experimental

Fashion Flash-Forward: The Future in Fashion

I am admittedly a sci-fi nerd. The other day I was reading about jazz musician, performance artist, and Afrofuturist philosopher Sun Ra and his iconic work Space Is the Place.

It got me thinking about the fact that futurism has continued to find its way into fashion and aesthetic concepts, from Jean Paul Gaultier’s costume design for The Fifth Element to singer Janelle Monae’s Metropolis cycle.

Something about the distant future inspires us to imagine new possibilities and make bolder aesthetic choices. When I was researching for my performance piece about an extra-dimensional traveler, Arken: Searching for Wonder, I sought out images of futuristic fashion for inspiration. Here are a few images and designers that excite my mind.

This editorial from Numéro Homme called “Manhattan Psycho” effortlessly merges classic style with a sci-fi sensibility.

Coco and Breezy’s entire line of edgy accessories has futuristic overtones, but its “20/20” campaign is all about what accessorizing will mean in the future: “‘Planet C &&B’ is a world that consists only of fresh air and extreme sunlight where normal eyes cannot stand to view without being covered.”

Kay Kwok presented some out-of-this-world design concepts at his FW14 fashion week show in London. I don’t know if I’d wear this stuff on a regular trip to the grocery store, but I wouldn’t mind owning one of those visors, and I’m sure I’d cause a splash if I received dinner guests in that ET two-piece.

Lee Roach’s line has a much more subtle sci-fi flavor as he makes use of shiny materials and contemplates how our evolution will result in more streamlined fashion, by eliminating collars and lapels, for example.

Nasir Mazhar‘s FW14 collection updates men’s sportswear by exploring geometric shapes, distorted lines, quirky accessories, and shiny space suit sheen.

In the “Warriors” editorial, Holly Fox-Lee imagines how modern-day hip hop style might evolve, fusing it with an ancestral tribal aesthetic and taking it to extremes in terms of shape, scale, and materials.

This editorial called “The Visitors” in G7 magazine features my buddy Ulrico Eguizábal, who I met while I was modeling in Argentina. Not only does it use the concept of alien “visitors” to play with size and shape, but it also imagines a future style that challenges our current gender norms in fashion (thank goodness), using elements typically associated with femininity, like shoulder pads and long flowing fabrics, to highlight the male form in a fascinating new way.

Some of my favorite futuristic designs (and the ones I’d be most likely to wear in day-to-day life) come from Skingraft, which makes nuanced use of a lot of the earlier-mentioned elements, geometric shapes, extraterrestrial mystique, and interesting combinations of materials.

Finally, INAISCE is one of my personal favorite designers right now, in part because it incorporates futurism into its larger design concept to create clothing that is arresting, undeniably unique, and totally wearable. Not only do I absolutely love the campaign for Fall/Winter 2013, but I’m also ecstatic to see another tall African model, South Sudan native Ger Duany, take center stage with his beautiful, otherworldly features. Africans unite!

Album Review: Steve Moore – Pangaea Ultima

by Rio Toro Leave a Comment

Steve Moore: Pangaea Ultima
Similar Artists: Zombi, Bookworms, Lovelock
Genre: Synths n’ Stuff
Label: Spectrum Spools

I originally intended for this review to be for L.I.E.S.’ Music For Shut Ins, as the compilation has been my revolving soundtrack for the better part of the last month. If you’re not cool enough to already know, just as American Noise was last year, Music For Shut Ins is an impeccably solid grouping of new and previously released tracks from the New York umbrella label that represents some of the most exciting experimental electronic music around. So it’s too bad that I eventually found the release to be too overwhelming to write a proper review on. Luckily, Steve Moore (an artist who released multiple 12 inches for the label), has just released his newest and arguably highest profile release to date, and with it consisting of 9 similarly produced tracks, it happens to be a much easier statement to digest.

Pangaea Ultima is Steve Moore’s first release on Spectrum Spools: a label curated by ex-Emeralds member John Elliott that has harnessed an ever-increasing array of talent ever since its inception in 2011. In addition to Moore’s plentiful amount of solo material, he has recorded as a member of Zombi, the bass guitarist for prog-rock outfit Titan, and has offered his multi-instrumentalist talents to groups such as Panthers and SunnO))). He’s also written his own film scores (mostly for low-budget horror films), proving he’s not only a skilled multi-instrumentalist, but a skilled composer as well. Thankfully, this prolificness isn’t a detractor from the quality of his work, as Pangaea Ultima emerges as only the most recent of this artist’s dense and masterfully coordinated projects. However, there is something about Pangaea that feels more assured and fully realized in comparison to many of the artist’s earlier solo ventures, and hopefully this means it will be the release to garner him the larger audience that he deserves.

The album itself happens to be a soundtrack to the theorized super-continent destined to re-emerge on Earth within the next 200 million years or so, and with track titles like “Planetwalk” and “WorldBuilding”, it’s no secret that this is representative of Moore at his most colossal. The tone here is dark, and admittedly, this tone changes only very slightly throughout the hour long running time. Despite the limited emotional and instrumental range though, the album unfolds masterfully — as you might expect from someone with the resume of a film composer. Furthermore, despite Moore’s electronic and even post-punkian upbringing, he pretty much strays away from anything that could be deemed danceable, and several tracks are even entirely beat-less.

