentemøller - Into the Great Wide Yonder [2010]

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The Chemical Brothers - Further [2010]

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Booka Shade - More!

Booka Shade have reached a point where pretty much everything they do-- both as musicians and heads of dance imprint Get Physical-- are scrutinized. And in the past few years, the scrutiny hasn't always been positive. The duo's last record, The Sun & Neon Light, found them out in front of the decks aiming to craft a crossover techno-pop album. Depending on who you asked it was either a brave experiment and stab at something new or a frustrating move from a duo responsible for some of techno's best 21st century tracks. Whatever the case, Booka Shade's stock is down after Neon Light, a sometimes brooding affair that delivered an attempt at growing an organic heart in the midst of their robotic gullets. The guys even sang on the thing.
More! is a re-donning of their producer/percussionist hats. Bona fide beats dominate the record and the vocals are sparse and handled by guests like Yello and Chelonis R. Jones. But, at the same time, there truly is more on this record-- there are more electro-inspired keyboard lines and mood changes. This record can't be called "minimal." That said, the tracks here are missing the melodic weight that lent Booka Shade singles like "In White Rooms" or "Body Language" their crossover panache. Those synthesizer lines-- once delayed, drunken, and enigmatic-- helped tracks feel spontaneous (a feeling reinforced by Booka Shade playing live percussion on stage).
Synths throughout the record are more punctual, like more like a Berlin train than a gyrating body. This facet seems to be used even to comic effect, as on the opening "Havanna Sex Dwarf", whose staccato squelches and robot singing deadpan the unspoken words novelty song. It's certainly a weird cut to begin an album by a group usually constrained to the darkness of the club or a late-night living room. The record really gets going with the brooding "Regenerate", but from there it's all pretty standard fare, with four-on-the-floor beats at inconsistent levels of innovation and a few Kraftwerkian synth lines ping-ponging throughout the tracks. Jones turns in an uncharacteristically low-key performance on "Bad Love", which might have passed for an early 80s R&B hit. Yello vocalist Dieter Meier grumbles his way through "Divine", not requiring a government-issued ID to remind you that he's 65.
But for the most part, the beats and the synths are the stars of the show here. They're not as compelling as in the past-- maybe only four albums into their career, the duo is preferring to color inside the lines. But for all those hits and misses, fans will keep listening, keep scrutinizing. Booka Shade gained that blessing, or the curse, as the result of consistent innovation.
pitchfork.com
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CARIBOU - SWIM [2010]

In his decade-long career, Caribou's Dan Snaith has fluidly moved between genres like folktronica, shoegaze, krautrock, and 1960s sunshine pop, assimilating their most familiar traits until they're practically in his DNA. His albums have felt warm, loose, and ecstatic (especially 2003's still-career-best Up in Flames), despite Snaith's behind-the-boards meticulousness.
Snaith's latest, Swim, is even heavier on the precise sonic detail, and it's all the more impressive for it. Made with help from kindred spirits including Four Tet's Kieran Hebden, Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan, and Born Ruffians' Luke Lalonde, it was borne out of a desire to create "dance music that sounds like it's made out of water." Swim is darker both in tone and spirit than its predecessor, 2007's day-glo Andorra, swapping expansive drum-circle arrangements and ebullience for chilly rhythms and a bummed-out disposition. Easy entrance points here are scarcer than on any of Snaith's previous full-lengths-- as with 2005's kraut-centric The Milk of Human Kindness, repeat listens are key.
The record kicks off with its most accessible moment, "Odessa". Seasick bass, snatches of flute and guitar, and Snaith's mannered patter combine to give the song a pop-centric lean. But the song's easy appeal makes it easy to miss important details, like the ghosted acid-house bleat and lyrics about a break-up ("Taking the kids/ Driving away/ Turning 'round the life she let him siphon away") that establish Swim's bleary-eyed atmosphere. Lyrically, Snaith seems preoccupied with relationship-related indecision and ennui-- a noticeable departure from Andorra's moony-eyed devotionals. On the LP's other highlight, "Kaili", Snaith muses on a couple ruefully growing old together. Elsewhere, divorce and crumbling relationships permeate "Found Out" (whose female protagonist suffers hopelessness as "she knows she'll be there on her own") and empty-nest song "Hannibal".
Lonely feelings abound, as Snaith employs textures and compositional tricks from minimal techno, house, and disco to convey this distant melancholia. The harshly juxtaposed interplay of beats on "Found Out" make for punch-drunk club music, "Leave House" unfolds with LCD Soundsystem's dance-rock know-how, and the warning horns of "Hannibal" give way to a sequined breakdown deserving of any side-long disco edit. Unlike many artists who attempt to dive headlong into the genre, Snaith demonstrates a deep understanding of dance music-- not just how it works, but why, right down to its most pleasurable idiosyncratic tics.
This historian's grasp, combined with the way Snaith's soft, out-of-phase vocals seem to hover over his productions, inevitably brings to mind Arthur Russell. But while Russell's spirit is indeed felt throughout Swim, Snaith's sonic heart still belongs to hash-laced psych, from the drone and Gong-worthy chimes that run through "Bowls" to the vocal chants that break up "Sun"'s tech-house throb. Proof that, despite his chameleonic tendencies, Dan Snaith retains his singular identity as an artist-- and Swim is a reminder that even at his most challenging, the man's compositional capabilities can dazzle.
pitchfork.com

