Tír Na HiFi

[quote="cybot"]
Must check the album out Dermot...

jadarin wrote:

cybot wrote:
Must check the album out Dermot...

That's an 'old' one and they have had a few out since then. Two 12" I think, one of them on Raster Noton no less....



Have a look here....

Autechre... Exai...



A bit too complicated for my ears. Unfortunately.

Matmos................ The Ganzfeld EP...

A bit weird in places... although track two is pleasant enough.

Adrian wrote:Autechre... Exai...



A bit too complicated for my ears. Unfortunately.

My own vinyl copy is still locked away unfortunately. Birthday blues I'm afraid :) Even though I'm a fan I'm still dreading the actual listening session. So I know exactly where you're coming from Adrian :) Still I could be in for a very pleasant surprise or Aphex on sandpaper :(

Initial listen not too promising.....

Edit: Getting better :)




Empty Set - Medium 12"




Medium:
Electronic music is meant to provide a release from the real world, but Medium, the latest missive by UK producer Emptyset, will bring anyone who hears it crashing back to the earth. There’s a desperate malevolence at play on this work, a sonic accompaniment to the end-of-days desolation so vividly narrated on Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The key difference however, is that while that novel provided no alternatives and seemed to revel in its nihilistic approach, this album offers an escape from the drab sameness and conservatism inherent in modern day techno.

Ironically though, Emptyset’s approach does make nods to narratives from the past, taking influence from the tortured industrial noise of Throbbing Gristle, the eerie ambience of Regis and minimal techno at its most reductionist. On “Interstice”, this latter trait manifests itself as dead paced beats and frost percussion disappear into nothingness only to re-appear a few seconds later. On “Other”, Emptyset does more to reintroduce the spirit of industrial to contemporary electronic music than a shelf full of situationist techno releases; murderous sub-bass stabs provide the focus, but on the sidelines eerie soundscapes and textures are unfolding, accompanied by skittish percussion.

“Mirror” meanwhile sees waves of white noise and static interference and a rave siren build over doubled-up death pace beats. These are the closest references to structured electronic music. “Divide” delivers a tapestry of detached sounds while on “Medium” itself, Emptyset wallows in menacing bass licks with background noise seething beneath the surface. This is music that matches the unparalleled dark age we are living through, and just this once, the Medium really is the message.

Richard Brophy


Quietus : Shapwick......

Returning home from ATP one year, our driver took the wrong turn out of Taunton and got lost. Attempting to orient ourselves somewhere in the direction of Glastonbury Tor, we slipped from A to B-roads and beyond, drifting and backtracking through the mist-covered marshes and disorientating villages of Sedgemoor. That grey December afternoon of looming churches and concealed turnings found the power of the ancient landscape infecting the car interior, bringing a creeping panic to our tired bodies.

A similar experience on an August night was the trigger for this low-key release by Ghost Box associate Jon Brooks (The Advisory Circle). His accidental drive took him through the Sedgemoor village of Shapwick, where he says, "I felt a certain energy around the place... It struck me that an album could be based on an imaginary impression of this area."

Brooks' creative response is a collection of short instrumentals, tone experiments and field recordings, pieced together on old tapes on a four-track recorder. The listener need not have been lost in the low Somerset valleys before (Bussex, Bawdrip, Pedwell, Meare – any road map of England can be read as a regional rewrite of 'It's Grim Up North') to respond to this pastoral fantasy. A simple trip to Wikipedia will reveal enough semi-unreliable references to anachronistic church towers and Thankful Villages to spark flashes of curiosity in the most distant receiver. Students of the occult television references of Brooks' Advisory Circle records should perhaps take note of Shapwick's namesake in neighbouring Dorset, however, location for one of Doctor Who's most Ghost Box paralleling stories, 1984's prescient 'The Awakening'.

Passing over such curious diversions, Shapwick contains a handful of Brooks' most simple and beautiful compositions. The light woodwind melody of 'Winter's Hamlet' has more in common with a children's serial like The Animals Of Farthing Wood than any Hammer House Of Horror story, while the elementary piano piece 'Quiet Movement For A Silent Night' is as new age as you wish.


The pre-used cassette stock works in the album's favour, unifying each fragment whether synthesizer theme, music box cycle or acoustic pattern. The natural and the supernatural are buried in the ferric murk. Birds and bats flutter through the mix, cars reverse through time. As Brooks notes at the outset, from every village greeting-cum-warning sign, 'Please Drive Carefully'.

Finally got a chance for a proper listen last night. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Did someone disconnect the woofers? After 20 minutes of head scratching - to the beat, of course - I gave up and went to bed where I spent a sleepless night coughing and spluttering. This afternoon I stuck it on again hoping against hope that it was my head cold that was misleading my auditory senses. It was! Couldn't quite believe it! Sailed through sides e,f,g & h and loved it. A different sound for sure and not as brutal on the bass registers as of yore. But then again that could be my cold talking:) They really do keep you on your toes.....




Autechre: Exai: 4Lp edition

How do follow Exai's massive 2 and a half hour sprawl? With this mammoth triple vinyl set which actually features a rare Autechre track :)

Experimedia:

Immense, daunting, and monolithic, Pan takes another left turn with Mohammad's "Som Sakrifis." Whereas the venerable label surveyed abstract references to dance music with recent releases by Lee Gamble and NHK'Koyxen, Mohammad, a Greek trio built on the elliptical and microtonal collisions of cello, contrabass, and oscillators, is focused solely on the divine and otherworldly possibilities of drone. The dour moods of Sunn O))) and the compositional approach of La Monte Young are certainly apt starting points, but the best comparison to "Som Sakrifis" would be Eliane Radigue's cello work for the album "Naldjorlak." It's no mistake that those are three iconic names in the realm of experimental music as Mohammad makes a bold statement of depth, subtlety, and power. Few releases in 2013 will reach its heights. – Ryan Potts, Experimedia