While Pangaea Ultima is not entirely without a chugging pulse (“Planetwalk” and the title track are borderline techno), Moore is much more concerned with concocting a stable mood and ominous intrigue. This direction is not to be confused with ambient music though, as Pangaea Ultima is a work that is as engrossing to listen to in the foreground as it is to lay dormant in the background (I’ve also found that it makes for some killer tetris battle music). Similarly, although many tracks appear to be in the vein of minimalism (“Deep Time”, “Logotones”), they all eventually emerge as dense and extraordinarily epic; at the most intense moments it’s as if we can feel the weight of the continents shifting beneath our feet.

There are a lot of keyboards present at any given moment — all of them arpegiatting and oscillating onward into some infinite void — yet the pieces themselves are uncluttered and organically rich; of which I give credit to the superb mastering of Rashad Becker. The recordings of Krautrock pioneers Tangerine Dream are an easy comparison to Pangaea Ultima, and truth be told, similarly designed compositions have been available as early as the 60’s. More recently, we’ve had Oneohtrix Point Never, who thoroughly documented how gripping solo synth pieces can be with his extensive and career making Rifts compilation. However, while what Steve Moore is doing here may not be unique or even immediately ear catching, it’s far from artless, and shouldn’t be taken as a mere throwback LP. Within a scene of synthesizer fetishists who — with the more readily available recording technology of today — are capable of making monstrous sounding synth music on the fly, what makes Pangaea stand out is that it clearly isn’t the sound of some virtuosic talent recording a day’s worth of work, but a unified and wholly satisfying piece that’s filled with as much blood, organs and bodily fluids as the organism that made it.

Track Listing:
1.) Endless Caverns
2.) Planetwalk*
3.) Deep Time
4.) Nemesis
5.) Pangaea Ultima*
6.) Logotone*
7.) Aphelion
8.) Endless Mountains
9.) Worldbuilding*

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Secret Boyfriend – This Is Always Where You’ve Lived

by Rio Toro

Secret Boyfriend: This Is Always Where You’ve Lived
Similar Artists: Helm, The Hospitals, 18+
Genre: Not-noise, Experimental, Shitgaze, Sound Collage
Label: Blackest Ever Black

Usually when I write a review, I try to focus on the emotional impact of the music, as well as the response the music is intending to make on the listener. However, with This Is Always Where You’ve Lived — the first true full-length from North Carolina’s Ryan Martin (AKA Secret Boyfriend) — nothing comes easy in terms of categorization. In fact, these mysterious and elusive tracks often resist words at all, which in my interpretation is one of the reasons so little has been written about the artist throughout his nearly decade long career. Until now, he has made ends meet in the music world through a limited run of cassette only releases, split LPs, and his own Hot Releases imprint. This release sees Martin combining his wide array of musical ideas into a concise and fully realized statement that borrows little and asks for nothing. Still, as big a statement for Secret Boyfriend as this is, these 12 largely dissimilar tracks — while somehow coexisting harmoniously within the same album — all contradict one another as pieces, and one by one will blank out your previous theories about exactly who this Secret Boyfriend guy is.

It turns out I’m not the only one having trouble pinpointing this artist either, as Ryan Martin has become known in the N.C underground for his unpredictable live shows which range from aggressive, anarchistic noise fests to creepy vocal modified acoustic numbers. While starting off as a kind of tongue-in-cheek performance artist looking to breed awkwardness, he has clearly moved on to bigger and better things in recent years. The music on this release is a combination of dreamy, painfully lo-fi (folk?) songs, divisively simple keyboard melodies, abstract electronic noodling/sampling, fuzz-laden ambient soundscapes, and the occasional detour into Japanese caliber noise. It’s quite possibly the most varied of the DIY albums I listened to in 2013, and certainly one of the most unusual to come out on Blackest Ever Black. Despite these contrasting elements though, the music works because all of these fragmented pieces join arms and unite to create a musical experience that’s quite unlike any other I’ve had within recent memory. It’s a bizarre, otherworldly venture that’s also strangely nostalgic; like we are being taken down a chain of childhood memories that we never actually had.

Calling Secret Boyfriend a collage artist might put it best, because his productions consist of around half a dozen simple elements that are loosely conjoined to form a new, alien-like identity. It must be said, even for music this independently based, the core musicianship here can be pretty lousy. Fortunately, it appears that Martin knows what he’s doing around 3/4ths of the time and for the most part what he’s doing remains impressive despite some obvious shortcomings. All the leading melodies are well thought out, and his occasionally shoddy guitar playing/keyboard skills actually end up adding personality instead of distracting from the experience.