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BLACK DICE - BEACHES AND CANYONS [2002]

"New York City is a laser light show. It is everything you could conjure, juvenile and immediate, like the overblown store-bought psychedelia of Pink Floyd: mall and science museum culture. Like a proudly brandished tie-dyed t-shirt, Black Dice dances and hums its way from a Phish concert crowd straight to the Knitting Factory by avoiding the funk, amping the jams, and turning up the volume.
Black Dice's Beaches and Canyons is full of spaced-out planetarium moments, drenched in high-pitched squeals and thunderous low end. "Seabird" is a tone poem: the repeated sound/image of flight and wings is warped until only creaks remain. Repetitive knob-turning seems to conjure animals who appear to be fighting. The frogs always win.
The album generally tends to eschew pounding hardcore rhythms, employing beats in unique and clever ways throughout the compositions to keep them vital. The drums are very effective throughout in their ability to add presence to the ongoing loops, adding a pounding heart to the web of tortured sounds and affected melodies. While the violence seems to be almost entirely washed away from their previous efforts, the impressive aspect of this LP is its ability to translate the live show for which the Black Dice is primarily known into a private show-- an ideal recording. These songs seem more like juxtapositions, blueprints, instructions.
With Beaches and Canyons, Black Dice fully embrace the chanting, pounding and moaning of the Grateful Dead: lovin' the jam. These songs, all of which I've heard played live in the past six or so months, are imminently changeable, fluid, and interesting. The songs reveal themselves in subtle ways, hiding their identities for minutes at a time, then briefly reappearing as themselves throughout the song, as a slightly repeating pattern or token sound. The songs go out of and back into themselves in a manner similar to John Coltrane's late-era renditions of "My Favorite Things": the crowd in Japan, stunned by an hour-long take on Rodgers & Hammerstein, suddenly remember what they're enjoying when the theme returns as a slurred parade of squeaked notes.
"The Dream is Going Down" is Black Dice at its evocative best. At the end, the song breaks down, like any good trip, into its most primal elements: Hisham pounds away on the drums, Aaron hums and half-sings through thick delay while Bjorn and Eric shriek and wail on guitar, voice, and effects. "Big Drop" points to Black Dice's most violent impulses, spreading seven or eight grindcore melodies over the course of nearly 17 minutes. It seems to be all beach here, too-- ebbing, flowing, and following the water. The screams are balanced with falsetto moaning, which falls into itself, collapsing, canyoning, ending.
"Endless Happiness" is a mess of recorder sounds and chiming, ring-modulated guitar, as well as the heavy bass swells for which Aaron is known. The percussion kicks in halfway through the track, and the recorder begins to sound Ayler-esque while the modulations and bass swells stay constant. The loops reach a frantic pace before dying, leaving a bed of static dry air. Air is overcome by water, and the end of the track is a thorough brain-cleaning, a nice and clear literal representation of the 'beaches' component. The collage of water samples lasts for several minutes-- a lucid translation from thought into music of a serenity Black Dice rarely acheive.
Black Dice have managed to create an album that properly illustrates the changing nature of their sound. Many groups have found this extremely difficult to achieve on tape, often sticking to formulas in the studio while limiting their experiments to live shows. Beaches and Canyons is an intense document of Black Dice's evolution-- cycling through styles and equipment like they're simple and meaningless tools, eyes on the goal of reorganizing sound and transforming it through sheer volume." PITCHFORK


