REVIEWS

The Best Stuff You Aren’t Watching: Portlandia

Portlandia: Fridays at 10p.m. Eastern on IFC

Mike normally reviews new (or recently returned) TV in an attempt to answer the question: Would I watch this again or would I recommend a friend picking up this series? However, once every week or so, the brain trust at Manhattan Digest gives him a little more free reign which he in turn uses to highlight the stuff you should check out (but probably haven’t yet).

I realize right off the bat that I am asking a lot, immediately recommending a show that comes on at 10p.m. on a Friday night, a time when most people are out and about kicking off their weekend, be it with friends, at a bar, or a party. That being said, if for some reason if you are stuck in on a Friday night (it is the middle of winter after all) or have a half hour to kill and a Netflix account or On Demand service I strongly recommend giving Portlandia a spin.

Portlandia is a sketch show that is the brainchild of Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) and Carrie Brownstein (of the bands Sleater-Kinney and Wild Ones). The show revolves around the hip, the hippies, and the hipsters that live in the greater Portland area. The show is currently airing it’s third season, with the first two seasons available on DVD (or on Netflix if that’s your sort of thing).

While there is a glut of sketch comedy regularly on TV between SNL, shows on Comedy Central and Adult Swim and the library of classic sketch comedy (be it Kids in the Hall, SCTV or Monty Python) that can be accessed through a variety of different means (be it DVD, YouTube, etc.), Portlandia stands out from the pack because it feels less forced, hackneyed, or reliant on pop culture than many of those similar shows.

The show’s humor comes from a number of sources. First and foremost, the show does a superb job of sending up pretentiousness, whether it’s yuppie parents who feel that their child’s life trajectory is based on getting into a choice preschool, the feminist bookstore owners whom are comically inept in running a retail establishment to the extent that they prefer donations over selling books, or people who create “art” by putting birds on various objects. Similarly, anyone whose ever had to deal with any alt-culture subgroup, be it your garden variety hipster, street punk or someone whose life choices are based off of some sense of moral superiority as opposed to actual intellectual honesty will see those contradictions ring true in many of the show’s characters.

The show’s second main form of humor comes from zany surrealism. This is often seen in a lot of the segments involving the Mayor of Portland (Kyle McLaughlin), who often dispatches Fred and Carrie (playing themselves) on various civic missions for the good of the city, whether it’s ensuring the Olympics never come to Portland, creating the city’s first major league team, or redesigning the police uniforms to give them a softer and less authoritative feel. Similarly, Portlandia has turned the wait for Sunday brunch into a post-apocalyptic wasteland where cutting the line is treated with extreme (and toasted) prejudice.

While there is no serialization inherent in the show, the show truly succeeds in creating a universe that seems as full and vibrant as a show like The Simpsons (which is known for its’ fairly large recurring cast), which is no small feat considering that the bulk of the characters are played by the duo of Brownstein and Armisen. This is critical as it means you can pick up the show at any point (as opposed to a show that runs on in-jokes and callbacks like say Frisky Dingo, or a show with a heavy serial element like Community). That being said, my recommended start point is still the pilot as it opens with one of the shows strongest sketches (The Dream of the 90’s) and really sets the tone of what you can expect throughout the rest of the series.

Album Review: Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory – Elements of Light

by Rio Toro

Pantha Du Prince & the Bell Laboratory – Elements of Light

Score – 8.0/10

Similar artists – Voices From The Lake, Ricardo Villalobos

Genre – Minimal Techno, Ambient Techno, Meditative

I first listened to “Elements of Light” while driving to work during the wee morning hours after an unexpected snowstorm. Gazing at the newly whitened landscape as I rolled along the trafficless highway enacted a serene, glacial light upon the music. In essence, the music was perfected by this environment, and I was soothed into a state of transcendental bliss. I have listened to the music in a variety of settings in an attempt to rekindle my original impression of earthly tranquility, but despite my efforts, I have been unable to reach that same apex of enlightenment.