Unlike most non-musicians working in the field of experimentalia — excepting the opening 5 seconds of “Summer Wheels/Mysterious Fires” and the battalion ready final track — Martin mostly strays away from anything violently harsh. All the haphazardous knob twiddling and amateurish discrepancies are reserved for the background, which is why these tracks happen to be such a warm and inviting bunch for a scene that prides itself with freakouts. As daunting a title as This Is Always Where You’ve Lived may seem, it wouldn’t be a bad place to settle down in for a few months, which isn’t something I could say about most music this daring and abstract.

The world that Martin has created here is one that’s steeped in fantastical daydreams and a youthful longing. Above all else, the album is defined by its hazy atmosphere and ultra loose feel that refuses precision as a means towards greatness. Only occasionally — such as on the Haxon Cloak-like “Remarkable Fluids” or the titular closing track — does this lighthearted mood transform into something nightmarish, and even then it remains an exciting detour. On the other hand, many tracks, including the 8 minute standout “Deleted Hill”, are so devoid of structure that they end up falling apart entirely, so it’s a good thing that watching them do so happens to be absolutely mesmerizing.

Upon closer inspection, Secret Boyfriend is far from lazy, and he has indeed put a plentiful amount of work and detail into these productions: his talent just doesn’t happen to be in the places you would normally look for it. Even after listening to This Is Always Where You’ve Lived for several days, I continue to be surprised at how Martin can be wondrously adept in certain fields (layering tracks, atmosphere) while being mindlessly incompetent in others (properly tuning a guitar, remaining on beat). Despite these factors though, listening to Secret Boyfriend is far from frustrating , and I would recommend taking a peek to anyone who’s looking for a journey through the strange and bewildering without wanting to sacrifice the chance to be uplifted.

Track Listing:
1.) Summer Wheels/Mysterious Fires*
2.) Silvering The Wing
3.) Form Me*
4.) Flashback
5.) Remarkable Fluids
6.) Beyond the Darkness*
7.) Dream Scrape
8.) Glint and Follow You
9.) Have You Heard About This House
10.) Last Town
11.) Deleted Hill*
12.) This Is Always Where You’ve Lived*

Album Highlight – *

Design and Violence—MoMA’s online experiment

by Austin Arrington

boxcutter — Boxcutter—tool or weapon? Photo credit: HomeSpot HQ

We are often accustomed to think about design in light, happy terms. Design is a way to shape the built environment in beautiful and functional ways. However, design can also be viewed as a creative act of destruction. Design and Violence, an online curatorial project at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), is currently exploring this relationship.

In the 1971 book, Design for the Real World,Victor Papanek writes, “There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few of them.” Papanek was a designer and educator who advocated for social and ecological responsibility in the design of products, tools, and community infrastructures.

Designers, whether architects, fashion gurus, or web developers, create new ways for people to interface with reality. In doing so, they play a major role in reconfiguring society and culture.

There are two main questions posed by Design and Violence. How is violence embedded in design? And how does design impact society’s idea of violence?

Design and Violence is organized by Paolo Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA; Jamer Hunt, Director, graduate program in Transdisciplinary Design, Parsons The New School for Design; and Kate Carmody, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA.

The curators invite experts from a wide range of fields (science, literature, philosophy, journalism, and politics) to comment and theorize on the relationship between design objects and societal violence.

The project defines violence as “a manifestation of the power to alter circumstances, against the will of the other and to their detriment.”

One example of such a manifestation of power is gentrification—in which entire communities are displaced through interdependent socioeconomic and cultural shifts in design.

The curators at Design and Violence have mostly collected objects designed after 2001, to signify the paradigm shift that occurred after the 9/11 attacks. One case study was performed on the box cutter/utility knife, due to its role in the 9/11 plane hijackings.

Other concepts that have been explored by the project include the global shift from symmetrical to asymmetric warfare, as well as the development of cyber-warfare.

There are seven thematic categories through which the curators organize objects—Hack/Infect: disrupting the rules of the system; Constrain: binding, blocking, and distorting; Stun: causing blunt trauma; Penetrate: infiltrate the boundaries, breaching; Manipulate/Control: drawing into the realm of violence with suasion; Intimidate: promising damage and death; and Explode: annihilating visibly and completely.

The most mundane of objects can be the subject of a Design and Violence case study. Take a look at Daan van den Berg’s Merrick Lamp. According to the curators, ‘virus’ is a versatile term that can mean an infecting agent for either biological life or computer files. This fact led van den Berg to hack CAD files, 3-D printing a mutated IKEA lamp named after “Elephant Man” Joseph Carey Merrick.

Elephant man — Joseph Merrick, the inspiration for van den Berg’s Merrick Lamp.

Andrew Blauvelt, Senior Curator of Design, Research, and Publishing at the Walker Art Center, calls the Merrick Lamp an act of “aesthetic terrorism.” It serves as a subversive commentary on the industrial homogeneity perpetuated by corporations like IKEA.

The Design and Violence website also acts as a forum for design experts to critique each other’s ideas. For example, the Republic of Salivation by Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta is a project that imagines a dystopian future of food shortages, rationing, and synthetic feeding devices. Philosopher and sustainability advocate John Thackara recently critiqued the Republic of Salivation, on the basis that the global food crisis can be solved in more holistic, environmentally conscious ways.

