Category: Reviews (Page 46 of 206)

КЛЕТ 1984? No!

2 January 2022 /


КЛЕТ is a music project of Bohemian-born composer and producer Michal Trávníček.

His debut album ‘Alconaut’ was undoubtedly the best instrumental synth release of 2021 and primarily celebrated the Soviet space programme with its impressive series of firsts, while also reflecting on how after the collapse of the union, in the fallout of the freedom now available with capitalism, life was not rosy for all. Less than half a year after the release of ‘Alconaut’ comes a musical appendix ‘1984? No!’. КЛЕТ rather poignantly dedicates to his new long player to “any individual mind that feels oppressed. My heart goes out to you!”

Thematically facing that past brave new world with relevance to today’s international political landscape, while 1984? No!’ could be considered a natural progression, opening track ‘Kaif’ displays a more uptempo and funkier template than was heard on ‘Alconaut’. Paying tribute to his birthplace, ‘Bohemia’ is also seeded from ‘Alconaut’ if less spacey. But ‘Piramida’ re-explores those atmospheres with an electro beat groove while ‘Hollywood Moon Landing’ is much floatier.

In honour of the first modular space station, the appropriately weightless ‘Mir’ provides another Sovietwave metaphor for the secrecy of the USSR progressing to more open international collaboration. ‘Horizon’ is more percussive and throws in tabla textures but while ‘Chukotka’ drifts along, ‘Dystopia’ comes over more threatening with chunky synthbass pulses if retaining atmospheric qualities.

Celebrating the first spacecraft to land successfully on the moon and return data, the celestial synthwave of ‘Luna 9’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ‘Alconaut’ while ‘Svoboda’ provides a pretty highlight. More stark and with partial distortion but remaining melodic is ‘Stolen Future’, continuing КЛЕТ’s assertion that the fall of The Iron Curtain was not necessarily a positive thing for some citizens in the former Eastern Bloc.

Using harp-like approximations and a steadfast metronomic beat, ‘Chillout’ does what it says on the tin before ‘Propyat’ closes the album with a beautiful sustained piano work that is embellished by the odd choral effect.

The impressive ‘Alconaut’ was always going to be a hard act to follow and in comparison, ‘1984? No!’ does come over as less immediate. The celebration and sadness of its predecessor is also felt on this worthwhile follow-up, even though it is pointing in a more ‘Don’t Look Up’ direction.

‘1984? No!’ is available on the usual online platforms including https://claat.bandcamp.com/

https://twitter.com/aestheticKLET

https://www.instagram.com/kletwave/

https://soundcloud.com/aestheticclaat

https://open.spotify.com/album/6ilnqjtkvEXLQ7I8US4Qbs

Text by Chi Ming Lai
4th January 2022

BLAINE L REININGER Wounds & Blessings

2 January 2022 /

Colorado-born Blaine L Reininger is best known as a member of TUXEDOMOON, a classically trained musician who embraced the European avant-garde and now lives in Greece.

Exponents of “cabaret no-wave”, TUXEDOMOON’s second album ‘Desire’ released in 1981 was co-produced by Gareth Jones after the band were impressed by his engineering skills on John Foxx’s ‘Metamatic’. Blaine L Reininger had a parallel solo career and continuing to work with Gareth Jones, released the acclaimed 1984 album ‘Night Air’ which featured the TB303 driven cinematic synthpop of ‘Mystery & Confusion’.

‘Wounds & Blessings’ is Reininger’s new studio double album featuring 28 new tracks organised into 4 themed suites of Songs, Bricolage, Sourced and Serene. Featuring TUXEDOMOON bandmates Steven Brown, Luc van Lieshout and Paul Zahl as well as Greek guitarist Tile-machos Moussas, Reininger additionally utilises computer plug-ins, samplers and AI-assisted lyrics alongside his trusty violin and guitar. The end result ranges from purely orchestral to entirely electronic compositions with everything in between.

With the world’s current state of flux, the subject of mortality heavily colours ‘Wounds & Blessings’. With an infectious electronic bass squelch, ringing keyboard signatures and a cacophony of swooping guitars, the Bowie-esque ‘100 Sad Fingers’ sees Reininger adopt baritone alongside an across a striking range of backing vocals. The art rock thrust of ‘I Inhabit The Dunes’ sounds like it could have come off ‘The Next Day’ or ‘Lodger’ for that matter while ‘Je Retournerai’ is more reminiscent of Iggy Pop.

Taking the pace down, ‘Chemise Grise’ is sung partly in French and recalls Leonard Cohen but ‘Trials & Tribulations’ springs a surprise at the start with dance beats and vocoder. ‘Roll Off The Edge’ is a crazy combination of tablas, jazz, funk, post-punk, chants and bursts of organ while ‘Occult Simplicities’ though could be best described as art school Lalo Schifrin!

The second half displays more of the considered classical and soundtrack styled compositions as featured on the ‘Commissions’ series with jazz inflections over drum loops as on ‘Newbs Descending A Staircase’ and the moodier instrumental territory of ‘Die Ferne Klang’ where Reininger’s sombre violin moods come to fore alongside percolating electronic vibes. ‘Sun Package’ combines rootsy slide guitar with a widescreen synthetic backdrop while the eerie ‘Unbirthday’ provides some nocturnal reflection. As the album progresses onto its home straight, the more traditional ‘Cahiers Noirs’ rings with the sadness of real and virtual violins before ‘Push’ presents sections of discordant ivory passages to close.