Regardless of environment, Pantha Du Prince’s fourth LP remains a technically complex, totally immersive headphone listen. While less showy than Black Noise, this is a leap forward for Pantha. “Elements of Light” consists 5 continuously flowing tracks, each largely composed with an assortment of bells. The main draw of the record is how Pantha does so much with this type of instrument, which has seemingly unlimited potential in his hands. There are other instruments as well, but all are second to the ting’s and tang’s of the bells. Pantha’s new, extended pseudonym (& the Bell Laboratory) is an aptly titled one, as it is easy to imagine Pantha composing this material in the heart of a giant clock tower, surrounded by an array of shiny percussive equipment.

The album opens with particularly ethereal bells tingling away in unison. Empty space is abundant, and there is little to remind us of the Pantha from previous outings. The sounds grow busier with each minute, but it is not until the 8 minute mark that a kick drum is introduced and we are given a hint towards listening to anything pertaining to techno music. The album continues to pick up plenty of steam throughout the 12 minute “Particle”, and although you will certainly be tapping your foot, it is not what one could consider dance fare. Pantha’s music has always been the kind to make be jiggle, and there are certainly moments here that feature Pantha’s signature bass and groove, but the shifting structure and emphasis on experimentation make this a home listening experience rather than something you would want to play at a party.

The momentum simmers down at the start of “Spectral Split”, the album’s penultimate, 17 minute track. The constantly changing bell patterns that build to the album’s climax make me gleefully aroused every time. Quite paradoxically, the last 10 minutes of Spectral Split are more exciting than any techno track I’ve heard in months, but are simultaneously lamentable in their melancholic tone. The Final track, “Quantum”, is blissful lullaby-esque ambience that concludes the album on a contemplative note. The last 40 seconds of the album are dead silent, giving the listener time to gather his/her thoughts and return to the real world before removing the headphones.

At the beginning of this review I stated that the album never rewarded me as much as it did on my introductory listen; this is true only in the sense of a musical experience. Like all good albums, “Elements of Light” offers something new and rewarding with each listen. At ¾ of an hour and excellently paced, when compared to Black Noise’s hour + running time, Elements of Light flies by. The album invokes the same meditative full-body experience that last year’s beloved “Voices from the Lake” LP did, but it does so in half the time. The fact that this album is both easy to listen to and engrossing are the reasons I feel confident I will revisit it commonly throughout the year.

Track listing:

Wave

Particle*

Photon

Spectral Split*

Quantum

* – Album Highlight

No, I don’t want to make any changes…The Exchange at the Setai Wall Street

by Jaime Kohl

There is nothing like a nice long lunch to break up the workday. With this years’ restaurant week off to a strong start on such a cold part of this winter, I always look towards some delicious rib sticking warm foods to kick off my first attempt at leisure during the day. The Exchange at the Setail Wall Street stole my heart with a perfectly balanced succulent sunchoke soup. I would go back and eat this soup every day, if they would let me. The soup was finished with a beautiful, herbaceous oil and thyme crème fraíche There were surprising pepper notes throughout bringing the whole bowl into balance. The earth flavors of the sunchoke melded perfectly with the freshness of the other components.

Second course was another root vegetable inspired dish, with beets, celery and horseradish. Oh, but did I forget, there was also a perfectly cut and seared piece of salmon. Only down fall was that I did not have a knife with an edge to pierce the decadent crusting, so that I could leave more of the fish intact when trying to devour it. The table presentation of this dish fit perfectly with the ambiance of the financial district sleek and sophisticated venue. With a simple pour, a vibrant deep red beet broth was poured over the celery and parsnips under the salmon fillet. The open kitchen and wine lined walls make me want to return for a dinner date. But, the lighting was perfect for a business lunch too. There was comfort and room for a closing lunch. (I will be back for one of those.) The lighting was perfect for so that reading could still be done without a strain of the eyes, but for me I would find it too hard to concentrate on the work on not the artfully prepared food.

The final course was a light and fresh citrus layer cake with candied lime zest and blood orange segments. Although there was not a ton of flavor in the cake its self, the texture and finish is what made it artful.

