new music influx, sep 2010
So I went on a bit of a spree this month and bought a shedload of new music. I fully intend to do in-depth writeups of specific albums as time permits, but time doesn’t permit much so I wanted to get this out as an overview and micro-capsule review everything at once.
First I hit up the amazing bleep.com because they were featuring this Scots artist Anodyne’s album Corrosion that had been getting big-ups on the idm-list lately. While there I guilt-purchased Autechre’s latest (Move of Ten)[http://bleep.com/index.php?page=release_details&releaseid=25108], a cutting-room floor disc of leftovers and extras from the Oversteps sessions that in some ways is stronger than the album itself. Autechre seem to be in a period similar to that following the release of 1999’s Chiastic Slide, where they have hit some new level of evolution in their sound and are just knocking out amazing stuff. Back then, the Envane and Chicli Suite EPs followed close on the heels of the album iteself, extending its ideas into places the album format didn’t allow. I really get a similar feeling from Move of Ten and it’s a joy to behold. While I was there I saw they had my current indie-girl-band obsession School of Seven Bells’ latest Disconnect from Desire in a special package with their first album included for free, so I had to spring on that too.
A day or two after that order “dropped” I got a mailer from the phenomenal Chicago-based label Tympanik Audio with the news that my dark-idm idol Access to Arasaka had a new album out. I eat this guy’s stuff up — his vibe is very much in the vein of Gridlock in their prime, with gorgous uplifting synths fighting their way through noisy drum-n-bass inflected industrial beats. He has lots of free shit on his website, along with a UI that lifts code from the Berkeley Packet Filter source code, so you gotta love that. Tympanik also has a new release from EBM-stylee maestro Totakeke, so I got that, the awesomely-named synthkraut Zentriert ins Antlitz album, and another guilt purchase, Ad•ver•sary’s Bone Music, a version of which I have on MP3 and love (the •’s are important! Option-8), and oh yes, a T-shirt. ‘Cause why not.
Finally, I’ve been following this chap Baths — yes folks, that’s a MySpace link — for a few months, ever since I saw that amazing p4k vid I reposted — and it was time to pony up for the album. The thing that tipped me over the edge of a purchase was this amazing Baths mix from FACT mag where he pieced together songs off the album with unreleased pieces, ambient workouts, and other oddments. I think I’ve listened to it about eight times now. After some poking around I decided to order straight from the label at Anticon.com and when it came I got the album and a sweet little Baths pin for my Gabriel Hounds denim jacket. This one grabbed me and won’t let go. In fact it’s up for the first in-depth review, coming up immediately after I post this one.
