Opposing forces

Sasu Ripatti serves a pair of contrasting pummellings - in off-kiltering machine mode as Vladislav Delay with the Espoo EP on Raster-Noton & in a suppler, more slippery guise as the Moritz von Oswald Trio's timeshuffler on Fetch (Honest Jon's)...

Blurbs (one more illuminating than the other, but anyway): "Vladislav Delay‘s EP 'Espoo' features two new conceptual, rhythm-intense tracks. Whereas the groove of the opener 'Olari' derives from a sound loop which is manipulated by filters and echoes and finally brings forth the intensifying beat, the reverse is done with 'Kolari' on the b-side. starting from an impulsive, staccato beat, a sound carpet is woven by means of modifiers which gradually shape a permanent vacation-like melody, close to terry riley‘s minimalistic concepts. both tracks share a linear increase in density, and because of their break with the common four-four time, they create a certain folkloric atmosphere." 


"The Moritz Von Oswald Trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. Feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone...At once umbilically connected to and completely distinct from all the musics that they draw from, the Trio's subliminal musings on the connections between musical forms are expressed by Fetch as a series of beguiling contradictions. Rigid vs. fluid; playful vs. deadly serious; machine vs. human; sensual vs. austere: all of these seemingly opposing forces are allowed to intermingle across four longform tracks, sometimes played off against one another, occasionally brought together in tense unison before springing apart once again."

Vladislav Delay - Espoo (Preview Mix)

Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Fetch (Preview Mix)

 

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Fifty-fifty balls

After Monday's first instalment, a further 50 exceptional artists/releases to complete LMYE's 2011 Festive 50 + 50. Not, of course, that our centurions' were the year's only worthwhile sounds - we're intensely conscious (particularly after relishing others' deeply-felt - & very different - lists, notably Anti-Gravity Bunny's, Gacougnal's, The Liminal's (& its contributors'), The Milk Factory's, Suborno's, Fluid Radio's & 5:4's) of how much more thrilling music 2011 had to offer & how partial even our expanded selection must inevitably be.


Still, as with our earlier batch, each of these artists/releases resonated greatly with one or both of us over the year. Some will with you too, hopefully...

Keith Berry - The Ear That Was Sold To a Fish (album preview)


Sublamp - Girl, Calling to an Empty House [via pdis_inpartmaint]


kreng - grimoire (album preview)

Further 50 (or so...)

3ofmillions :: Abstruction (Rufus) / a. d. l. r. :: Foam On The Waves Of Space-Time... (Non Projects) / Aquarelle :: A Shifting Visage (Low Point; split w/Alex Cobb)/Sung In Broken Symmetry (Students of Decay) / A Winged Victory for the Sullen :: A Winged Victory for the Sullen (kranky) / Keith Berry :: The Ear that was Sold to a Fish (Infraction) / John Chantler :: The Luminous Ground (Room40) / Chubby Wolf :: Turkey Decoy (Digitalis) / Cleared :: Cleared (Immune) / Dark Class :: Gendie/Music For A Destroyed Landscape (Heat Death) / Deep Magic :: Lucid Thought (Preservation) / / d_rradio :: Forecast (Heat Death) / Ensemble Economique :: Crossing the Pass, by Torchlight (Dekorder) / Erstlaub :: The Last Few Seconds Before Sleep/The First Few Seconds After Sleep (Broken20) / Keith Fullerton Whitman :: 101105 (Dekorder; split w/Alien Radio)/Regaining Composure, Negating Freedom (Ekhein) / Ellen Fullman :: Through Glass Planes (Important) / Steven Hess & Christopher McFall :: The Inescapable Fox (Under the Spire) / Ezekiel Honig :: Folding Live (self-released) / The Inventors of Aircraft :: The West Country (Rural Colours) / Ithaca Trio :: Quiet, Please (Coma Architects) / Jasper TX :: The Black Sun Transmissions (Fang Bomb) / Leyland Kirby :: Eager To Tear Apart The Stars/Intrigue & Stuff Vols 1-3 (History Always Favours the Winners) / Kenneth Kirschner :: Twenty Ten (12k) / Kreng - Grimoire (Miasmah) / Will Long :: Rosy Reflections (Avant Archive) / Loscil :: Coast/Range/Arc (Glacial Movements) / Machinist - Of What Once Was (Moving Furniture)

The Inventors of Aircraft - Calling Out My Goodnights


Dark Class - Music For A Destroyed Landscape


machinist - of what once was (album preview)

