Aural Aggravation

29th January 2016

Christopher Nosnibor

New Jersey’s Speed the Plough have been going some 32 years now, and Now marks their eighth album release. You could hardly accuse them of saturating the market with product, but by the same token, they’ve maintained a steady output, and it’s testament to their tenacity and commitment that they’re still going. Still, by pacing themselves with some lengthy breaks – not to mention various lineup changes: their current drummer, John Demeski, is the son of Stanley Demeski who occupied the stool a full two decades previous – they’ve kept things fresh, and Now sounds like an album that’s been honed and crafted and presented to the world out of a genuine desire to write and play rather than mere habit.

That the band-members have shared songwriting duties means there’s a real diverse feel to the album, although it holds together remarkably well. The result is an album that’s balanced, in terms of its temperament and tone, and it’s rich in its emotional depth.

The vocal harmonies are a defining feature as the band explore an array of mindstates. The fiery folk-infused rock of ‘Garden’ picks up the tempo and a switch of lead vocal duties after the languid but aching desperation of ‘Midnight of the World’ proves an effective move.

Rolling percussion and crashing cymbals provides a tension-building backdrop to the lilting duality and roiling tension of the theatrical-sounding ‘Because’, while there are hints of Jefferson Airplane about the rockier ‘More & More’.

It’s a solid album, but in many ways, to describe it as such seems to be selling it short. It’s an overtly folk album, and there’s a lot of bad and obvious folk out there. The lilting melodies and strong dynamics across the album and within the individual songs, coupled with the varied compositions place Now in the ‘good folk’ category.

Speed the Plough Online

Hallow Ground – HG1601 – 26^th February 2016

James Wells

Understanding and appreciating this album benefits from knowledge of the context and methodology of its origins. The title translates – more or less – from the Greek, meaning ‘a conversation with oneself.’

To quote, ‘the album was constructed from self-generating patches, with Florian Zimmer (Saroos) and Andreas Gerth (Tied & Tickled Trio) providing technical parameters and letting their modular system talk in its own musical language. The self-generating patches recorded here can be understood as a transcript of those machine-produced monologues, and as artistic research. By evoking a ghostly presence of modular synthesis, the duo find traces of individuality inside their machines.’

Now, I’m not entirely sure what a self-generating patch is, but it seems to carry a certain connotation of ‘the machines taking over’. Music that evolves by itself. Something created by means of randomised algorithms – somehow simultaneously programmatic and random. Certainly, this is the feel of Eis Heauton. The form of the tracks do not conform to any overt or explicit structure, order or sequence, but instead assail the listener unexpectedly, almost a kind of sonic ambush.

Dark, murky blasts of thick bass thunder in deep caverns while low, stealthy beats pulse. Shrieking metallic and mechanical scrapes and clanks combine to forge shadowy atmospheres. Sonar bleeps probe underwater and dense sonorous drones resonate. ‘Sunlit Reverie’ creeps around ominously, evoking quite the opposite scene in the mind’s eye from the one the title implies.

Driftmachine on Soundcloud

Self-Released – 16th February 2016

Christopher Nosnibor

With a first degree in Political Science from Bilkent University, a Masters in Philosophy from Galatasaray University and a PhD in Sonic Arts under way at Istanbul Technical University-Center for Advanced Studies in Music, it’s clear that Ipek Gorgun’s interests are diverse and that she possesses a rare intellect.

She’s a published poet, and a photographer, who’s had her pictures featured far and wide, including in National Geographic. Her musical achievements are pretty impressive, too: as a bass player and vocalist for projects such as Bedroomdrunk (avant-garde rock) and Vector Hugo (electro-acoustic), she’s also opened for Jennifer Finch from L7 and Simon Scott from Slowdive, as well as performing live with David Brown from Brazzaville.

While her age is undisclosed, she looks barely old enough to have completed a degree. Most people achieve barely a fraction during a lifetime. It’s both sickening and awe-inspiring, but ultimately, her obvious drive is beyond admirable.

‘Aphelion’ is her debut album, although the fact she is currently working on an electroacoustic solo project and conducting research on how sonic arts can be incorporated with emotional and cognitive alteration, I doubt it will be her last, or that it will be long before subsequent albums follow.

Splintered bleeps phase in and out across funnelling drones make for a delicate introduction, but they’ve very soon obliterated, bulldozed buy a barelling blast of deep, droning, high-volume electronic noise and scraping feedback, fuzzed out at the edges with distortion. On Aphelion, Gorgun exploits the full dynamic range, moving between soft and sometimes ominous quieter passages to louder, harsher tones; sometimes gliding, long notes hover, while at others, sharp, sudden sounds arrive unexpectedly to jolt the listener. In terms of frequencies, too, Gorgun explores the sonic spectrum to powerful and sometimes uncomfortable effect.

The parts are often difficult to pinpoint with specificity, but the sum is challenging, stimulating, and intriguing.

Ipek Horgun Online

Clang Records – Clang034 – 12th February 2015

James Wells

Infernal Machines is Lars Graugaard and Hans Tammen. Both respected composers in their own right, they’re also, independently sonic innovators. While Tammen is perhaps best known for his choking Disklavier, Rife features a guitar./computer hybrid in the form of the ‘endangered guitar’, while Graugaard brings interactive computer work to the table for forge rare patterns and grooves, with some interesting and, in parts, bamboozling and dizzying results.

Yes, this download album may only contain three tracks but it has an overall running time of 28 minutes and is so texturally rich than any more would be to be left beyond gorged.

‘Is That A Light?’ pings and pops, drones and groans over rapid percussion resembling bongos. Building an intense insectoid scratching clamour, it drills its way into the cranium. The album’s centrepiece, the eleven-and-a-half-minute ‘Ashen Lines’ hits as a laser attack. Pulses form hectic and cacophonous polyrhythms that shift and mutate. Scraping and rattling against one another, churning and circling.

‘Steady Jolt’ marks a radical departure, as a strolling bassline – remarkably conventional, by all accounts – wanders hesitantly toward a flickering curtain of electronic light that cascades and iridesces. Pulsing dance beats emerge as the sonic spectrum slides into another realm.

It’s not a work you can readily pin down, its shape in eternal flux. Constantly shifting, no two bars are entirely alike, as layers build and sounds evolve and transform. By the end, you find yourself wondering just how you arrived at the end destination – not that it matters, because it’s very much about the journey.

http://clang.cl/rife/