Derek Piotr – Raj

On ‘Raj’, the third release from Poland’s Derek Piotr, the music featured throughout is a very vocal set of experimental and beat oriented compositions that draws much of it’s content from the voice which is processed and arrange, sometimes acting as a part of the beat itself.

This is my first introduction to Piotr’s music but before I began this review I went back to his previous two releases, ‘Agora’ and ‘Airing’, both of which show Piotr’s subtle but nevertheless, progressive movement through his vocal practices and the digitalized aura that at all times surrounds his work, that being his heavily processed but otherwise organic approach to the broad genre that is electronic music. Throughout Piotr’s previous releases it is apparent that his music has always been hard to pin down and on ‘Raj’ it is even more difficult. In a moment of harsh glitching and hot digital distortion (Spine, Grave)  I want to call it noise, during the bits of eclectic beat-oriented madness (‘Amendola’) I am reminded of dub and minimalist techno, throughout the menacing atmosphere that fills the album I want to call it dark ambient, and even then there are so many other genre’s one could tack on to ‘Raj’ yet there is no single point in time on this album in which any of the aforementioned genre tags could fully describe it. With all of that said, Piotr’s third entry is an undoubtably complex effort, brimming with abstract beats, unexpected shifts in direction, and unusual song structures that can be as uninviting as they can be accessible.

Musicians, particularly electronic musicians of Piotr’s kind have always expressed some interest in the manipulation of the voice and the use of it as an instrument but it hasn’t been until recently, within the past few years that is, that this vocal processing, this sound shaping of the voice has become a seen and used by musicians as a tool for creating beats, melodies, and song structures. Musicians like James Blake, Vladislav Delay, and AGF (whom Derek Piotr has collaborated with) can all be heard using vocals as the primary instrument, alongside synths and the whir and glow of the computer in the post-digital age.

Unlike many electronic musicians, Piotr does not so much work within the perimeters of electronic music as much as he exploits them. The otherwise polished sheen of digital music becomes distorted; ripped free from its most “proper” uses. You can hear the static glitched out synths, pitch shifted tones, and chopped up beats all moving at varying speeds, and Piotr’s own disheartening vocal embellishments that are arranged in a rather eerie way over the industrial, menacing soundscape that fills this album. The minimalist compositions and echo of the cold beats remind me of Andy Stott’s two 2011 EPs prior to his move toward a more polished sound on his 2012 full length.  It’s a very visual type of music and I think this aspect has been made even more apparent by the two music videos that accompany the tracks, ‘Sand Defacing All Surfaces” and ‘Grave’.

Piotr’s constant vocal manipulations paired with the desolate digital atmosphere shows a lot of ambition and potential but I do feel like there are many times where these elements come off as more of a burden for the listener than a unique aspect of his work. The vocal manipulations become especially grating along with the repetitiousness of the albums tracks. I found myself thinking it would be nice to hear Piotr’s own raw voice, removed of the guise of his editing skills. While individually, most of the tracks aren’t something you would listen to as independent pieces the album does pick up on that aspect in that, holistically it works very well, perhaps because the music is so conscious of what it is, even without an established concept.

The tracks are minimal, bare, stripped down, skeletal, and sometimes repetitive; there is a strain of despair and desolation that runs throughout each track. There are moments on this album where this moodiness works much to Piotr’s advantage in that it leaves me feeling unease, never feeling content or comfortable in knowing where the next track or sudden shift in direction might take me; never a moment where I felt like I knew what was going to happen next, which proves to be one of the best aspects of this piece of music by the end of the album. In the end, as experimental and impenetrable as ‘Raj’ may initially sound, there are many moments interjected throughout where the album can feel very accessible, even for audiences unfamiliar with Piotr’s unorthodox approach to electronic music.

Have a look at the videos that accompany two tracks from the album:

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Overall Rating: 6.8

Favorite Tracks: ‘Flow Through Light’

Recommended: AGF, Vladislav Delay, Andy Stott

Released: 26 February 2013

Links: http://derekpiotr.com/raj/

-Tyler Thompson

Wreck and Reference – No Youth

Wreck and Reference is a California based experimental doom / noise band. While their style of music is hard to pin down to one specific label it does what you would expect with a genre by greatly expanding upon it, pulling from and seamlessly reworking a vast array of haunting and unsettling sounds. ‘No Youth’ is the band’s debut full-length released on The Flenser.