Marsen Jules :: Nostalgia (Oktaf) / Nickolas Mohanna :: Reflections (Preservation) / Moss :: Moss (12k) / Mountains :: Air Museum (Thrill Jockey) / Yann Novak :: Presence (Hibernate) / Oneohtrix Point Never :: Replica (Software/Mexican Summer) / Fabio Orsi :: Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul (Preservation)/The Theft of a Rose (Time Released Sound)/Wo Ist Behle? (Boring Machines) / Ous Mal :: Ous Mal Is Dead...Long Live Ous Mal (Preservation) /  Duane Pitre :: ED09 for string ensemble, live at The Stone (Basses Frequences) / Pleq & Spheruleus & Various :: A Silent Swaying Breath (Audio Gourmet) / Pollen Trio :: Peaks/Roll Slow (hellosQuare; also Austin Buckett (of PT) :: Stuttershine) / Raime :: Hennail (Blackest Ever Black) / Nicola Ratti :: 220 Tones (Die Schachtel) / Steve Roach :: Sounds From The Inbetween (Timeroom Editions) / Leonardo Rosado :: Opaque Glitter (Feedback Loop) / Sam Rosenthal :: The Passage (Projekt) / Ryuichi Sakamoto :: Flumina (w/Fennesz; Touch)/summvs (w/Alva Noto; Raster-Noton) / Pascal Savy :: Liminal (Feedback Loop)/Passing Light (Hibernate) / Martin Schulte :: Treasure (Lantern) / Sohrab :: Shouting At Dictators/You Are Not Alone/You Are Not Alone II (Touch) / Spartak :: Nippon (New Editions) / Sublamp :: In Our Hiding Voice (Hibernate) / Tape Loop Orchestra :: Maybe I Told A Small Lie (self-released) / Mark Templeton :: Scotch Heart (Sweat Lodge Guru) / VCV & Shinobu Nemoto :: Jovian Clouds (Install) / Vladislav Delay :: Vantaa (Raster-Noton)/Vladislav Delay Quartet (Honest Jon's) / Moritz von Oswald Quartet :: Horizontal Structures/Restructure 2 (Honest Jon's) / Christopher Willits :: Gold (self-released)

(al/jacl/joint)


Oh, & a log-rolling extra - albient :: PyschogeoGraphic Designs Vol. 1 / 2 (unreleased)...

Cloud Four - VCV & Shinobu Nemoto


Steven Hess / Christopher McFall - IV

alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto - summvs (album preview)

Photo above by Christopher Willits. Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Herds of fools

These ears have been twitching in anticipation ever since Vladislav Delay disclosed his first album for Raster-Noton in a recent interview with LMYE. The first excerpts from Vantaa seem to redeem all that expectancy - Narri ('fool' if your Suomi needs work...) in particular is a beautiful, beguiling piece in which a lop-sided rhythm, something like a wind-up toy starting to spasm, meshes with a shifting bed of ratchet, scrape & jangle to freight a moving, blurred theme. 


To name it our Track of the Day is the bathetic least we can do...


Blurb: "Even though complex electronic manipulations are used, Vantaa wants to sound like a piece of nature, resulting in a mixture of techno/dub and organic textures. The tracks oscillate between a decadent, greyish, post-industrial sound cloud and the intimate atmosphere of a vast and desolate Finnish landscape. Ripatti plays with tiny rhythmic bricks that drift and collapse, but nevertheless create spaces that radiate calmness and tranquility. Being an experienced producer, he uses his know-how to layer compact sound fabrics in unusual ways. In this case, these elements arouse associations with gushing water, crackling wood, or growing grass. The tracks on Vantaa merge into each other and their density escalates with „Lauma“ into an energetic climax, which is all at once the ecstatic, shamanic and truly moving peak of the album."

Vladislav Delay - Narri (excerpt)


Vladislav Delay - Narri (Excerpt)



Vladislav Delay - Lauma (excerpt)

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Tradition & reinvention

Striking that one of the musicians of the past 15 years whose work is most likely to endure for another 15 & beyond, Vladislav Delay, also feels a deep need to make immediate, almost disposable sounds - & insists on the inter-connectedness of the two. We can't have the textured depths of Delay or his stunning new(ish) quartet without the gleaming pulse of Luomo.

With a new album imminent in this friskiest of his many restless guises & participations (Uusitalo, Sistol, Moritz von Oswald Trio, Conoco, Bright People, The Only Copy, Kinovida, AGF/Delay, I hired a contract killer, The Dolls...), Sasu Ripatti talked to LMYE recently about tradition & reinvention.