Design and Violence is an ongoing experiment, with no definite end scheduled. The second phase of the project, currently under development, is its Google Earth extension. This phase will enable users to locate the physical location of each object within the collection, allowing for more traditional viewing of the artifacts.

Album Review: James Ferraro – NYC, Hell 3:00 AM

by Rio Toro

James Ferraro: NYC, Hell 3:00 AM

Similar Artists: Dean Blunt, D’eon, Inga Copeland

Genre: Experimental

Label: Hippos In Tanks

I can’t say I’ve ever completely enjoyed a release by James Ferraro. With that said, he is a fascinating producer, and one I have always listened to with a perked ear. Within recent years — since the release of Far Side Virtual (an album of his I’m still torn on) — he has been viewed as one of the more forward thinking producers within the experimental realms. After the bizarre eccentricities (ads, Microsoft voices) that became a part of his sound with Far Side Virtual, he has moved down a darker, more R&B influenced path. Sushi, the album he introduced many of these new themes on, was a pull away from his hyper conceptual work, and with his Cold mixtape earlier this year — with the emphasis largely being put on the beats and Ferraro’s own voice — it seemed he was moving in a more accessible, or at least more digestible, direction.

However, NYC, Hell 3:00 AM sees Ferraro taking his newly found sounds and crafting them into a dense, multifaceted 60 minute album that recaptures his love for overarching conceptual design. As the title suggests, this album was inspired by NYC at its darkest, most depressed, and most surreal. On these terms, Ferraro has conquered, as the album is synonymous with subway systems, a lack of oxygen, and towering grey skyscrapers that keep you locked in like a prison. This is a new kind of darkness that Ferraro is playing with, and he’s not the least bit afraid to make us feel uncomfortable. While people have been attempting to fit Ferraro’s work in with the current wave of ghostly R&B — popularized by How To Dress Well, The Weeknd, etc. — in reality there is little comparison. While I don’t feel this direction is James’ attempt to make a mockery out of this style, he does play up the humor every once in a while. “Cheek Bones”, one of the lengthier, and even dancier tracks, has the main lyric of /I don’t want cancer, but these cigarettes give me cancer/ and there are similar moments of irony played out through the album. It’s for this reason that James’ closest comparison is label mate Dean Blunt, who took his turning step as a vocalist on “The Redeemer”, released earlier this year. Both have a sound that is impossible to categorize, and their music is frequently intoxicating because of it.

These 16 songs are often skeletal, and bereft of many components that would have suited them nicely. Even the beats, which Ferraro has previously piled layer on top of layer, are conspicuously absent for minutes at a time. What is there, however, is enveloping, and harrowing in its tone. This will likely go down as James’ ambient period, as he seems much more concerned with creating a dense, cataclysmic atmosphere rather than writing solid hooks…or poetic lyrics…or any of the other things an artist would add to their music to assure people would enjoy it. Take the opener, which begins with a loop of a feminine Microsoft voice saying “money” over and over again; we keep expecting a beat to drop in, but it never does, in turn introducing the album’s neglect towards our expectations.

Many tracks, especially during the first half of the album, feature organic instrumentation such as bells, as if they are being heard from a far away church, and they act as the one safe haven in a land crawling with filth. The field recordings — which pull from idle chatter to police sirens, to 9/11 news reports — add to the tense feeling that becomes burrowed within your skin through the endurance testing running time.

Somehow, it works though. If only for its uncategorizable mood and consistently dense atmosphere, NYC Hell 3:00 AM, is an unforgettable work. It’s an album’s album: one that you couldn’t listen to a lot — or in this case, barely at all — but when that right time comes, it will be right there at the back of your mind begging you to explore its world one more time.

Track Listing:

1.) Intro

2.) Fake Pain*

3.) QR JR

4.) Close Ups*

5.) Beautiful John K.

6.) Stuck 1

7.) City Smells

8.) Upper East Side Pussy*

9.) Eternal Condition

10.) Stuck 2

11.) Niggas

12.) Stuck 3 (RATS)

13.) Cheek Bones*

14.) Vanity

15.) Irreplaceable*

16.) Nushawn

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Laurel Halo – Chance of Rain

by Rio Toro

Laurel Halo: Chance of Rain
Similar Artists: Holly Herndon, Steve Reich, Maria Minerva
Genre: Experimental
Label: Hyperdub

Laurel Halo is an artist who proudly and defiantly resists categorization. When she dropped her debut full length on Hyperdub last year after an enticing run of experimental EPs, little to no one knew what to make of it. Like her releases before it, Quarantine was pretty much acclaimed around the board, but there was also a sense of rabid confusion surrounding it: largely, with her untouched, often off-key vocals…among other odd production decisions. Listening to Quarantine now though — after the talk surrounding it has finally begun to slow — I think I finally get what Laurel was trying to achieve with it. While the word “post-pop” is thrown around a lot these days, I feel Laurel was the first artist to succeed in making an album worthy of that descriptor. Through its 12 beguiling tracks, Laurel playfully explored the surrounding aura of pop (if only for a few measures at a time), while simultaneously dissecting and reassembling its organs into her own mutant entity. It’s an enigmatic work that we most certainly won’t see anything like again…as it turns out even from her.

