From Adam Huffman Sent Wed, Apr 15th 1998, 11:21
From Adam Huffman Sent Wed, Apr 15th 1998, 11:21
Subconscious Geography - Contaminated by Technique - Map One With prescient timing the Subconscious Geography compilation CD arrives, consisting in large part of IDM contributors of varying vintage. There are eight artists represented here: Jowonio Productions, Qwerty, 5x5, Horse Opera, Heatsink, Siliconvortex, Volvo Spy and our IDM-departed friend Clair Sinclive. I've grouped together each person's tracks. Jowonio Productions: Blessing (For Anna) is the opening track and it's very much in the invisible soundtrack vein with some good atmosphere sounds. Similar in concept to some of the pieces on Music for Films III. Radar O'Reilly is another pseudo-soundtrack piece, but disturbing where the previous one was soothing, with chunky (but slow) drums and a Theremin-like vocal wail interlude. Suitable for a dystopian sci-fi film with a decadent subtext, perhaps. The final Jowonio contribution is Tuesday and this is more like a Bytes-style Phil with cramped drum ticks and strange stabs in the distance. Tape spool breakdown at the end. The first Qwerty contribution - One - owes a great debt to that odd Cornish fellow - you know the one. Video game percussion, lovely melody line using a sound similar to the Fluted Beats one from AB3 - nice big reverb on it and some restrained vocal duhs. Five again relies on tinny synthesised drums, very buzz-y (was that a Top Buzz I heard?), overlaid with a mournful but restrained string melody. The solitary 5x5 track - Migration - is a hybrid of Paradinas-style distorted drums and a diffuse set of atmospheres with chimes and sweeps, evidently recorded in that same cathedral. The second element is much more interesting to these ears; the distortion is well done but I'm a little tired of that sort of thing. Friend to the stars Horse Opera makes his opening shot count with Mifune. It's a marriage of stuttering beats with an engaging neo-Oriental melody and assorted squelches/whines. Imagine a mechanised Kurasawa compressed to four minutes and then altered a bit. Goit is less strident, a short piece with a curiously antique sound, as though composed on the instruments of which a sixties futurist might have dreamed. The drums gradually come to dominate the foreboding melody. Heatsink's Poise is a beatless exploration held together by a slightly detuned zither-like line and filled out with steam noises and eerie pads. Shudder again. Circuit 2 is rather longer and has distorted drums not dissimilar in timbre to those on Boards' Chinook as well as some resonated squelchy percussion. The melody is again subject to creative tuning but to more pleasant ends on this occasion. The drums are gradually effaced in the middle as the melody wanders around behind some hills before returning to the foreground, to be hijacked by the percussion right at the end. Volvo Spy makes a single appearance - Anel Iol - and it's a rhythm-led piece (quite a complex, multi-layered rhythm), reminiscent towards the end of a track from ToTB with its strange beeps. There's a cheeky reprise in store. Clair Sinclive is another singleton, his Misery comprising moody scurrying with an industrial flavour. Good for the bit where the hero is driving along wondering what to do next. Filmed in Pixelvision, of course. Lots of wet filter action here and just a hint of threat in the background. Siliconvortex's initial statement is Valley, which has a definite yearning quality as the main ascending melody never seems to be quite resolved. Some nice noises, particularly the chirrup-y hi-hats. Little arpeggiated bursts maintain the theme and are augmented by oozing pads. Good restrained drum track. Ergotnomic 1 is a celebratory ride of tasteful neo-Detroit noises with some background squirts. Then an abrupt change to a stark rhythm section - lots of filtering and resonators (?) - quite Kraftwerk-like. The melody returns in filtered form and re-emerges to celebrate again, to be clarified by a few little chimes. Rapid Movement has some interesting timbres, notably the strange growling distortion, like digital bubbles which are complaining about something. Or like a binary throat choking. Finishes on a respiratory note. His final contribution is also the last track on the CD. Fountain of Youth begins where Dimension Intrusion finished but then adds layers of melody with more timbral variety. The rhythm periodically reasserts itself and is then effaced. itself. There is a hint of Autechre in the gradual fadeout as the drums recede. There is a lot to like here and the contributors' restraint with regard to song length means that any unwelcome elements are not around too long. The listener gets a definite sense of people busy in their bedrooms, eager for their music to be heard and it's worth hearing. Occasionally heroes loom too large but most often individual musical characters are apparent. As I've hinted, many of these would make good soundtrack pieces (not to say that they are devoid of merit outside such a context). Compares well with Threads, which is the only other similar thing I've heard. adam