"i push myself quite hard with what i'm working on and after that i feel quite empty and need to recharge myself by doing something quite different.

i also have quite an urge and interest to various types of music and i enjoy having it all. one at a time though."

He's currently lying fallow for a while, having followed up working as Luomo by moving to the other end of his spectrum. Last week he completed his twelfth Delay album (at LMYE's count) - & his first for Raster-Noton.

Ripatti is fairly dismissive of the bulk of new releases ("most new music can handle few times of listening and it's done, all said there is to say in a quick one"). He mostly listens to older jazz or reggae/dub - "also hiphop a lot".

He touches too on the differing dynamics of his quartet & MvOT - "it's very much a group thing whereas MVOT is Moritz's thing to big extent". While he has no plans to spawn further groups or even take on the odd remix, regrettably, he's open to following his collaborators von Oswald & Loderbauer into ReComposed/Re: ECM reconstruction territory - labels please note!

Vladislav Delay - Ele

Do you see yourself as working in any kind of tradition (or traditions)?

not at all. i change my path quite constantly, my points of view changes, i get bored easily.

i might have background in jazz or percussion tradition but that all is long gone, and i certainly don't follow any tradition other than my own thing which i can't specify at all. or don't want to restrict it by analysis.

How would you characterise the ways in which your music has changed since you began recording?

i see it as a continuous path i'm on with peaks and valleys and whatnot.

main thing i'm happy about is that my music has changed during the years, otherwise i should not do it anymore; i really don't believe in repeating myself.

when i look at the changes i can see smaller and bigger cycles that do repeat but i think there's growth and progression in those cycles when they appear again and again.

i really do try to be conscious about what i do and try to pay attention to push things to new directions and not allowing myself to become comfortable with what or how i'm doing music.

Luomo - Good Stuff

How do you see your recording personas influencing each other? Which, if any, has the greatest influence on Luomo? Do you need Luomo in any way to be able to make VDQ or your other musics?

i do need one to make the other for sure.

the whole thing is that i push myself quite hard with what i'm working on and after that i feel quite empty and need to recharge myself by doing something quite different.

i also have quite an urge and interest to various types of music and i enjoy having it all. one at a time though.

How has the experience of playing in MvOT influenced what VDQ does (& how it does it), if at all?

influences are quite minor and subconscious because i play so different role in each group.

not meaning though that i'm a leader in VDQ except for managing and producing it.

when we make music live it's very much a group thing whereas MVOT is Moritz's thing to big extent although luckily i'm allowed lots of freedom in my part.

Moritz von Oswald Trio - Structure 1

Vladislav Delay Quartet - Salt Flat [re-up]

Do you expect to work in new groups in the future - either as leader or a player?

not thinking about it at least.

for sure as long as these two groups are active i won't expand more, it's really time consuming and sometimes exhausting to manage or run a group. two is definitely enough!

Do you make all of your solo music, including Luomo, in the same place & with the same tools?

same place, yes. mostly same tools as well but used in quite a different way.

Vladislav Delay - Raamat

Anyone you'd like to collaborate with? Or remix?

there are lots of interesting people i'd like to work with of course but it's too hard to make it happen when you are not commercially potential.

i don't have a wish list and i'm also happy to work with people i already work with.

remixing is something i don't want to be involved in much.

Can you see yourself making a Re: ECM or ReComposed? Whose music would you be interested in reshaping in a similar way (if anyone's)?

if someone offered me to work on some music i really like i'd love to do it.

ECM for sure if i could pick up the music. jazz, African, Jamaican, hiphop, i'd be happy with lots of stuff....

Who else do you listen to (for pleasure, for inspiration, for a change)? What are some of this year's crucial releases for you? What are some releases you couldn't/wouldn't be without?

i go for extreme range of music and have also periods where i stick to certain music for a long time. not so much any more but for example i listened only Frank Zappa for about two years when i was about 16-18. before that i only listened jazz from 50s and 60s. then was the dub period..

nowadays i mainly listen older jazz or reggae/dub for music pleasure.

i also entertain myself with hiphop a lot.

Kanye West's last album is the only one i really thought was a special one since a long while in any genre.

most new music can handle few times of listening and it's done, all said there is to say in a quick one.