It’s all absurdly challenging too; Laurel isn’t simply hitting random buttons on her keyboards and hoping for something interesting to disperse. This talent of hers isn’t completely revealing though, as she is undoubtedly the next in line of those virtuosic musicians whose aims are so awkwardly skewed to the point that that we lose track of what they are trying to accomplish through the course of a track. A single 6 minute track may see Laurel flirting with techno, minimalism, noise, ambient and classical music, yetshe never fully indulges in any of them. While the combination of these genres isn’t unique in its own right, Laurel succeeds in forming them into a demented whole that is unique to her name. As those who have seen her perform live will say, Laurel’s brain seems to work in a loop that is far outside the norm (I’m personally willing to bet she’s on the Autism spectrum).

Her work thus far has been strange and beautiful (if not always enjoyable), but her vision continues to remain essential in the furthering of electronic music. On her latest full length, Chance of Rain, she takes a step back from the dizzying post pop of Quarantine and delves into an equally chaotic instrumental excursion that is by turns soothing and alarming. Quite like Beyond the Green Door — her EP from earlier this year — Chance of Rain is rooted in metallic techno with lush, environmental undertones. However, she has moved away from any four on the floor stability to more fully incorporate her wide stylistic capabilities.

Largely built out of a series of live improvisations, Chance of Rain takes the form of a metaphysical journey down a rabbit hole. The 9 consistently evolving tracks exist as a decomposition of what a proper techno set should sound like, and she has done a great job of putting the pieces in a discernible pattern. While each track unfolds sporadically, as an entire piece, Chance of Rain is brilliantly melded experience. Opener, “Dr. Echt”, as well as the closer, “-Out”, both focus on Laurel’s rubbery piano scales amidst waves of rising ambience. Another brief track, “Melt”, is a 2 minute foray into cinematic drones and out of place orchestral pieces. These shorter tracks are juxtaposed against epic 8 minute ones, such as the title track, which fades in and out of jazzy free floating piano chords and hard hitting bass stomps. “Ainnome” is similarly epic with its crystalline ambient textures and swelling beats. Still, the only track that comes close to being full on techno is “Thrax”, which is a constant build of gooey bass, noisy percussion and warped vocal samples. It’s the one crowd pleaser on an album that seems to be in a constant state of disagreement with the listener.

Just like her previous work, Chance of Rain is an album that is often very difficult to become immersed in. With its constantly changing foregrounds and backgrounds, these tracks are transient in nature, and will revolt against the casual listener. It’s an incredibly frustrating album — one of the most aggravating I’ve heard this year — but it’s for this reason that I have become compelled to it even more. So many albums have came out this year that I have initially raved about, only to realize I had become bored with them a few months down the road. From her ungrounded approach, to the out of this world cover art (drawn by her own father), to the way she plays tricks with the listeners perception, Chance of Rain is an album that will take countless more listens to wrap my head around. In this sense, Laurel Halo has given us a true gift; a puzzle that will take months or possibly even years to solve.

Track Listing:
1.) Dr. Echt
2.) Oneiroi*
3.) Serindip
4.) Chance of Rain*
5.) Melt
6.) Still/Dromos
7.) Thrax*
8.) Ainnome*
9.) -Out

Album Highlight – *

Official Site

Album Review: Tim Hecker – Virgins

by Rio Toro

Tim Hecker: Virgins

Similar Artists: Ben Frost, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jacaszek

Genre: Experimental, Ambient

Label: Kranky

Glass chambers, creaky floorboards, shipwrecks, brightly lit hallways, rooms that neither end nor begin, the pull of empty space, unknown aircrafts flying over head, smashed mirrors, melted canvases, forgotten buildings embellished in dust, bomb shelters, endless streams of molecules, trains crashing, ricocheting fragments of metal, minefields bursting apart the earth, solar eclipses, heavy breathing, a killer with a knife, torn pages from a historical manuscript, broken hospital monitors, seeing the fear in your victims eyes, stranded on an island, isolated, all viewed through a wide angle lens.

Once again, Montreal based composer Tim Hecker — whose music has grown increasingly demanding throughout the course of his seven full lengths — has given us a visually striking cinematic experience, and also, quite possibly the next landmark in ambient music. While chronicling his entire course up to this point might prove worthwhile, I will digress by starting with his last solo release, Ravedeath 1972. Listening to Virgins, It’s now clear that that album — which was notoriously crafted from a single organ performance — was the true changing point for the artist, as it’s where he found the perfect balancing point between his competing themes of light vs. dark. The mood he has continued to create here is one that’s steeped in a remorseful yearning, and his sound is one fueled by a disintegrating orchestra — each instrument violently clambering to find their proper place within the mix. While it’s occasional abruptness may be too much for some listeners, the emphasis on bright textures and heavenly overtones makes it more beautiful than ear clenching.

