| $15.12
new to stock as of
march 12th, 2010
threads:
modern-psych
digital-musics
beat-research
electro-acoustic-composition
electro-acoustic-improvisation
minimalism-drones
analogue-synth
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| | | fatcat (uk) #fat 1277 ep alog / astral social club “split series #20” long playing record - alog - every word was once an animal (12:41)
- astral social club - clarion super-cortex (7:55)
- astral social club - vurt chorale #1 (6:13)
- astral social club - corby kiss (2:49)
| december 2009 release ; new entrant into fat cat’s legendary, decade-long “split series” ...
first norwegian duo alog offer a side-length song working a wandering rhodes-piano bassline, fizzing acoustic & electronic percussion, and cut-up speech-patterns / singing that oddly reminds me of that early fat cat various artists “no 8, 8.5, 9” single ...
... then neil campbell’s astral social club (here working with john “tirath singh nirmala” clyde evans, spider stacy, and paul walsh) provide three takes that mix ecstatic thumping kick-drums, layers-deep electronic pileups, and even a “sweet” acoustic guitar interlude that builds into a harmonizer glee-fest before resolving into some more electro-blat ...
an excellent record ; among the best work i’ve heard from each party. highly recommended !!! |
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alog / astral social club
split series #20
release date: 12/8/09
highly-anticipated next installment in fatcat’s acclaimed split 12” series
limited-edition vinyl-only release with handmade jackets
another high quality, album-length release, the twentieth 12” in our acclaimed split series features two artists who’ve carved out very singular, purposeful paths for themselves. here, both roll out their markedly different but complementary material, the unifying element being a heavily skewed outsider take on dance-?oor electronica/techno.
alog is the duo of espen sommer eide and dag-are haugan. mainstays at the rune grammofon label, their unique, hybrid sound has unfurled a series of abstract yet accessible, self-contained sound-worlds, each animated with their own internal logic, mixing a wide variety of both electronic and acoustic sources into something warm, intricate and organic. quirky and unpredictable, they have refused any ?xed position, instead embracing the freedom to ?it and root in the cracks between strands of minimalism, electronica, post-rock, improv and vernacular musics - merging woozy, stuttering electronica (a la oval / nobukazu takemura / etc.), with rich, shoegazey guitars, freeform improvisation, scandinavian folk, ?eld recording and the masterful editing and soundscaping of electroacoustic composition.
a stirring, 13-minute long track created expressly for the 12” format that sounds like nothing they’ve previously released, “every word“ was made during alog’s 2008 tour of japan. a live improvisation, the “shouting choir” was recorded at a primary school in bergen with regular alog collaborator nicholas h. møllerhaug. made into a 3-part narrative using mainly synthesizer, guitar and vocals, it’s a stunning, rapidly-expanding piece that increasingly ramps up the tension, accelerating its energy levels, seemingly buckling and collapsing under its own weight/energy, before ?nding its feet again.
astral social club is the project of neil campbell. a pivotal ?gure on the uk post-punk underground, with a vast catalogue and numerous collaborations, campbell ?rst came to prominence in the early ‘90s as a member of nottingham’s a band, a collaborator with matthew bower, and later as a founding member of vibracathedral orchestra. as asc, campbell integrates psych-rock and exploratory fusion of the ’70s, early ’90s techno/electronica,’80s post-punk, krautrock, and the thriving home-brew of today’s psych/noise under-ground, asc tracks form an unstable, exhilarating slew of densely stacked textural detail with seemingly no ?xed centre, piling electronic and acoustic textures together – spluttering drum machines, gurgling electronics, mangled guitar lines, processed violin and all manner of other sonic detritus.
the three tracks here were recorded by campbell, john clyde-evans, paul walsh and the pogues’ spider stacy. the 135bpm blood-pulse and super-abundant textural growth of “clarion super-cortex” is described by campbell as a ”rolling-through-the-cracks techno format invented by clyde-evans, and put through the asc brass mangler ... an imaginary club hit for people who like to dance between the beats”. this mulches down into the beatless “vurt chorale #1,” weaving several different jams together. a wake-up slap in the face after such shimmering drift, ‘corby kiss’ offers a tribute to the hard-living ex-steel men of the northants town where campbell grew up. |
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