Vladislav Delay - The First Quarter

Best thing anyone's said/written about your music? Worst?

i don't keep that info i guess as nothing comes to mind.

well, there was really stupid review of VDQ on the Wire which i thought was embarrasing for the magazine, pure ignorance and misunderstanding.

but i try to stay away from it all and just focus on doing what i think i should do.

What's next for you?

hm... i'm right now on vacation since yesterday when i finished new VladislavDelay album for Raster Noton release late this year.

i'm planning to spend some time in the studio next and reconfigure it and try out new things without aiming to finish anything.

Luomo - Plus (Exclusive Track Preview)

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Shock and Or

Kangding Ray’s Or - good enough to be 2011’s best Techno, Bass, IDM, and Electronica album - all in one! Certainly on first hearing there’s been little to rival it for sheer viscerality and fluidity of beats and bass motion, combined with textural detail and veiled harmonics; Frenchman David Letellier (mais oui!) beats the Germans at their own Spiel – not just outdoing kindred Raster-Notables like Alva Noto, Frank Bretschneider, and Byetone, but lauding it over fellow-stretchers of boundaries between aforementioned electronic sub-genres like Monolake and T++.

Kangding Ray . OR . rn123 . preview by kror

Your LMYE scribe is momentarily rendered sprachlos, so let’s get Das Wort from Monsieur Ray’s sponsor, Raster Noton:
“After the Pruitt Igoe E.P, Kangding Ray returns with his third album for raster-noton, pushing further his explorations on the edge of digital and analog sounds. With OR, Kangding Ray continues to blur the borders between experimental and bass music, and brings his signature sound to another level, somewhere at the darkest fringe of club culture.
With the massive metallic beats of « athem », the frightening distorded waves of «Mojave», the elevated groove of «Odd Sympathy», the modulated guitar walls of «Leavaila Scheme», or the low-bitrate Everest of «La Belle», KR creates deep atmospheres, loaded with echoes of collapsing economies, dysfunctional political systems, and corporate alienation.
In an abstract manner, OR depicts the desillusions of modern civilizations, while initiating a positive reflection on crisis as a creative state.
OR («gold» in french), as the only chemical element that seems to keep its value for eternity, refers to the cult of endless consumption and the absurdity of fluctuating currency valuations, while in english, as a logical operator or grammatical conjunction, OR represents the possibility of another choice, an « inclusive disjunction » which suggests that there might be another answer, a different path to follow.”

Or from Nicolas Lelievre on Vimeo.

Looking for more Rays? mnml ssgs just posted a ssg special - Kangding Ray VS mix - download here.

You can even watch a mini-profile, if you fancy it:



Or did you miss out on the last Ray's? Have some!



Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Raster Man Vibration

Bass-bin quaking lounge-noir slowcore electro-funk cinematic-space-dub from Raster Noton’s stealth bomber, Jens Massel, aka Senking. His slow’n’low creepshow sound has been sneaking around some years now, and just put out a tremendous Pong, ostensibly inspired by the early cult video game.



Raster blurb: “SENKING -- PONG -- referring to the classic video game -- is Senking's fifth release on raster-noton, moving its focus on stretched dubstep rhythms. To these slow motion grooves, he adds shredded melodies, sub basses and echoes, which create an atmosphere like an Angelo-Badalamenti-soundtrack known from David Lynch's movies. His electronic sound aesthetic reflects rather an organic texture than a machine made algorithm. In tradition of former dub producers, he generates his tracks while playing, and therefore they appear to be momentary. They are aware of the club, but do not want to serve it. At Berlin's CTM 2010 Senking proofed that PONG can be massive on stage as well.”

Some years ago in a review elsewhere of previous release, List, was this: “His deployment of the grumble of analog synth-bass and noir-ish melody snags a semiotic of classic 70s film soundtrack.” Prescient, as it turns out, since a 70s-themed video recently went up on youtube, to which "V8" from Pong, is the retro-fitted soundtrack - starts out quirky (and watch out for ass wobble vs. bass wobble!), but be warned, as gorecore filmscene edit mayhem comes late on (from around 3:38). Whacko!



And a further subtly sinister Pong emanation, "Painbug in My Eye", displays an elliptical blend of Massel’s muscle and sound design chops:

Senking - Painbug In My Eye by ericstein

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Curators/custodians/compilers

We noted the exceptional Type as LMYE's label of the year recently - but need to acknowledge more outstanding sound curators/custodians/compilers that were also key in helping shape our listening year.