While he had a rather large following before 2011, the warm critical and commercial reception recently befitting his name has allowed him a larger sense of freedom on this release. This release has also availed him to the necessary production costs to take his style to heights that were previously only hinted at. Just listen to the opening track, “Prism”; within seconds we are thrown into the disarray of mountainous feedback and a string section being turned inside out. It’s the sounds of an artist who’s grown fearless, and one who is free of restraint. He’s evolved in other ways too, as evidenced by “Live Room”, one of the artist’s most spacious and detailed arrangements yet.

So you’re probably wondering what all that mumbo jumbo I put in the first paragraph is about. While I won’t explain all of it, it goes along with the scattershot, yet somehow still unified track sequencing of the album. This is in direct opposition to Ravedeath 1972, which I felt to be an album that flowed seamlessly and uninterruptedly throughout its running time. Unlike the goal of many ambient artists, Virgins represents the soundtrack to a movie that could never exist. It’s a soundtrack that provides countless scenarios and visualizations, all of which have blown up at the seams, damaging any valuable information we would have needed to put them all together. It’s a move that makes his music more jarring than typical ambient music, but also arguably more listenable and engaging.

Largely due to the expanded instrumentation, Virgins is easily the most enthralling Tim Hecker release yet. Created through a series of live recordings in rooms, the sounds of various woodwinds, strings and pianos become meshed and intertwined into a disorienting — but never cacophonous — whole. Piano no longer acts as a faint reminder of human world, as it is now enmeshed within the chaos, and provides its own kind of twisted sacrificial bond with the listener. Never is this more apparent than on the 2 “Virginal” pieces, in which a piano is looped and overdubbed to a terrifying effect. If you couldn’t tell from the cover art alone, the album isfar from the innocence its title invokes. Other tracks are based in more standard ambient fashion (“Amps, Drugs, Harmonium”), but there is always something strange lurking in the background to prevent us from completely characterizing these tracks as one definite thing.

I keep being reminded of scenes from Gravity when I listen to Virgins, especially during the slow build of “Stigmata II”. The infiniteness of space presented in that movie proves to be an accurate reference point for the obtuse presentation of the album, and the two are similar in their themes of isolation and desperation. Like outer space, Virgins is a place that exists on a never ending plane, it doesn’t make sense when we attempt to study the finer points of it, but we can’t help but be amazed by its vast features regardless. Above any interpretation though, this is music about harnessing a particular feeling. It’s not experimental music in a topical sense that was made to sound “cool” or “trendy”, but rooted by the process intrinsically to evoke a certain emotional response. If you had any doubt that he wouldn’t top himself, with Virgins, Tim Hecker has crafted his most engrossing album yet.

Track Listing:

1.) Prism*

2.) Virginal I*

3.) Radiance

4.) Live Room*

5.) Live Room Out

6.) Virginal II*

7.) Black Refraction

8.) Incense at Abu Ghraib*

9.) Amps, Drugs, Harmonium

10.) Stigmata I

11.) Stigmata II*

12.) Stab Variation

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Darkside – Psychic

by Rio Toro

Darkside: Psychic

Similar Artists: Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Ricardo Villalobos, Nicolas Jaar

Genre: Experimental, Downtempo, Blues, Psychedelia

Label: Other People/Matador

I’ve spent a good deal of time wondering whether Psychic, the debut album from Darkside — a collaborative project between experimental electronic wunderkind Nicolas Jaar and blues guitarist David Harrington — should be compared to Jaar’s previous work. This question specifically relates to the album Space Is Only Noise, which in recent years has become something of a classic among downtempo electronica. It must be said, the music these two are making here is pretty out there, and it’s clear Jaar is trying to escape his already unorthodox roots by immersing himself in something that is even harder to put your finger on. Why someone would want to escape the near unanimous praise of their debut album is another question all together, and probably one worthy of a separate article.

Darkside is an odd pairing not because it can’t be compared to the artists’ previous work, but because Jaar’s psychedelia inspired electronic noodling is paired against such traditional 6 string guitar riffing that it is at times laughable; the Clapton-esque “Heart” is particularly hard to take seriously. This feeling comes out from Jaar’s vocals as well — which by the way have never sounded as gorgeous — and his tone carries a sense of intended irony on tracks like “Paper Trails”. It’s not off-putting, just curious, as it makes one wonder if the entire project is intended to be a parody of Pink Floyd records.

This intentional self-parody is not a consistent force through the length of the album though. Most of the album — including the 11 minute opening track, “Golden Arrow” — is dead serious, and it can at times be forceful enough to throw you out of your chair. Before I get nitpicky, I must state the album’s most obvious claims: the production and mixing here are utterly flawless. The sounds are palpable in their thickness and magnitude, and although the tone is often “dark”, every element is enshrined in a warm and radiant overcoat. At it’s best, Psychic is an album with loads of personality.