Chef Josh Capone and Pastry Chef Alise Ciucci earned a place in my stomach when I headed back up to my office with my head filled with flavors and stomach as happy and full as could be. The fresh ingredients really had the opportunity to sing on the plates that left the kitchen. Despite the use of ingredients like crème fraíche and butter throughout the meal I was light on my toes, and ready to head down to yoga after work. Which after a big lunch, I am just looking for an excuse to leave my gym bag at the office and head out of the office off to the next meal, no stop at the gym, but here I was energized and ready to go. Although, I did have to ask for a to-go box for the pastries that followed the meal (yes, there was more!), because I could not just abandon a key lime macaron and chocolate meringue star. I made sure these two final sweets found there way home to my stomach, and they were the perfect bite size pick me ups later that afternoon. Who needs coffee any ways?

This was balance at its finest. Clearly the kitchen cooks with the freshest ingredients they can get. Despite my original disappointment when I was handed the menu and the items that I chose for my meal were not there as show on the NYC restaurant week website. I could not have been happier with the food or experience. Between the healthy and not so much ingredients, the creamy and acidic flavor, the whole nine yards. It was just dam good and I cannot wait to eat there again. As the ingredients and cooking techniques evolve with the seasons I am excited to see where the chefs here take it.

Legit is dark, funny, honest and excellent

by Michael Tyminski

Legit: Thursdays at 10:30 Eastern on FX

Over the last few years, one of FX’s strongest suits has been the lowbrow comedy about flawed people, whether it be the remorseless gang of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the maladjusted spies at ISIS in Archer, or the failed lawyer who gets high with a dog in Wilfred. Their new series Legit is a perfect fit in this mold.

Legit follows Jim Jefferies (in his stand-up persona), a stand-up comedian who is known for immaturity and for generally being an all around jerk as he tries to become more “legit” in the eyes of his mother. He is aided in his task by his best friend Steve (Dan Bakkedahl –the name may be unfamiliar, but he has had guest runs on shows ranging from Community to Veep to 30 Rock) whom has a considerably straighter moral compass than Jim and recommends that Jim do good things for people as a way to become “legit”.

When Jeffries’ gets a call from Steve’s younger brother Billy (who has muscular dystrophy and is confined to a wheelchair), the show’s plot wheels begin to turn in motion. Billy’s major concern in life at the start of the show is that he has yet to have sex and begs Jeff to take him to a hooker. This leads to a debauchery laden road trip that sets the overall tone for the series (and leads to the events of the next episode).

The second episode, “Dreams” picks up where the first one left off, with Jim and Steve off to break Billy out of his rest home but being saddled with his roommate, a developmentally disabled dwarf named Rodney (who drives a hard bargain and is really good at Wii Bowling) for a night of hard partying that leads to, Billy’s eviction and the return of Steve’s overbearing mother (and the clear fore-runner for Jim’s sitcom nemesis) Janice (played by Mindy Sterling) who insists on being the caretaker for Billy now that he can no longer be in the rest home.

The show as a whole is fearlessly raunchy, with two large benders in the first two episodes (in the form of the road trip in the pilot and a party off-screen in episode two), and features a very take-no-prisoners approach to its’ humor (if you’re not comfortable about a man in a wheelchair tripping out and being surprised at the notion that “he can’t feel his legs” this show is not going to be for you and you probably should disregard this review).

Where this show truly succeeds is in those heartwarming moments where Jim suddenly becomes a little less self-centered, be it when he hands a homeless man a five for listening to him ramble on about how dreams and goals make him miserable, trying to talk Billy out of killing himself after being forced to move in with his mother, or his genuine joy when Rodney gets a perfect game on Wii Bowling (even if the latter occurred while Steve was bugging out about returning Billy and Rodney to the rest home).

The Final Verdict: Legit clicks with me. It’s honest, it’s funny, it’s a little dark at times, but it fits perfectly into FX’s 10:00 PM Thursday comedy hour that has been home to some of the funniest comedy on television (and Unsupervised) over the past three years. It’s particularly strong at reaching both the most cringe-worthy of lows, and yet still succeeds in creating heartwarming moments. This will likely be part of my regular viewing (it’s lead in Archer has been for me since day one) and I look forward to how this twisted redemption tale plays out.

