IDM
EP REVIEW: Max Cooper – ‘Earth’: cutting-edge IDM for our life on it
IN FORMER times, he’s what you would call a renaissance man, a polymath, Max Cooper: active and proficient in so many fields of creativity and science; jack of all trades, oh; master of them, too. A childhood dalliance with the violin proved a false dawn; instead he pursued biology and was awarded a PhD in …
ALBUM REVIEW: Conrad Schnitzler/Frank Bretschneider – ‘Con-struct’: beguilingly far out in sound deconstruction
Frank Bretschneider’s instalment in Bureau B’s occasional ‘Con-struct’ series is a fascinating, rewarding and wholly synapse-rearranging glitchtronica journey – do not operate heavy machinery under the influence
ALBUM REVIEW: GLOK – ‘Dissident Remixed’: Andy Bell’s tronica alter-ego gets a comprehensive rerub
OUT OF all the four members of Ride – Mark, Andy, Loz and Steve, it’s hands down Andy who’s had the most varied and viable extra-curricular activities. There was Hurricane #1, his Britpoppish outfit from immediately following the black nite crash of first-era Ride, who grazed the top 20 with “Only the Strongest Will Survive.” …
SEE: Max Cooper – ‘Swarm’: infectious IDM with an environmental edge
FOR me, Max Cooper has been one of those people whose tracks come on during Mary Anne Hobbs’ 6Music show in the car, and I think: “Wow, what was that?,” scrabbling to commit the name and the textual virtuosity to memory. But this time I won’t be tripped up: “Swarm” is the first track from …
TRACK: Darkstar unveil remix 12″ with Loraine James cut
AIDEN WHALLEY and James Young, better known to IDM heads as Darkstar, have a proper work ethic. Not content to rest on the laurels of last month’s Civic Jams set, their fourth LP for Warp and fifth of their career, they’ve released a Loraine James’ mix of “Wolf” from the album as a teaser for …
TRACK: Pinch feat. Killa P – ‘Party’ – bringin’ the Bristol bass
ROB ELLIS works deep in that Bristolian sonic tradition which has mutated British music’s DNA so often down the past three decades. He’s conversant across dub, dubstep, grime, and global traditions: check “Qawwali”, his 12” for Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu, built on harmoniums and samples of the Pakistani devotional singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. And …
TRACK: Jaga Jazzist’s “Spiral Era” remix is heading for other galaxies
GRADUALLY and cultishly, Norwegian octet Jaga Jazzist have been building probably the most interesting and wide-ranging catalogue in the modern jazz sphere; wholly unafraid of leaping genre fences, taking and tempering and incorporating strands of other musics in the most creative way. Listen to an album such as 2002’s A Livingroom Hush, or 2015’s Starfire, …
EP REVIEW: JOCKSTRAP – Wicked City: we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto
WARP debutantes Jockstrap – the duo Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye, jazz and electronics students respectively in a previous life – really do screw with the ol’ head, in the nicest possible way. It’s not like you haven’t heard many of the influences they draw on before, perhaps; but it’s the insouciant way they combine …
SEE: Karen Gwyer remixes Nathan Fake’s ‘Tbilisi’
TAKE two of the more eclectic producers working in British IDM today, and let one loose on a track by t’other. It’s a tried and tested formula, but it always produces results worthy of your ears. Nathan Fake – Norfolk-born, sometime Ninja Tune producer, who wends between pared-back, dancefloor tackle and way leftfield collaborations with …
TRACK: Arca’s ‘Mequetrefe’ is shattered-mirror futurism
XL RECORDINGS’ avant-pop futurist Arca has premiered a new track, “Mequetrefe,” ahead of forthcoming album Kick i, which XL is releasing next Friday, June 26th (with a vinyl press available from July 17th). Draped in stuttering, post-Squarepusher percussive stutter, AFXy cut-up and Arca’s disembodied vocal chanting, treated and filtered into a distant century, it’s out …