Unfortunately, the album as a whole can’t be called very personable. It’s an album that’s just begging for you to listen to it while under the influence, because once you are, you’ll likely be sucked in from the first note to the last. Unfortunately, it doesn’t impress quite so easily in our native world. Although the 60’s inspired guitar lines are easy to poke fun at, there could actually be more of them, as too often are we suspended among suspecting ambience. It’s during the most maximalist moments — where the heavy baseline pours in and the groove sticks to a solid 4/4 — that turn out to be the most arousing. “Freak, Go Home” might be the track that is most relatable to the Nicolas Jaar of yore, with its slyly delectable house motifs and morphing Villalobos inspired backdrops. “Greek Light” is another highlight, and we see Nicolas Jaar’s yearning falsetto take on a new role as his voice becomes looped within itself and draped against sun-drenched guitar chords.

The album is filled with great ideas such as these, but it’s only “Golden Arrow” that can rightfully stand on its own. It’s a beautifully evolving track that evokes mystery and entrigue amongst carefully thought out musical dynamics. If the rest of the tracks are the sound of Nicolas Jaar And Dave Harrington jamming and experimenting in the studio, “Golden Arrow” feels like a thoughtfully planned out spectacle of musical precision.

When I first heard of Darkside, I wasn’t particularly excited for the project, and their initial 2010 EP didn’t happen to raise many of my hairs either. Psychic, however, makes it clear that the project can work wonders if enough thought is put into the compositions. Nicolas Jaar has succeeded (again) in remaining an unpredictable musical figure with a bountiful array of talent. As this channels a new kind of energy than his previous work, it also shows the importance of collaboration in terms of broadening an artist’s longevity. While it’s just shy of being a complete statement, it does nothing but complement its creators attributes. For those who think that Nicolas Jaar is one of the most important producers of our time, this does nothing to change that.

Track Listing:

1.) Golden Arrow*

2.) Sitra

3.) Heart

4.) Paper Trails*

5.) The Only Shrine I’ve Ever Seen

6.) Freak, Go Home*

7.) Greek Light*

8.) Metatron

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven

by Rio Toro

Oneohtrix Point Never: R Plus Seven

Similar Artists: Arca, James Ferraro, John Oswald

Genre: Post-New Age, Experimental, Abstract

Label: Warp

We’re living in a time where proper release dates have become all but obsolete. The internet ungratefully stole that privilege from record labels with the dawn of the torrent, and it’s unlikely we will ever recover from it. After all, who can get excited for a release date when we know very well we will likely be listening to the album weeks before that projected date. Many artists have even begun leaking their own albums via online stream in attempt to prevent fans from listening to low quality versions from untrusted sources. It’s a necessary move too, as unknowingly hearing an album in its unfinished form is one of the true examples of how file sharing can be detrimental to the music experience. For instance, chances are, if you downloaded Oneohtrix Point Never’s breakout LP Replica illegally, you were left to wonder if those interjecting glitches and blips throughout “Explain” were supposed to have been there (hint: they weren’t). The same goes for Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, which leaked with a version of “Deep Blue” that faded out before the epic ending crescendo (one of the album’s best moments imo). This ill-fated process immediately creates a disconnect between the artist’s intention and the listeners perception, and the reality that the album was built around becomes distorted.

So, yes, it’s usually not a good sign when an album leaks months prior to its release date. Even if the album happened to leak in its completed form, there’s nothing worse for an artist than for the world to play out one of their records before it hits store shelves. However, Oneohtrix Point Never’s heavily anticipated R Plus Seven — which leaked mid August — has proven to hold up far past its actual release date, and in my case it has taken me these entire 2 months to merely form an opinion about it. Additionally, while he might be beloved by critics and music nerds alike, Daniel Lopatin’s work has always been a nightmare to dissect. Since R Plus Seven is quite possibly his most structurally obtuse release yet, we should be grateful we were able to get a head start on digesting it.

It’s an album that you will listen to for days on end, and although you will enjoy it…and feel moderately comfortable with it…it’s unlikely that you will ever truly know it. It presents itself not as floating sound waves and discernible patterns, but as undefinable objects set in abstract settings during alternate time frames. Watch the video for “Problem Areas” if you don’t know what I mean. While it may be the continuation of the sample based approach that garnered OPN so much attention on Replica, it’s also a move away from concrete pieces that start and finish within a finite time frame. There is not one track among the ten that I would risk playing in isolation from the others, as it’s not an album that looks for concise statements.

With that said, R Plus Seven is arguably the most musically minded project Daniel Lopatin has put out, and although it’s a puzzle, it’s an inviting one. Here Lopatin deals with an electronic jungle of sounds that incorporates centuries of musical memorabilia. It’s his most versatile statement, and his pieces are accompanied with more pronounced melodies than ever before. While he’s never been a fan of repetition, he outdoes himself this time in terms of progressiveness. Each element of sound within a track is representative of a wholly different time in musical history, but he sorts these pieces into a cinematic orchestra of emotions.