Totally Tyler and my totally awesome interview. Totally.

by Ryan Shea

I have known the wonderful author and blogger that goes by the name of “Totally Tyler” for quite a bit now. We have shared our funny tweets via Twitter about our love for bacon and chocolate (that can be left open to interpretation) and many other facets of our lives. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down and meet him to discuss the launch of his second book “Boys, Booze and Booty Calls: The Continued Tales of Totally Tyler”. Even in my mimosa haze (don’t judge, they were freaking delicious), I got to know him on a much deeper level and truly experienced what a phenomenal author and man he truly is.

How did you go about writing this second book?

Well this second book is really a continuation of the first one, which was based off of blogs that I had written. When I was writing the blogs, it was just a thing. I had never really put too much thought into where it would go. One day I was approached by a publishing company that wanted to make a book out of my posts, but the way I wanted to do it was to write them from the beginning. So the first book is from 2005, then second one is from 2006, so technically speaking I already have seven books done just from the blog posts I have.

You write a lot in this second book about your insecurities in a gay relationship. Do you think a middle aged straight woman could pick up this book and relate to what you are going through?

Maybe not directly to each situation, but I think insecurities are prevalent in any relationship. Doubting yourself, doubting the faith you have in that other person- that’s part of a relationship. It’s taking the risk.

Do you think farting is good in a relationship (there is a chapter in this book. Freaking hilarious).

No! Kidding. I think it is a sign of comfortability and being who you are in front of your partner.

Most of this book is based from your experience in Georgia. You have lived both there and here in New York City, do you see there being stark differences between the two?

Definitely. Interacial dating is very difficult in the south, that is for one. Up here, if you are making out with a gay guy in a bar he always has one eye focused on you and one eye open to see if there is anything better he can have. Atlanta tends to be a lot more laid back whereas everything here in New York City is a lot more fast paced. Guys meet each other everywhere here from the bars to the gym, that isn’t really prevalent down there. I like both of course, but there are definitely differences in the two.

You write a lot about Madonna. Even one chapter is riddled with songs that describe what the actual chapter is about, which is very cleverly done. Why is she your idol?

She is in every book actually, yet becomes more and more prevalent in each one. She is my idol because with every album she has released, and the message that goes along with it, has directly correlated with events that are going on in my life at the moment. I was raised Mormon, and was debating with my religion for quite sometime when “Like A Prayer” was released. When her album “Erotica” came out is actually when I came out. That album has had a direct response with what was going on in my life at that time.

What are your hopes for the future with this book and ultimately your life?

For this book I would love for it to be a bestseller and make a lot of money of course. Life wise, I would love to fall in love with a handsome man and really just have happiness and success like everyone else wants.

The book in itself is written from a gay man’s perspective, yet it touches on several different aspects of people’s lives that can be relatable if you aren’t in fact gay. Whether it is going through the weeks and months of being unemployed, insecurities, doubts in relationships, to ultimately realizing your goals, there really is something for everyone. Everyone should go out and get a copy!

If you want to get a copy, pick up one here!

Book Cover — Credit to: www.twitter.com/@totally_tyler

: Credit to: www.twitter.com/totallytyler

Album Review: Broadcast – Berberian Sound Studio

by Rio Toro

Broadcast: Berberian Sound Studio

Score: 7.5/10

Similar Artists: The Caretaker, The Focus Group, Philip Glass

Genre: Hauntology, Soundtrack, Musique Concrete, Collage

I will begin this review by saying what must be said: This is Broadcast’s first release since vocalist/instrumentalist Trish Keenan’s untimely death. She had been working on this soundtrack along with James Cargill before she was hospitalized due to pneumonia in 2011. Due to both artists being multi-instrumentalists, it is unclear how much of this album was worked on by Trish. However her influence is felt throughout and the music is made that much more sorrowful because of it.

Although this is a soundtrack, and stands alone in Broadcast’s discography, it can be considered a progression of the themes presented on 2010’s “Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age”. On that album, the band, along with collaborators “The Focus Group”, reached the culmination of their avant-garde tendencies. Although the band’s sound was always progressing, this was the first time where they could no longer be even remotely compared to their sister act, “Stereolab”.

