Oval - Oh (Thrill Jockey, 2010)

Oval - Hey removed by request
Oval - Ah! (label approved track from forthcoming full length, O)


Fuck, it's been long enough. Oh is Markus Popp's first new release as Oval in nearly 10 years, although it's not like I personally waited that long. As much as I'd like to say it, I wasn't so cool that I was listening to sweet glitch tunes in middle school. Sorry. But there are some who have waited that long. Let me assure you folks, your patience has been rewarded.

Thankfully, this is not the Oval you remember from 94 Diskont or Systemisch. This is 21st century Oval. The ever-innovating Oval. The Oval everyone loves.

Oh takes all of the laptop magic from previous Oval records and intensifies it, adds a generous helping of traditional instruments, and conjures an organic glitch unlike anything else out there. It's thrilling and brilliant and sounds pretty much exactly what you're hoping new Oval would sound like: eccentrically harmonious and pleasantly piercing. The textures are amazing. Seriously. There's so much going on it's infinitely re-listenable, much like Tortoise or old Oval (obv). This is something that is going to sound fucking killer on vinyl. And dropping just $10 on a limited 12" is a goddamn steal and a half.

However, I have one gripe.

Oh feels like a teaser, which I guess from a certain perspective it is. It's a 25 minute EP preceding a full length, so it's giving you a taste of what's to come. But it doesn't have the cohesion I was hoping for. There are 15 tracks, all but three of which are under the 2 minute mark. I get the feeling Popp was experimenting like a motherfucker, churned out some highly worthwhile tunes that sounded great, but maybe didn't fit the theme for the full length he had in mind. Don't get me wrong, it all sounds like Oval and it all sounds truly fucking great. But while it's an enjoyable listen, I feel like it's almost too much of a tease. I probably could've gone the extra 3 months without hearing anything from Oval just to experience the inevitable masterpiece of O that's to follow in September.

Ata Ebtekar & The Iranian Orchestra For New Music Performing Works Of Alireza Mashayekhi - Ornamental (Isounderscore, 2009)

Ata Ebtekar & The Iranian Orchestra For New Music - Ornamental


Ata Ebtekar & The Iranian Orchestra For New Music have put out possibly the most challenging record who's genre wouldn't include the word "power." They make listening as difficult as possible while still making it entirely rewarding and enjoyable.

Ornamental is a mind fuck of an electro-acoustic record. Ebtekar does all sorts of electronic shit and then there's the orchestra playing traditional instruments. It reminds me a bit of Greg Kelley's Self-Hate Index in the way that you're never sure if the sounds you're hearing are from analog or digital instruments (except in Kelley's case, it was almost all analog). The lines are blurred so much that if there were no liner notes, I might assume this was a 100% electronic record.

The sounds on Ornamental are fucking nuts. It's almost total anarchy. The speed goes from slow chugging to amped up giddyness in one explosive second. Crazy arpeggios, shrill tinny blasts of nonsense, and piano smashing that take you by surprise every fucking time. The crunchy electronics sound like if Tristan Perich made his 1-Bit Music back in the '60s. And the regular instruments that I do recognize seem processed to oblivion.

Every time I listen to this, I make just a little bit more sense out of it. The first time it just knocked me the fuck down, without so much as a "sorry." The second time I was at least able to hold my own. And each time I hit play again, I have more confidence than the last that I'm gonna make it my bitch. But it never happens. Ornamental is somehow always, like, 10 steps ahead of me.

And did I mention that this is on double vinyl? Look at that cover art up there. Super slick. So gorgeous. You need to buy this.

Sperm Whales - Endless Sea Of Clouds (Little Fury Things, 2008)

Sperm Whales - Floating Forward


If you live anywhere near Boston then you know it's been fucking gray as hell and raining for what feels like 2 months straight. Fucking bogus. Thankfully, we got Sperm Whales here to give us our antidote, a big dose of vitamin D.

Endless Sea Of Clouds is a shimmery minimal ambient affair with lots of guitars and electronics, each taking their own turn. It's kind of like a cross between Eluvium and White Rainbow, except with Whales, I don't get the same psychedelic third eye mind expansion feeling that comes with White Rainbow's stuff. Imagine running through the forest to get to the beach and you're on the right track.

One of the best parts of Endless Sea Of Clouds (other than it's highly appropriate name) is the third track, "Floating Forward." It reminds me so much of one of my all time favorites movies, Flight Of The Navigator. I don't know if it sounds like it should be in the movie or if it just gives me the same feeling as shooting across the Everglades at Mach 10 but either way it's the fucking best.

Sperm Whales hasn't done anything especially innovative with Clouds but sometimes it sure feels like it. All of the varying instrumentation and (faux?) field recordings constantly come as a surprise. Maybe its just because I have it in my head that this is a guitar loop record but there's plenty of plinking toy piano sounds, electronic wackiness, and chirping birds. Like when "Prismatic Inquisition" comes on with it's 8-bit melodies and cacophony. I can most certainly say I wasn't expecting that. Nor was I expecting to hear the sound of grabbing a coin from Super Mario World on "Reproductive Adaptation." That's probably one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in listening to a record in a long time.

Endless Sea Of Clouds is a record that delights me to no end. The name of the record, the artist's name, the music itself, the packaging, it's all perfect. The CD comes in a little burlap pouch with an insert and an elaborately designed CD-R.

P.S. Check out the Sperm Whales Vimeo page for tons of amazing music videos.

Tomoko Sauvage & Gilles Aubry - Apam Napat

Tomoko Sauvage & Gilles Aubry - Apam Napat


Tomoko Sauvage and Gilles Aubry are two people (girl and guy, I think) who make minimal electroacoustic music. Sauvage taps on porcelain waterbowls and Aubry does live sampling, slightly altering the sound in the process. What emerges is really cool microtonal stuff that can be both hypnotic and dizzying.

Apam Napat was improvised and recorded live in Berlin. They played 3 songs that clock in at over 40 minutes. The opening song, "Halftone Dots" is the most fast paced and seemingly structured of the bunch. The percussion is layered many times on itself and makes for a very urgent song. Not like the "I gotta piss" urgent, but like the "Shit I gotta get outta here" urgent. It's strange because it puts me at ease while making me nervous. That's definitely a feeling that makes absolutely no sense in my head.

The other two tracks, "Undercurrent" and "Apam Napat," are more sparse, almost like Sauvage and Aubry originally made freaky free folk but wanted to be closer to the Earth by making music with waterbowls. There are times when I'm listening to Apam Napat and I think to myself, someone probably thinks I installed a bunch of wind chimes in my apartment. Of course I mean that in the nicest way possible. I like wind chimes. And I like this record so everything should be OK.

Apam Napat is available as a free download from the netlabel Musica Excentrica. Do it now. Do it here.