To me, noise is a rare form of art, one where the concept outweighs the execution. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the sonic qualities of the music but rather I am far more interested in the conceptual elements, more than the musical factors. When I first began listening to noise it was purely out of curiosity, I listened out of intrigue instead of enjoyment, in fact I didn’t enjoy it at all, I hated it. Still, there was this morbid disgust that compelled me to revisit it, that maybe somehow I would figure out what it was that made this music interesting, what redeeming value anyone could see in it that I couldn’t and then I realized it wasn’t the music itself that I enjoy but rather my fascination with the idea of it that made it enjoyable at first. The idea of listening to noise as music, branding raw unorganized sound as a form of entertainment certainly seems unappealing in concept just as much as it does sonically; the uneducated might even say it is “pretentious” and maybe it would be if noise had not been around since the at least the beginning of the 20th century. With the popularity of the Futurist movement growing, painter Luigi Russolo began seeking a new medium to experiment with and as a reaction toward classical music and instrumentation of that time he created a symphony of his own but instead of using string or piano his instruments were man made machines created for the purpose of composing noise, anti-music to be listened to as music. Lately, there has been an emergence of bands such as Boss-De-Nage, Mamaleek, White Suns, and Have A Nice Life who have began implementing noise within their music which is certainly nothing new when taking into account the non-musical qualities of no-wave, noise rock, and other bands like Jesu and Old Man Gloom who have experimented with including noise in their compositions but it hasn’t been until recently that it has taken a more extreme turn, focusing more on the noisier characteristics while still structuring these components within a musical format. Wreck and Reference are a prominent figure of this new revolution in music.

It has been a while since I’ve sat down and listened to a metal album and found myself in awl of it but then again, maybe that statement will remain true for me because Wreck and Reference are certainly more than a metal band, I’d even go as far to say that aren’t even metal at all, certainly not in the traditional sense. Although Wreck and Reference do preserve distinctive properties found in doom and black metal ‘No Youth’ is certainly not your typical metal album. While the band’s sound is certainly aggressive and intense like metal, it is so in a much different way, a way that favors atmosphere and mood over the traditional straightforward approach, which has become something of a trend amongst home recording acts, most notably Have A Nice Life. Although I do enjoy Have A Nice Life’s ability to touch on the standout characteristics of many diverse styles of music I think Wreck and Reference have taken a much more refined route. Instead of attempting to cram as many genre’s as possible onto one record they pull from their contemporaries, retaining key parts of their stylistic influences with the intention of redefining that sound to create something new altogether.

In terms of their sound, there are many times on ‘No Youth’ where I find myself puzzled, curious to know the origin of a specific texture or sound. According to a number of sources the answer lies in the band’s rejection of the guitar, instead trading strings for buttons and what I mean by that is the band makes use of a sample pad to trigger synth like sounds. That’s right, an instrument most commonly associated with hip-hop and electronic music plays a large roll in crafting the unique sound of ‘No Youth’ which considering the band’s ties to metal may seem off-putting but logically it was inevitable. We live in a time where innovation is key in all aspects of our life, where people’s expectations are constantly being challenged, and where guitars, once a dominant instrument in heavy music are starting to take a back seat as bands such as Wreck and Reference take a more adventurous approach to achieve a heavy and more dynamically sensitive sound. Much like Russolo, Wreck and Reference have taken a similar approach by implementing instruments foreign to the style they play. In a way the band has built their own “noise machines” and with a carefully crafted array of samples at their disposal they are able to introduce this very non-musical factor in a musical way, a kind of controlled chaos. This attention to detail works extremely well in their favor; I believe with the inclusion of a guitar this could have been just another doom metal album (see Pallbearer), it would have felt too comfortable and if you have listened to ‘No Youth’ before reading this review I think you can agree, this is not an album where comfortability is welcomed. The addition of these samples greatly expands the sonic range of their music, spanning the low-end distortion heavy dirge of modern doom to the colorful washes of pulsating and deep noise. At times the samples can sound organic, lush like a creation of nature, sometimes synthetic like an orchestra of clanging machinery, and at other times they can sound rhythmic, very much akin to a guitar.

The vocals are perhaps my favorite part of Wreck and Reference’s sound, which are well ranged, managing to touch on everything from the half-baked shouts of hardcore punk, to caveman-esque howls, to shrill black metal screams, ghastly funeral-doom style singing, and even spoken word and it all fits into the context of what they’re doing very well, putting the focus on their the lyrical principals as well. The lyrics are poetic, vague and surreal hinting at some nightmarish and introspectively haunting occurrence.

The production is also something of a marvel; it’s very well produced but at the same time it has a live sound to it. Much of the time the vocals are shouted and pushed lower in the mix and the drums have this nice roomy live presence; if you’re wanting to get into ‘No Youth’ for it’s metal aspects the drumming retains an obvious hardcore and black metal influence which certainly seems like a fitting marriage given the genre’s lo-fi beginnings. Overall the roomy production adds another level of chaos that would normally only be heard live, a sound that the album carries with it throughout. Even though the production style has this overt live sound the instruments and vocals, when necessary, come through even above the massive walls of noise which gives the music an added layer of depth that I very seldom find on other records.

‘No Youth’ is an ambitious effort and while this record certainly isn’t going to be for everyone Wreck and Reference manage to touch on so many different styles that those looking for something specific will be able to relate their specific tastes while the meshing of styles on this record, which feels seamless enough to bring in those looking for more. If a band is to progress risks must be taken and even where Wreck and Reference fail to establish a connection I find that they have succeeded in ways that overshadow their shortcomings. Although Wreck and Reference may put the artistry of their music before technical musicianship, their ability to put their unorthodox creativity to use has resulted in what I feel like a lot of contemporary heavy music strives to achieve but until now has not accomplished to this degree. Similar to what Neurosis did with metal in the 90’s Wreck and Reference are doing something similar and in their own unique way are remolding heavy music into something that is actually heavy but doesn’t force itself to be.