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FOUR TET - THERE IS LOVE IN YOU [2010]

"Four Tet is the name used by Kieran Hebden (born 1977 in Putney, London, UK) for his experimental electronic music-oriented solo efforts, to differentiate from his work with post-rock band Fridge.
Hebden’s solo work typically utilises samples lifted from various sources including hip-hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk mixed with his own guitar playing. Four Tet shares some stylistic similarities with other musicians, such as Prefuse 73, who use computer editing techniques that give the music a staccato, cut-up feel. Hebden’s music is notable for its rich, organic sounds and harmonious melodies as well as for eschewing the traditional pop-song format in favour of a more abstract approach.
Kieran Hebden began releasing material as Four Tet in 1998 with the 36 minute and 25 second single “Thirtysixtwentyfive” on Trevor Jackson’s Output Recordings label. Later that year, he released a second single, the jazz-influenced “Misnomer”. 1999’s “Dialogue”, again on Output, was Four Tet’s first full-length album release and fused hip-hop drum lines with dissonant jazz samples. This was followed by the double A-side single “Glasshead”/”Calamine”, which was to be Four Tet’s last release on Output."
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OVAL - OVALPROCESS [2000]

"By the time of Ovalprocess, Oval's fifth full album, the clicks-and-cuts style of experimental ambience Markus Popp and company helped develop nearly a decade before was being championed all over the world, from Tokyo (Nobukazu Takemura) to Berlin (Pole) to Sheffield (SND) to San Francisco (Kit Clayton). All of which makes it a bit of a surprise that Process remains a distinctive work. The scratchy bass hum and high-pitched, atonal effects heard on most every track are very nearly Oval trademarks, and despite the focus on experimentation, Ovalprocess retains yet another hallmark of the group's productions: it's a remarkably beautiful album. Granted, this won't quite signify to listeners unfamiliar with the genre, but when the album climaxes (on the ninth untitled track) with a droning organ melody heard faintly above a cacophony of glitch static, electronics fans might just find themselves wiping their eyes from the wonder of it all. Even among considerable competition, Oval remains the very best at making beautiful music out of civilization's sonic detritus." AMG
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SIGUR RÓS - TÍU LIFANDI [A CELEBRATION OF TEN YEARS OF LIVE MUSIC] [2009]

"Sigur Rós is an icelandic post-rock band. The name is derived from the name of lead vocalist Jónsi Birgisson’s little sister Sigurrós. According to their website, it is pronounced “si-ur roas (as in roast).” They hail from the same creative and vibrant Icelandic music scene as múm and Amiina. They released their first ever foray into film-making with their tour documentary, Heima in late 2007.
Jón Þór (Jónsi) Birgisson, Georg Hólm and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson formed the group in Reykjavík, Iceland in August 1994. They soon won a record deal with a local record label, Smekkleysa (Bad Taste). In 1997, they released Von (Hope) and in 1998 a remix collection named Von Brigði. The name is Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means “disappointment”, but Von brigði means “hope alteration”. (In English, the album is sometimes known by the alternative name “Recycle Bin”.)
International acclaim came with 1999’s Ágætis byrjun (“An alright start”) for which the band were joined by Kjartan Sveinsson. The album’s reputation slowly spread by word of mouth over the next two years. Soon many critics worldwide hailed it as one of the best albums of its time and the band was playing with Radiohead and other big names. Drummer Ágúst left the band after the recording of Ágætis Byrjun and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason."
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THE FIELD - YESTERDAY AND TODAY REMIXE [2009]