Not surprisingly, due to this being a film score, “Berberian Sound Studio” is mostly instrumentally based. Although the album has a whopping 39 tracks, this number is in no way representative of the album length in total, which clocks in at only slightly over 30 minutes. Only a handful of tracks are over a minute, and the longest is 3 minutes. This leaves any kind of track-for-track analysis out of the question as many tracks are reliant on their antecedents and consequences. The album eventually does work well as a whole through the reemergence of themes and the occasional standout track. For the record, I listened to the album 10 times and not until the later half did certain pieces come into being.

Broadcast has always been known to be perfectionists, and despite the progression away from identifiable “songs”, that status is no different here. I have not seen the film this work is based off of, but the synopsis seems reminiscent of early Cronenberg, so it is not surprising that this release sees the band at their most “Hauntological”. The sounds range from ominous keyboard melodies, vocal snippets, organ drones, 80’s synthesizers, the clicking of old film reels, blood-curdling screams, and Trish’s looped, echoey vocals. There are a few instances where the whimsicalities of early Broadcast from “The Noise Made by People” or “Haha Sound” can be heard, but these moments are few and far between. Don’t expect to come away from your listening experience humming anything in the vein of “Come on Let’s Go”.

This album is a difficult one to give a score. Broadcast’s work has always been the type whose greatness has taken a while to shine. When first released, no one called Broadcast’s early work as classic, but when the end of the last decade rolled around they were reevaluated and deemed masterful. As hypocritical as this sounds, “Berberian Sound Studio” is not going to be deemed a classic; however, it feels like something is missing to this album that will fill itself in as the sounds enters our subconscious and we revisit them years down the line. For now we will have to be happy that this album exists at all, for the tragedy surrounding it could have been fatal to what is surely music that is worthy to the band’s legacy.

Track Listing:

1.) A Breeze Through The Burford Spur

2.) The Equestrian Vortex*

3.) Beautiful Hair

4.) Malleus Maleficarum

5.) Mark of the Devil

6.) Confession Modulation

7.) Monica’s Fall

8.) Teresa’s Song

9.) The North Downs Dimension*

10.) Collatina is Coming

11.) Such Tender Things

12.) Teresa, Lark of Ascension*

13.) Monica’s Burial (Under the Junipers)

14.) Found Scaled, Dound Drowned

15.) Monica (Her Parents Have Been Informed)

16.) The Fifth Claw

17.) Saducismus Triumphatus

18.) The Gallops

19.) They’re Here, They’re Under Us

20.) Collatina, Mark of Damnation*

21.) Treatise

22.) A Goblin

23.) The Equestrian Library

24.) The Serpert’s Semen

25.) Burnt at the Stake

26.) All Chiffchaffs

27.) The Curfew After The Massacre

28.) Poultry In Mind

29.) The Sacred Marriage*

30.) Valeria’s Burial (Under the Fort)

31.) Edda’s Burial (Under the Clumps)

32.) The Game’s Up

33.) It Must’ve been the Magpies

34.) The Dormitory Window

35.) Anima De Cristo

36.) His World is my Shed

37.) Collatina’s Folly

38.) Here Comes the Sabbath, There goes the Cross

39.) Our Darkest Sabbath*

* – Album Highlight

Amour: A Masterpiece, or Just Plain Sad?

by Peter Foy

It won the Palm D’or at Cannes, received nearly unanimous accolades, and now it’s received the coveted distinction of having Oscar nominations for both best foreign language film as well as best picture. Amour is not just the most praised film to date to come from Austrian director Michael Haneke, but arguably the most acclaimed film to come out in years. In anticipation for the Academy Awards, BAMcinematech will begin showing the film tomorrow, and I strongly suggest that all serious movie goers (who haven’t done so already) to go see this heartbreaking, and vivid film, that is perhaps a masterpiece, and most certainly an unforgettable work of art.

As the title suggests, Amour is certainly a film about love, but it’s too dark to be considered anything romantic. The film centers on the elderly couple of Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant), two retired French music teachers who live around the Parisian area. There both in their 80s, but they still enjoy going to concerts, listening to music, and visiting with their daughter (Issabelle Hupert). Unfortunately, things all go for the worse when one day Anne slips into a catatonic state for a few minutes. They immediately go for medical attention and discover she has a problem with her brain. The movie then follows Georges as he tries to care for Anne, as her condition continues to grow more harrowing.