At the risk of sending the pomposity/self-importance dial off the gauge, they start with four more highlighted labels that had a particularly intense impact here. An additional 15 who all also made a consistent difference bring us up to a top 20 - though this is a wholly arbitrary number, of course, & many other labels are also bringing out great music across a host of genres & styles; we try to acknowledge some below as well.

Implicit in all of this is the well-rehearsed idea that despite all of technology's lowering of barriers to entry labels remain important - perhaps more than ever. When we're flooded with new music their role as visible exercisers of taste, as rallying points, as cultural lenses, seems to really matter. Certainly, it still does to LMYE...

kranky > LMYE's larger label of the year: like Thrill Jockey (see below) only more so: meaning incredible vigour & new avenues even after all these years - especially this, this, this, this, this & this (& still thinking about this...) [previously/more/more] >> Tim Hecker > Visiting An Imaginary Country [LMYE hack] (from An Imaginary Country)


Low Point > LMYE's new discovery label of the year: consistently excellent & now making smart Type-style use of SoundCloud streaming - especially this, this, this, this & this [previously] >> Gareth Hardwick - Versions of Aversions [LMYE hack] (from Aversions)



12k/Line > LMYE's 'staggering consistency' label of the year: an unflagging succession of exceptional releases, whether from its rich Australian connection (see Room40 below), label head Taylor Deupree himself or other sources - especially this, this, this, this, this, this, this & this [previously/more/more] >> TU M' - Monochrome # 03 (from Monochromes, Vol. 1) [re-up]



Anticipate > LMYE's 'if only they would release more' label of the year: regrettably few releases but always a source of, er, anticipation & excitement - especially this, this & this >> Klimek - Movies is Magic minimix (from Movies is Magic; NB: higher-res version available from Anticipate)



Ad Noiseam

Audiobulb

Bine

Fang Bomb

FatCat

Ghostly International/Spectral Sound

Highpoint Lowlife

infrasonics

Miasmah

Modern Love

Raster-Noton

sustain-release

Thrill Jockey

Uncharted Audio

~scape

Also: Amazing Sounds, Bedroom Community, BPitch Control, Constellation, Domino, Erased Tapes, Hessle Audio, Hotflush, Home Normal, Honest Jon's, Hyperdub, Kesh, Kompakt, Mobeer/Moteer, Moving Furniture, Mule Musiq, Ostgut Ton, Overlap, Perlon, Planet Mu, Punch Drunk, Rekids, Room40, Root Strata, Rune Grammafon, Samadhisound, Spekk, Staubgold, Tectonic, Temporary Residence, Touch, Warp, Werk...

NB: further links & references to follow as & when...

>> The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Embers (from Here Be Dragons, Ad Noiseam) >> Tujiko Noriko/Lawrence English/John Chantler - I Can Hear The Heart (Live at Cafe Oto) >> Pausal / Alpine. - Song From A Cloth Pocket / fr:om (from Pausal (EP) / Fr:om Harmed Weather To Stark, Micro, Climates., both Highpoint Lowlife) [re-ups]

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Frankness redoubled

Two Frank Bretschneider tracks in as many days? Unless you're living very large indeed, a better offer is unlikely to come your way this week.

Following yesterday's beguiling pik, from the immense & immensely rich TU M'P3 Soundtrack for Images archive (see here & here), today brings the Raster-Noton co-founder Live at LISTEN/VISION. This workout has his usual intricacies, but freights them in a somewhat unrelenting, gun-ship metal feel - with, to me, an uncharacteristic & refreshing roughness to it.

The performance is taken from Raster-Noton Live at Listen/Vision. Characterised at frankbretschneider.de as "deep-listening techno for your body", the EP also includes a pounding piece by Olaf Bender & a quite superb one by Bretschneider, Bender & Carsten Nicolai's R-T supergroup Signal...

The Bretschneider piece also features in a nicely eclectic new sampler from Christopher Willits' Overlap.org. The collection also contains dubby ambientronicist Chris McNamara (covered here previously), as well as gentle colourist Miroque, subtle noisemonger Nakamura Hiroyuki & Willits' endearingly strident post-jazzers Flossin.

Frank Bretschneider > Live at LISTEN/VISION (from Raster-Noton Live at LISTEN/VISION)

Flossin > Crystal Cobra (from Serpents EP)

NB: higher-res versions of these tracks available here.

Nakamura Hiroyuki > ALLEGRO (from TRITONOMICS)

Miroque > Kokorokokoro (from Live at Sound Arts EP)

NB: all releases from Overlap.org

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.