"The Field is a minimal techno artist, based in Stockholm, Sweden.
His music comes from tiny loops of pop history. It might actually be an older brother to the Cologne movement Pop Ambient - the sentimental brother who is never content with being in the background, the one with the heart on his sleeve. To clarify: The Field makes dance music. The edges are soft, the mood often romantic, the sounds moving up, up from the ground. As ”minimal” as a sunset, as ”banging” as a pillow.
In 2005, Willner submitted a demo tape to the German indie label Kompakt and was subsequently signed. He released his first 12”, a demo mixtape of Norwegian singer Annie’s “Heartbeat”, as well as the track “Things Keep Falling Down”.
In 2006, “Sun & Ice” 12” was released. Later in 2007, Wilner became the first musician to take part in the Nordic Light Hotel’s “Sound of Light” concept. After staying at the hotel, Wilner used the experience as the basis for his EP of the same name. His 2007 album “From Here We Go Sublime” has met high critical acclaim." LAST.FM
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FOUR TET - ROUNDS [2003]

"For his solo projects, Fridge's Kieran Hebden is a lo-fi experimentalist who, had he been recording 15 years ago, would've been cranking out songs on a four-track recorder instead of a laptop. As demonstrated on his third record, Rounds, he's one of the few musicians capturing all the promise inherent in computer science -- being able to summon, manipulate, and mix any sound imaginable. The record offers something to nearly every audience that could approach it, with a bit of a groove for electronic fans, an obtuse sense of music-making for experimentalists, and a dreamy melodicism sure to endear it to indie-pop fans. The opener, "Hands," is especially breathtaking; it begins with a few seconds of drum samples, surgically inserted and ill-timed, but opens into a warm, melodic production with a simple frame-kit beat outlining Hebden's guitar-and-keyboard atmospherics. "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" features a music-box melody playing against softly shaded backmasked guitar and a subdued, grating percussion line reminiscent of an iron lung. The nine-minute "Unspoken" alternates guitar and piano playing the same beatific melody, over another simple beat and tambourine claps. Though Rounds is experimental by nature, Kieran Hebden's gift for melody and emotional shading allows his records to be enjoyed by an audience wider than merely experimental listeners." AMG

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SUPERSILENT - 6 [2003]

"Play it over and over, and you will still find amazing things in Supersilent's 6. The level of unspoken understanding, interplay, and clarity of vision in experimentation is now beyond words. This album was put together from four days of improvisations in the studio. The digipack case doesn't mention the group members to reinforce the idea of a collective effort, but the press release confirms that the lineup has remained the same: Helge Sten (aka Deathprod) on electronics, Ståle Storløkken on keyboards and synthesizers, Jarle Vespestad on drums, and Arve Henriksen on trumpet and electronics. The music follows the ambient path laid down in 5, while adding more textural noise and hypnotic rhythms. Deathprod has selected a captivating set that unfolds delicately, immersing the listener on an hourlong journey. Unrehearsed and improvised as they may be, these pieces sound scripted at the very least, the individual interventions too well timed not to be planned ahead. Henriksen's sparse trumpet calls in "6.2" and his soft singing over light distorted piano in "6.6" provide memorable moments. In the fourth piece, the group finds an irresistible momentum propelled by Vespestad's drumming, the kind of freight-train-to-outer-space drive that should send all members of Godspeed You Black Emperor! back to their bedrooms. Supersilent simply does it better, without the irritating poise. Highly recommended to dreamers, droners, and avant rock lovers." AMG

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THE RESIDENTS - THE UGHS! [2009]