Seeing that the film almost takes place entirely inside the couple’s flat, one might wonder why Haneke didn’t option the film as a stage play instead. Thing is, Amour works beautifully as a film due to the articulate shots, and Haneke’s unique sense of direction. Although Amour has been receiving plenty of press for how different it feels from Haneke’s more sadistic films (I.E. Funny Games, The Piano Teacher), it’s important to note that the directors skill with the macabre is definitely in effect here. A minimalist film maker in every regard, Haneke uses trace amounts of light and color in this film, so as to let viewers feel the graveness. Also, the film has one or two dream sequences that definitely take a few pages from his time directing quasi-horror films. Some people I’ve talked to have even told me they feel that the film still has a cruel sense to it, but even if that’s the case with Haneke’s craft, it couldn’t be any less true with regards to the performances.

Both Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant are veteran French actors from the New Wave period, and it’s likely that this film will be seen as a latter career triumph for both of them. As mentioned before, Haneke directs his film’s with a minamalist’s eye, but it so complements the performances. Through Haneke’s POV we don’t necessarily get to see into the minds of his characters, but their actions and facial expressions give us all that we need. Trintignant gives a mighty performance, whose suggests that his grief is just as harsh as his ailing wife’s. Speaking of whom, Riva might even give the stronger performance of the two leads, which is most impressive seeing that she hardly does much of anything. For most of the film she is paralyzed and confined to beds, but her expressions of pain fully communicate her loss of consciousness. Issabelle Huppert (a previous collaborator with Haneke) gives a limited, but very weighty performance too. One scene with her character in particular resonates with the film’s message as a whole

Amour is a difficult film for sure, nor is it very easy to watch. Still, it’s a very vital film that pulls no punches with exploring the tumultous emotions and acts that come with coping with death, after a life that was so dedicated to love. It’s no wonder that the film has received so many accolades, as the elderly are more likely to have a stronger response to it than younger age groups would. Some people have theorized that the reason Amour received so much attention from the Academy is because many of the voters are of the same age as Georges and Anne, and that honestly doesn’t sound like a stretch at all for me. Despite the biased nature that some voters might have, Amour is a huge victory for Michael Haneke and another must-see for this year. Besides The Master, I feel this was the most accomplished film of 2012.

Album Review – Burial: Truant/Rough Sleeper

by Rio Toro

Burial: Truant/Rough Sleeper EP

Score: 9/10

Similar artists – none (only cheap imitators)

Genre – Dubstep, Vocal Manipulation, Abstract Ambient

Most EPs don’t leave the lasting impression that Burial’s last few have. With 2011’s “Street Halo”, last year’s “Kindred”, and now this, London’s finest producer has released the best material of his career thus far. Personally, i have always been an album man, but with the quality of these EP’s I wouldn’t mind if Burial never released a full length LP again! With each release, William Bevan has continued to evolve his distinctive sound. While he is certainly a dubstep producer, Bevan’s music sounds like nothing else in that genre, and I often find myself describing his music as being emotive ambient music disguised as dubstep.

The two tracks here clock in at around 25 minutes, which is considerably shorter than Kindred, but this work is arguably more dense. Kindred closed with the revolutionary “Ashtray Wasp”, which was the longest and most surprising Burial track to date. The form of these two tracks is similar to the multi-part suite of that track, and they continue to explore the unexpected turns that his music can take.

“Truant” is the first of the two tracks. It opens the way you’d likely expect a Burial track to (foreboding ambiance, trademark vocal warble [a female voice saying “I Fell In Love With You], thumping bass), but then the track cuts out completely, giving a 1-2 measure of suspensful pause before the sounds re-enter and the momentum is turned up a notch. This is a trick being used by many these days, including “James Blake” and “The xx”, that is used excellently throughout this release. It is great to be reminded of how masterfully meticulous the vocal samples are in Burial’s music. Plenty of followers have attempted to adopt the ghostly vocal samples that permeate Burial’s work, but always fail in comparison. The track is riddled with other surprises as well, such as sudden rising chord sequences, but the main surprise is that the best is yet to come.