‘No Youth’ is offered as a “name your price” release on Bandcamp but you can also purchase the release on The Flenser which you can find a link to below.

Overall rating: 9.4

Favorite Tracks: ‘Spectrum’, ‘The Solstitial’, ‘I Am A Sieve’, ‘Obedience’

Recommended: Structured chaos.

Released: 15 April 2012

Links:

http://wreckandreference.bandcamp.com/

http://theflenser.com/

Jahktute – A Record of Things Gone

Jahktute is a recording artist whose sound ranges from the extreme shrill noise heard on previous albums such as ‘Epwell‘ to quieter collage-like recordings that are sparse in sound.

I’ve always had a soft spot for noise; the intensity and abrasives of it can, at times, bring us back to a reality of life that we often seek to get away from or it can make us feel alienated bringing us into a new world of creative and vast soundscapes. Perhaps the most captivating part of noise is not the audible aspect but what it means to us conceptually; the idea of making these common parts of our life seem alien, to evoke emotion or tell a story through the juxtaposition of raw sound as it may be heard in everyday life, unfiltered or restrained by the use of traditional instrumentation but instead inspiring experimentation and often times an unconventional means of execution to produce a piece of music that is as original as it is unreproducible. When we hear noise in it’s commonplace, where it belongs, it does not bother us but when stripped of all of our other senses but sound, when noise becomes the focus of a situation, in this case looked at as a piece of music it suddenly becomes capable of evoking many different emotions and whether the feelings we pull from it were intentional or not the fact remains in both cases, noise is inescapable and Jahktute makes use of this reality via use of sometimes harsh electronic feedback and collages of sound combined with recordings of people talking, cars passing, birds chirping, and a variety of noises that lie hidden outside of our subconscious with this 11 track collection of varied minimalist noise.

The first two tracks are much quieter, relying on a minimalist approach with small movements of sound; what at times appears to be recordings of old machinery attempting to finish what may be it’s last dying task, sheets of metal clashing together, bottles clanking together, people chatting with each other, low-end rumblings that ominously flow beneath the foreground amongst a slew of other unsettling noises. The sounds are often sparse yet spontaneous; at times noises will meander about before erupting into a cataclysm of abrasiveness. ‘Road Lines’ features more of these sonically intense factors as shrill high pitched metallic noises and what sounds like pieces of metal and glass being scrapped against each other make their way across highly compressed low end rumblings which continue into ‘Symphony pt. 2’. Although the focus of the sound is mostly combinations of grating noise and field recordings other forms of noise are introduced into the mix, an example being ‘I Found it Underground’ which although brief, makes use of rich and dark piano chords that are allowed to linger moments after they are played where the track ‘Of meanings’ provides the listener with a deep melancholic drone which makes for a very different feeling of unease that the noise on the rest of the album just can’t accomplish as well. These two tracks made me want to hear more of what Jahktute can create using a more atmospheric approach to noise and although I enjoyed their inclusion they just felt out of place regardless of the additional variety they add. As the album continues the inclusion of field recording becomes continuously more involved playing a major role in telling something of an audible story encouraging a disconnect between the origin of the sound and what is being heard. The listener is left to interpret these naked sounds without the visual imagery of what is creating them, the same kind that allow us to feel comfortable with them naturally.

Jahktute’s ability to pull a blindfold over the eyes of the listener is uncanny, his music forces the listener to remain attentive leaving one visual impaired yet sonically more alert to the events that are transpiring within his recordings but at the same time even with all of the variety that is offered here I did feel that there were moments on this release that just could not hold my interest. Seeing as the approach on ‘A Record of Things Gone’ is more moderated than that of previous releases in that there tends to be more control in terms of the placement of noises on this recording I found that it either wasn’t minimal enough for me to feel completely involved, to feel completely engrossed in what has been constructed and when more sounds were introduced it was not spontaneous or chaotic enough.

I feel like where ‘A Record of Things Gone’ lacks is not so much the execution of the material, the individual tracks but that the release acts more as a compilation of interesting sounds, either found or created to make something of an emotive collage rather than something more concise. While some tracks do work well with others some, although enjoyable just feel out of place. While I was not necessarily compelled by what I heard I do feel like what is here can provoke one to ask questions, think, or feel emotion and in that it succeeds because even if it were negative is that not what this kind of noise seeks to achieve, that being a response as simple as questioning the music itself?

Overall rating: 6.0

Favorite Tack: ‘I Found it Underground’, ‘Of Meanings’

Recommended: Choose to hear it.

Released: 20 February 2012

Links: Stream ‘A Record of Things Gone’

Redntoothnclaw