"The Residents are an avant-garde/experimental music and visual arts group largely shrouded in mystery and myth. The Residents began recording in 1969, although many of these recordings from their early years have still gone unreleased to this day. The earliest material from The Residents, traded among bootlegs, was recorded in 1971. The Residents’ first official release, Santa Dog, was released in 1972.
Allmusic had this to say about the Residents: “Over the course of a recording career spanning several decades, the Residents remained a riddle of Sphinx-like proportions; cloaking their lives and music in a haze of willful obscurity, the band’s members never identified themselves by name, always appearing in public in disguise — usually tuxedos, top hats and giant eyeball masks — and refusing to grant media interviews. Drawing inspiration from the likes of fellow innovators including Harry Partch, Sun Ra, and Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, the Residents channelled the breadth of American music into their idiosyncratic, satiric vision, their mercurial blend of electronics, distortion, avant-jazz, classical symphonies and gratingly nasal vocals reinterpreting everyone from John Philip Sousa to James Brown while simultaneously expanding the boundaries of theatrical performance and multimedia interaction" LAST.FM

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GRIDLOCK - FORMLESS [2003]

"Gridlock was an experimental electronic band originally created by Mike Wells in 1994. A year later, Mike Cadoo joined up, and the duo released their first two demos, Sickness and Frozen, and soon signed to Pendragon Records in 1997. Their style was originally akin to the sound of early Skinny Puppy with less vocals and an ambient aspect not normally found in industrial. Eventually, they took on a more epic soundscape; slowly removing their traditional industrial influence and cultivating an experimental sound, combining elements of ambient, drum and bass, idm/glitch, and noise. Today, they could better be compared to Autechre due to their IDM sound, and to Panacea for their drum and bass experimentation.
On March 24, 2005, the band announced its dissolution on its website, but promised to continue making music under Wells’ and Cadoo’s respective side projects.
Mike Wells will continue the Gridlock ideology through o2, doing remixes for other artists, as well as a new O2 release. He also runs a mastering studio, Mike Wells Mastering.
Mike Cadoo works under the aliases Dryft and Bitcrush. He also runs the record label n5MD and the MP3 label en:peg digital." LAST.FM

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KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN - PLAYTHROUGHS [2002]

"The first full album that prolific, multifaceted electronic composer Keith Fullerton Whitman released under his birth name (following 2001's 21:30 for Acoustic Guitar, but also several releases by his breakcore/drill'n'bass alias Hrvåtski, among others) contains five similar-sounding, decidedly minimal extended drone pieces. The entire album consists of nothing but processed guitar tone, though since the guitar is all but imperceptible as a point of origin for this music, the emphasis is squarely on "process" and "tone." The process, which involves running a guitar-generated signal (not the actual guitar sound) through a carefully arranged sequence of programmed Max/MSP modules, effects pedals, and other signal processors, is described in loving detail by Whitman, at heart a true academic, on his website. For the vast majority of potential listeners, of course, the explanation is just that -- academic -- but, unlikely though it may seem, this is an album that richly deserves many listeners, because the tones it contains are nothing short of breathtaking in their beauty and simplicity. There's not a whole lot on the surface to differentiate these five pieces, but each eventually reveals a discernible identity. Opener "track3a (2waynice)," the shortest and simplest, sets the tone with a glacial, gradually mutating collection of warm, lucid, harmonious drones. "Feedback zwei" introduces slightly more movement and progression with a subtle, cyclical pulsation, occasional points of feedback, and a slowly building field of muted, engulfing static. "ACGTR SVP" stands out as perhaps the most distinct, with its dense accumulation of tones and slightly buzzy, organ-like texture, while both "fib01a" and "modena" return to the placid drones of the opener, embellishing their steady hum with gentle, burbling, vaguely aqueous fluctuations. It's difficult to qualitatively distinguish Playthroughs from much of the ambient, drone-based music that's out there, although it does have a conspicuously unpretentious and inviting quality -- a sense of openness that must be ascribed to the unabashed consonance it retains (there are strikingly few instances of true dissonance to be found here) in spite of its constantly shifting harmonic content, which creates the sense of a continual unfolding or blossoming. It's equally hard to comprehend the evocative and emotional effect of this music, and harder still to describe it: it seems to function on a fundamentally different, precognitive level. But simply put: this is some of the most soothing, stimulating, and spellbinding sound that has ever been put to plastic. Without doubt, a masterpiece of modern minimalism. Emphatically recommended." AMG