I will come out and say it, “Rough Sleeper”, is the track of the year thus far, and it’s going to be a tough one to beat. The first third of the track is led by an organ, which contains a specific tone that is so deep and affecting I could spend the rest of this review talking about it. I swear, it would be impossible for anyone to get bored with music this labored over. After a dozen or so miniature sections of bass and ambience, a new voice emerges stating, “Lights surrounding you”, when we are greeted by a heavenly bell section that carries the track for the remaining minutes. Describing all of this sounds like the track would be chaotic, or a take on maximalist electronic music recently popularized by “Rustie” or “Lone”, but the 13 minute length and the extent of this artist’s talent assures that all these components are in their proper place.

It should not be taken as an exaggeration when people say that Burial is the single greatest electronic producer of the time. He has clearly established himself as an unimitatable artist who is restless in his inventiveness and the extent at which he will challenge himself. While he clearly could have made a career out of repeating what he did on his “Untrue” album, he finds that making us scratch our heads is much more fun. We should be grateful.

Track Listing

1.) Truant

2.) Rough Sleeper*

* – Album Highlight

Album Review – Vatican Shadow: Ornamented Walls

by Rio Toro

Vatican Shadow: Ornamented Walls

Score: 7/10

Similar artists – Pete Swanson, Demdike Stare, Andy Stott, Ital

Genre – Noise Techno, Hipster House, Dark Ambient

Dominick Fernow has been a lead contributor to the highly prolific noise scene through his many aliases (most notably “Prurient”). As opposed to his peers in the genre, such as Wolf Eyes or Black Dice, Dominick’s music has always been more harsh, more disorienting, and certainly more damaging to the eardrums. This is an artist who is not kidding around. His music is relentless and unforgiving, and many of his tracks have featured high pitched alarms and sirens that scrape and gnaw at your mind for dozens of minutes on end. This most likely does not sound pleasant, and it certainly isn’t, but there is also a not-so-easy-to-write-down aspect of his music that is rewarding and addicting; mark my words, after you have listened to one of his releases you will want more.

His newest release compiles nine highlights from a new military inspired alias. These tracks were previously released as singles/EP’s on his own “Hospital Productions” label, but in this collection they are being put out through the much-loved, and very modern “Modern Love” label. If you haven’t heard of this label, dark might be one word to describe its output, but a more apt phrase would be suffocatingly bleak.

This release’s sound fits right alongside label mates “Andy Stott”, and to an even greater degree – Manchester’s, “Demdike Stare”. Both acts craft harrowing soundscapes out of buzz-saws and dozens of other non-musical entities, as well as embracing influences from various cultures. These sounds are conjoined to create a morphed, and entirely un-danceable form of ambient-leaning techno/house. The difference is that Vatican Shadow does this at higher on average, bpm than Demdike Stare. Still, many of Dominick Fernow’s previous releases have seemed to exist in a category all their own, and this one seems easy to corner in comparison.

One could also lump this into the newly cited “Hipster House” tag (meaning no disrespect), which speaks of techno/house music being created by artists pertaining to non-house backgrounds. Fellow noise brethren “Pete Swanson” recently made his first foray into the techno scene with the fantastic “Man with Potential”, and his results were similarly un-danceable. For these reasons, Ornamented Walls is somewhat more accessible and predictable when compared to his earlier material – although clearly not in the traditional sense of these words.

As I’ve stated before, this is a compilation, not an album. I mean this in the truest sense, as this release has no discernible flow, and the highlights are all front loaded. Here lies the release’s main flaw, as this leaves for a very uneven listening experience. Despite this complaint, Ornamented Walls remains a successful and well done direction for the artist. When the project gets a proper, fully developed full length it will be much more deserving of our attention.

Track Listing

1.) Operation Neptune Spear Part 1 (Live Rehearsal Mix)*

2.) Operation Neptune Spear Part 2 (Live Rehearsal Mix)*

3.) Operation Neptune Spear Part 3 (Live Rehearsal Mix)*

4.) Cairo is a Haunted City (Mythic Chords)

5.) Nightforce Scopes

6.) Yemeni Telephone Number

7.) India has just Tested a Nuclear Device

8.) Church of All Images (Church of the NSA)

9.) Boxes Were Wired to Batteries then Loaded into a Brown Toyota Cargo Truck

*- Album Highlight

REVIEWS

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