VIRB

Album review - Buried Traktora - by Landschaft

This album achieves a rare success - extremity with meaning. This stream of conciousness review flowed straight from the Landschaft pen - here it is warts and all!

1. Switched and 2. Behind Orderly digits:

Are one piece - Tamea's familiar diptych format - one piece evolving into the second. A-rhythmic abstractions progress into form and a haunting viola floats into the dreamscape; exits stage left. This other-place technique is one the Landschaft approves of - walking through an Italian Gormenghast of a walled city, one hears music practice through an open window drifting by on the wind.

3. Odium:

Mash up buffer override and found sounds ground the listener to earth. Rain washes a concrete metropolis, machine swarms enter dialogue. A simple sequence transitions in, in juxtaposition to the harshness technopolis of a backdrop, this simple theme is made the more poignant fading to close.

4. Legolum (AEF mix):

A brooding insect conversation in a purple sunset from a novel by Brian Aldiss. Metalic chatter across a marsh-scape by Tanguy. A booming auto-bittern joins the dialogue. Or a conversation between satelites.

5. What we know, Triplicate:

Emerging from the metal, a birdsong field recording and esoteric percussion - gongs, triangles move the mood into a more organic space; a rainforst before the nano-machine grey goo arrives and the night of the machines closes in.

6. Bardo Proviso for CP:

Take Kraftwerk's Radio activity - and shred - do a William Burroughs cut up. Chuck the lot into a primaeval soup and give it a good stir. Add a shake of subterranea before the auto-insects swarm in. Is it coincidence this is track 6 - there being six Bardo states, intermediates states between birth and rebirth; a spiritual fork in the road where karmic influences can send you up or down the path to regeneration.

7. Witch Become Child:

Check in at the intercontinental lounge. An ear placed to a wall listening to the footfalls from the underpass, danger lurks in the shadows. A Neil Gaiman other world existing beneith the surface beckons the unwary, hypnotised by a chamber ensemble drifting across the ether; a siren call pulling the victim into the funnel-web. Or realisation that engages one's being in resonance with insight: epiphany. Or beware of false prophets.

8. Legolium (EQ RA mix):

Journey's end. Clockwork machines hold dialogue in the sump of a someplace Victorian pump works. The last gasp, buried in the mud and grease of ages. A Neo-Gothic resonance from a locked away cellar.

Album review - Energy Does Matter - by Landschaft

Overview: As a collection, all of the pieces are in the right order: build, plateaux, breakdown. Energy Does Matter is a holistic work. Some of the pieces build tension, some loosen you up. Produced initially in 1999, it is still a potent, relevant work and benefits from a recent re-master (we all get better over the years at compression/limiting and relative volumes). What I like about this album is there are no musical cliches. None: a cheese free listening experience. Placing the album I would call this a dance-influenced electronica or left-field techno. I am a VERY picky critic and know what's good and what's not - this is good!

1. Caapi and 2. Lutea Pixeluna: Starts off with some nice radio noise and a gutsy swoopy bass, taking us into a held note, building suspense, then seamlessly into a big melodic tension build-up and on to a closely sequenced metallic percussion. Transitions, working down into bubbling a-tonal fade out. Caapi and Lutea Pixeluna are essentially one piece in two parts and work very well as an intro to the album. A complex interesting and accomplished trope whetting our appetite for the goodies to come.

3. Muricata: A separate entity from the preceding. Lots of stereo ping pong. Synth work reminding me of Travelogue-era Human League, (when HL were respected cutting edge innovators). The melody transitions work very well here - some big chunky analogue bass in the background underpins this mature considered piece. Ends with some complex electronic noodling metalic stuff. Takes the adrenaline count a notch up.

4. Bugliner and 5. Arcman Out: The highpoint in this suite. A big chug a lug dark acid-house workout. A simple evolving drum pattern and a VERY infectious 303 bassline that grabs you by the throat. The builds in this piece really hit the spot. I'd love to hear this on a club sound system. If I win the lottery and get my basement disco - this is the first thing on the decks! A simple dark tune underpins all of the energy bursting out of this masterpiece. A nice morse code tune kicks in around the 4 minute point and some swooshy stuff keeps the interest and the tension building right to the end. That 303 keeps on piling it on right to the end with the drops and builds comprising simple riffs and repetition. A brave breakdown about the 6 minute point introduces a new pace - and we know that 303 is going to kick in soon and the anticipation builds. This review typed in real time, head nodding, foot tapping...7:34 and waiting chugga chugga, chugga - BLAM into Arcman Out - FASTER ~~~ a 303 driven flat out steam locomotive. Truly wonderful drum patterns weave in and out of the baseline and a big build takes this one to the limit. Decomposes nicely down to conclusion. I'm a greedy fellow and would have liked this pair to have been 30 mins long.

6. Styloptera: A bit of a Yellow Magic Orchestra / Human League soundclash. A good compliment to the manifestly up-beat Bugliner/Arcman dyptich. Some complex stuff going on here from this very accomplished musician. Mark effortlessly breaks
the pace back down - takes us smoothly back to the ground floor and deposits us gently on the pavement ready for the next percussive ride.

7. Indent Seas: Looser in structure - early Detroit techno in it's feel, the 909 snare and hi-hat combo boshes along at a merry lick, with some simple melody sketch over the beats. Sparse and effective.

8. Eternal | Bits: 808 rimshots rat a tat tat under this big chunky end-tro, nicely rounding the collection off. Listen hard and there is a hint of Autobahn white noise electro-percussion tapping along under the beats.