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PREFUSE 73 - MEDITATION UPON MEDITATIONS (THE JAPANESE DIARIES) [2009]

"Prefuse 73 (Guillermo Scott Herren), is a hip-hop and electronic producer/artist, currently based out of Barcelona and signed to Warp Records.
Herren releases his music under various aliases, most notably Prefuse 73, Delarosa and Asora, Piano Overlord and Ahmad Szabo. He also performs with Eva Puyuelo Muns in a duo known as Savath & Savalas.
He began his career DJing at MJQ, a small night club in Atlanta, and then began working in commercial studios but soon branched out into his own music. Herren’s first major release was under the “Delarosa and Asora” moniker in 1997 with “Sleep Method Suite”, with his latest work currently being the Prefuse 73 full-length album, “Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian”.
In 2000, Herren released a CD/LP on Hefty Records/Warp Records titled “Folk Songs For Trains, Trees, And Honey”. This was followed by a 2001 exclusive limited pressing (700 copies) of “Immediate Action #1 LP” on Hefty.
Herren first released music under the “Prefuse 73” moniker with 2001’s commercially and critically successful “Vocal Studies & Uprock Narratives”. In 2002 the 4-track EP “The 92 Vs. 02 Collection” was released, but this merely bridged the gap between his debut and the 2003 release - another full-length album, “One Word Extinguisher”. A collection of outtakes, “Extinguished” was released after “One Word Extinguisher” showing off some of the production that was omitted from the initial full-length." LAST.FM

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TIM HECKER - AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY [2009]

"Tim Hecker's elegantly inventive way around sound art moved into a full decade of released work with An Imaginary Country, one of his most serene and, from its striking start "100 Years Ago" forward, uplifting albums. The power of feedback as exultant swell has had many iterations over the years and it would be understandable to call its use here shoegaze or something similar -- combined with the electronics on the appropriately named "Sea of Pulses" or "Where Shadows Make Shadows," the striking penultimate track, any number of superficial connections could be drawn to artists such as Fennesz and Ulrich Schnauss. But each of those performers has his own approaches, as does Hecker himself, and the breathless extended surge of the album as a whole takes the slow-rising-dawn power of such work down his chosen road, perhaps best summed up by the song title "Currents of Electrostasy," with piano and feedback turned into a blissful but still mournful whole. Hecker's ear for appropriate names for his songs crops up throughout -- the chilled emptiness of "Borderlands," chimes echoing off into an unguessed distance, may be the warmest dark ambient song released in 2009, though "Paragon Point" comes close for both steady looming power and an enveloping sense of atmosphere." AMG

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TIM HECKER - HARMONY IN ULTRAVIOLET [2006]

"Canadian Tim Hecker has been a respected force on the electronica scene since his debut Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, came out in 2001 (in addition to his work as Jetone). Since then, he has consistently released experimental ambient music that broadens standard compositional barriers while still remaining accessible, and such is the case with Harmony in Ultraviolet, Hecker's fourth full-length. Though most of the tracks on the album are separate entities -- including each part of "Harmony in Blue" -- they work together to form an idea that's greater than its individual elements: a sense of exploration and sadness and understanding of the infiniteness and uncertainty and expanse of the world. Themes are introduced -- a looped arpeggio, a distorted guitar riff, lone keyboard notes -- but nothing is ever fully developed, nothing ever completely exposes itself. Instead, there's a suggestion that's built-up and expounded upon but never quite resolved, long notes that pull themselves in and out of focus are favored over melodies, leaving a kind of agitation in the listener like the dark restlessness of an industrial city. Three notes make a chord but somehow Hecker's don't, they're so different in texture and scope; in fact, they seem almost peacefully at odds with one another, aware of the others' existences but content to ignore them. It's the music of a gray urban skyline, of the kind of loneliness that comes from being around too many other people, of rusted fences and cold empty windows and distance, music that swells and crescendos, sets itself up for the denouement but never arrives at the climax; it's endlessly patient yet eager to move on. Wet bass notes and emaciated electric guitars, awash with distortion, crush together with programmed noise and drones, sounds erupt and are then dismissed, fifty minutes of questions and intimations, of resignation and acceptance, but not -- definitely not -- of answers. We'll have to find those ourselves." AMG

