Cologne-based Braun (and The Mob) harness a playfully irksome palette of electronic noises, samples and funk superlatives. With song titles like “Da Haaaah! Da Huuuuh! Da Ph***! (Need to Have the B***!)” and “Da F***! of Kopenhagen (Abu Ghureib Styles),” the pair’s latest album, As the Veneer of Dumbness Starts to Fade, is securely on par with the Kevin Blechdoms, Matthew Herberts and Matmoses of the world. You can find poot-warbled horn samples as well as barely audible obscenities scattered about the duration of “Explosions in B.E.I.G.E. (Nothing Has Changed).”
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One may not think to look south of the border for quality ambient acts, but E. Lebleu proves that such things exist and will have you scouring old ambient mailing list digests for more of the like. Lebleu’s debut full length, Spirituals, focuses on both IDM and glitchy beatless ambience. The album’s opener, “If,” is an example of the latter, a four-minute-plus ambient droner and the most minimal track on the album.
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Rephlex mystery man Arpanet fills the void between Detroit techno and abstract electronics with his latest full length, Quantum Transposition. While most of the album tends to be rather grounded in beats and percussion, “Entangled Photons” is an elusive beatless affair. Just over one minute, the track is essentially a repeated loop with subtle changes applied to each repetition. While no beat is present, the track somehow remains rhythmic and pulse driven.
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French duo Aswefall overlap the empty space between Parisian folk, dance-punk and Roxy Music-inspired pop/rock. The eight tracks of their debut, Bleed, offer plenty of variety, bouncing around from genre to genre. The single, “Ride,” is less along the folksy side of things, and more along the side of polite, toe-tappin’ disco-rock. Never loud or aggressive like some of its peers, Aswefall proposes more of an easygoing answer to the genre. Remixes of the track by Chloé and Der Schmeisser on the 12-inch single. Tour dates below (all two of them).
10/31 Paris (@ Tryptique)
11/05 Bruxelles (@ Dirty Dancing)
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Super producer combo Flanger consists of Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart, Atom™, Senior Coconut, etc.) and Burnt Friedman. Currently represented by German label Nonplace, Flanger continues its knack for jazz-inspired electronics and vice versa. On first listen, “How Long Is the Wrong Way?” may sound like a straight jazz cut, but upon closer inspections, you’ll begin to notice all the electronic noodlings popping up here and there. A track of this quality makes me wonder why these guys ever left Ninja Tune.
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October 27th, 2005 at 6:20 am
OK so that first picture is maybe the best picture ever.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
“While no beat is present, the track somehow remains rhythmic and pulse-driven.”
Do we have to have a discussion about what exactly counts as a beat? Because the percussive sounds have some tone they don’t make up a ‘beat’? I don’t know…not important.