After the umpteenth listen, you’ll realize the music is not as post-human as it originally leads you to believe; even if it is post-everything else. From traditional instruments (for him), like piano, horns, church organ and samurai strings juxtaposed against his usual array of ancient midi software and puddles of abstract noise, he creates a sound that is a mixture of both everything and nothing. He combats every progressive sound with a dated one that is deliciously cheesy and fake, hinting that he isn’t being completely serious.

The experience isn’t completely even; you won’t be engaged from start to finish, and some of the shorter tracks don’t resonate as fully as they could have. Still, I feel any slight flaws are necessary, as the album’s overall effect is greater than the sum of its parts. This is an album that — quite like Returnal, Rifts, and Replica — injects life back into the experimental music scene. True, it may be a scene that doesn’t need any saving, as there are countless artists who are similar in design to Oneohtrix, but the difference is that OPN makes this kind of restless, opaquely disorienting music fun again. He makes the daunting seem mesmerizing, the scary seem friendly, and the sad seem funny. If that’s not worthy of being called groundbreaking then I don’t know what is.

Track Listing:

1.) Boring Angel*

2.) Americans*

3.) He She

4.) Inside World

5.) Zebra*

6.) Along

7.) Problem Areas*

8.) Cryo

9.) Still Life

10.) Chrome County*

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Tropic of Cancer – Restless Idylls

by Rio Toro

Tropic of Cancer: Restless Idylls

Similar Artists: Silent Servant, Raime, Regis, Grouper, Vatican Shadow

Genre: Goth, Minimal Wave, Drone, Shoegaze

Label: Blackest Ever Black

Camella Lobo’s Tropic of Cancer alias represents the epitome of a “musical project”. Her tracks — which are a particularly unglamorous tour through goth, minimal wave, and drone — feel more like art installations than traditionally evolving songs. We feel as though the music being presented has been premeditated, catering towards some kind of definitive aim, without ever once becoming an inch more or less than what it’s meant to be. As listeners, we are simply left to examine these pieces in their unwavering state, hovering over them without ever being completely immersed — or even knowing much about what they are supposed to represent. In fact, the entirety of Tropic of Cancer might as well be represented as one towering sculpture sealed behind a glass box; each of the individual tracks represent this unknown entity from a similar, but slightly altered viewpoint.

Despite the influence of shoegaze, Camella’s palette of colors revolves almost strictly between black to dark gray. Nearly every track to come out of her project thus far has been based around the convergence of drum loops, Joy Division baselines, reverbed guitar textures and melted, undecipherable vocals (from Camella herself). It’s a style that is in no way unique unto itself, as this cold-wave music has actually become somewhat over-popularized through the last few years, but ToC has proven to stick out from many of their peers through a dedication to craft and unrivaled authenticity.

Part of why Tropic of Cancer’s singles and EP’s have been the source of such intrigue and speculation is that they have come out on Downwards — a label run by minimal techno titan Karl O’ Connor (AKA Regis), that specializes in dark, industrial electronic music. Now however, for their true debut (2011’s The End Of All Things was only a singles compilation) TOC has moved to the london based Blackest Ever Black. Since TOC share a thing or two in common with Blackest Ever Black showcase artist Raime, the move couldn’t be more fitting.

Restless Idylls is Camella Lobo’s attempt to take her project in some brighter directions — although I say this reservedly as the tracks here are as haunting and mournful as ever; just about as far away from tropical as one could get. However, a few tracks do see Lovo experimenting with some brighter chords and textures. The prime example of this is “Children Of A Lesser God”, the unquestionable highlight and centerpiece of the album. Though the track was actually released a year ago, this rerecorded version easily stands as the most vibrant and audacious track in the ToC library. It’s the track that all the others seem to revolve around, and it proves to be enveloping without sacrificing any of ToC’s grit or integrity.

This is also Camela Lobo’s attempt to make her project work in an album format, and on those fronts she hasn’t faired so well. In addition to “Children Of A Lesser God”, many other tracks on Restless Idylls have been released beforehand on singles/EP’s (although they seem to have been slightly altered), which is a bit underwhelming. In fact, there is actually very little that separates this from her 2011 singles compilation — both in reference to the quality of the songs and overall mood.

Karl O Connor — who is credited with production and mixing duties — has added some rippling, electronic undercurrents to Camella’s otherwise stable sound, and if you’re playing the music loud enough, it’s enough to give the pieces an intense quality to them; especially during otherwise bland tracks like “The Seasons Won’t Change (And Neither Will You)”. But otherwise, Restless Idylls is so unambitious and lacking in variety that it will be hard to recommend to much of anyone. Overall, these are tracks that travel in a circular motion, never ending up much further than where they started. While this may be the point of their existence, if so, their premise has become tired and predictable over the course of the artist’s 5 year career. If you’re willing to give Restless Idylls a shot, just know that you’ll have to give it a mighty big push to get it anywhere off the ground.

Track Listing:

1.) Plant Lillies On My Head*

2.) Court of Devotion*

3.) Hardest Day

4.) Children Of A Lesser God*

5.) More Alone

6.) The Seasons Won’t Change (And Neither Will You)

7.) Wake The Night

8.) Rites Of The Wild

Album Highlight – *

experimental

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