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TIM HECKER - MIRAGES [2004]

"At the height of their powers, white-noise godheads My Bloody Valentine would be known to leave their guitars alone on-stage at the end of a performance, feeding back for up to 30 minutes while the audience was left awash in the sound of static running on static. Imagining that effect not as an end, but as a beginning, Canadian Tim Hecker offers his third album of dark grey fog (his sixth album if you count his techno background as Jetone). Starting with "Acephale," Hecker takes control of the effluvial hiss and slowly melts it down, making it into clear angelic tones on "Neither More Nor Less," fluttering waves on "Celestina," and even rounded pulses on "Kaito." But like a gentle master, Hecker eventually breaks his smoke bubbles, allowing the gas to float free on the generously long closer, "Incurably Optimistic!" Yet low and behold, the vapors continue to hold the shapes in which they were once held, drifting not up and away, but moving in paths around an undeterminable axis until they finally disappear without the least bit of a whimper. But like matter, sound is a finite yet never depleting thing, transferring from electrical buzz to moving air to cerebral stimulation. Potential energy waiting, just waiting to go kinetic again." AMG

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TIM HECKER - RADIO AMOR [2003]

"Tim Hecker's first album for Mille Plateaux, Radio Amor, follows two excellent efforts for the relatively smaller yet similarly prestigious Substractif label, and accordingly consolidates that pair into his most inclusive and presentable recording yet. It merges the haunting majesty of his debut full-length, Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again (2001), with the loose conceptual framework of his follow-up EP, My Love Is Rotten to the Core (2002), and does so without being quite as overbearing as those two releases may have felt to listeners interested in simply engaging music rather than far-fetched conception. There are thus two primary sides to Radio Amor: its sounds and concepts. The sonic palette Hecker draws from here is strikingly reminiscent of his previous work. Heavily manipulated waves of drone again clash and splash against one another, often doing so with near yet subtly off synchronicity in the right and left channels. The effect is slightly disorienting, and that's precisely the point, as Hecker's overall aesthetic seems centered upon an otherworldly style of sound manipulation meant to baffle even the most seasoned digital-music listeners. The conceptual framework he builds upon is likewise hazily vague, and no doubt purposefully so. The track titles don't allude to much on their own, yet when coupled with the album's remarkable packaging, a whispered narrative begins to shape, one involving remote seafaring, faint transmissions, compass guidance, and a third-world locale. It's perhaps fitting then that the album's climax, its most deliciously harrowing seasick moment, "Azure Azure," comes late in the album, following "The Star Compass" and preceding "Trade Winds, White Heat." By that point, Hecker has once again swept you away with a seamless album that demands beginning-to-end listening, and this time he does so with the timeless grandeur and universal appeal of a Hemingway-esque lost-at-sea novel narrated from the omniscient perspective. This is far, far from your ordinary ambient album -- if you're willing to dive into its depth rather than merely skim its surface, that is." AMG

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TIM HECKER - HAUNT ME, HAUNT ME DO IT AGAIN [2001]

"On Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, Tim Hecker downshifts from his minimal techno alias, Jetone, to create rich, textured ambient music of the highest order. Despite the infusion of glitch elements like static and electronic interference, Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again sounds deep and wide, like it was meant to bounce around a cathedral, or as an accompaniment to a planetarium show. There are nine titled pieces here spread across 20 tracks and one bleeds into the next, lending an unusual sense of continuity for an experimental electronic release of this length. Glistening drones are threaded with deliberate hiss and ghostly voices and the occasional treated piano and percussive elements crop up here and there as accents. While the tracks vary in approach and character, the overall mood is consistently one of contemplation, wonder, and awe, with vague hints of dread and violence appearing in the periphery. Picking out individual highlights is difficult because the album is so consistent, unified, and whole; suffice to say that Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again is a brilliant album of subtle, evocative mood music. " AMG

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