Blaine L Reininger is nothing but diverse and stylistically, he has never been able to be placed in a genre box. Fans will again relish the variation on offer with this ambitious work. Requiring more than a passing listen to be appreciated, casual observers may only find a quarter of the ‘Wounds & Blessings’ immediately appealing but that is already 3 or 4 tracks more than most albums offer on the quality front these days anyway.

‘Wounds & Blessings’ is released by Les Disques du Crépuscule as a 2CD set and download

https://mundoblaineo.org/

https://www.facebook.com/Blaine-L-Reininger-157948817590987/

https://twitter.com/BlaineReininger

https://open.spotify.com/album/3smUBkXFkK6ZfgEbdVebKe

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by George Geranios
2nd January 2021

LAURA DRE Kyoto Dreams

27 December 2021 /


Presenting a swift follow-up to her acclaimed solo debut album ‘Moving Spaces’, German Filipino songstress and musician Laura Dre presents an ambitious concept record in ‘Kyoto Dreams’.

Loving a download only instrumental bonus track of the same name from ‘Moving Spaces’, her label Outland asked for more of the same and Laura Dre duly delivered, but with a twist.

Having grown up with German Hörspiel cassettes, “I instantly had this crazy idea of creating a story with Japanese voice acting…” she said.

The 12 instrumentals contained on the ‘Kyoto Dreams’ album inspired by Citypop, chill-synth and lo-fi house are interspersed with a story in Japanese about a workaholic named Rin played by Hiroko Okunishi; she lives without dreams and ambitions but she embarks on a journey of enlightenment to find that something to enrich her future self. Other characters are voiced by Karinne Okunishi, Satomi Kinoshita, kay and Ayumi Kobayashi. To assist non-Japanese speaking listeners, English translations of the story’s script are available on Laura Dre’s website as well as in the booklet of the CD release.

Of the music, ‘Lost in Transit’ is an example of how music and speech can come together on an exotic midtempo instrumental. Using glitchy pitched shifted vocal samples, ‘Bus To Okinawa’ is more jagged in comparison and its darker austere is intriguing. ‘Waiting’ offers pretty vibes in keeping with its title, while ‘Drifting’ is a more dreamy flight of fancy where the inclusion of speech also works.


‘
City Lights’ is superb and its danceable NEW ORDER Goes To The Far East backdrop captures a wonderfully nocturnal feel but ‘Ocean Adventure’ is naturally more nautical, blue and relaxed. The glorious ‘Kyoto Dreams’ is the Citypop-influenced bonus that was the seed to this ambitious adventure and it remains an enticing musical travelogue with hooks, atmospheres and percussive colours in an example of how a good synth instrumental should be constructed.

With Koto textures galore, the Zen hip-hop of ‘Temples’ pitches up some of the dialogue to be more child-like and although ‘Four Seasons’ develops on the hip-hop theme, it does so with a much shadier downtempo approach.

As the album effectively bookends with ‘You Are Here’, the ‘Part 2 – Tokyo 5pm’ variation utilises metronomic club beats over its moodier ‘Part 1 – Unknown’ counterpart, while an extended reprise of ‘Bus To Okinawa’ and the short conceptual statement ‘New Departure’ close the ‘Kyoto Dreams’ album like the soundtrack over the end titles of a film.

Musically, the 12 instrumentals on ‘Kyoto Dreams’ stand up as a collection. But for those who may not be as wholly invested in Laura Dre’s vision of a radio play and its chapters alternating with music, the story in Japanese may prove to be a frustrating distraction. For casual listeners, this switching music / spoken word approach rarely works and even the mighty YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA at their commercial heights baffled their homegrown audiences with their 1983 album ‘Service’ by alternating synthpop songs with comedy sketches in Japanese by SUPER ECCENTRIC THEATER!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is certainly not against albums with interspersed conceptual pieces as the site’s love of KRAFTWERK’s ‘Radio-Activity’ or ‘Dazzle Ships’ and ‘English Electric’ by OMD have proved.

Now whereas those featured tracks of news broadcasts, speaking clocks and airport announcements in international languages respectively, these concrète experiments were shorter and fewer in number, although ‘Times Zones’ from ‘Dazzle Ships’ remains a flawed artistic snapshot of the world that outstays its welcome by a minute.

In the case of this sophomore Laura Dre album, listen to it as a whole and see how you feel. As a radio play on its own, a synth instrumental record or as Laura Dre’s vision of combining both, what it means to the individual listener is what matters; it will mean different things to different people and only they can decide what to put in their own ‘Kyoto Dreams’ playlist.

‘Kyoto Dreams’ is released by Outland Recordings in a gold vinyl effect CD in a digipak with a Japanese / English instruction booklet and digital formats available from https://lauradre.bandcamp.com/album/kyoto-dreams

https://lauradre.com/

https://www.facebook.com/lauradreofficial

https://twitter.com/LauraDreMusic

https://www.instagram.com/lauradre/

https://www.twitch.tv/lauradreofficial

https://soundcloud.com/lauradre

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-i6CW5oGLsKIOOIHV9sEHA/

https://open.spotify.com/album/02tAfJaZg4cQ692gxq59L6

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Wiebke Kreinick
27th December 2021

FIFI RONG There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved

8 December 2021 /


Chinese-born avant-pop songstress Fifi Rong released her debut album ‘Wrong’ in 2013 and attracted the attention of YELLO who she later collaborated with a few years later on two tracks from their ‘Toy’ album.

Integrating traditional elements into western popular music, her sound is simultaneously melancholic and sensual. After releasing a number of EPs and singles in a wide range of styles including ‘Figure of 8’ with Mark Reeder, she became less inhibited artistically and reconnected with her Chinese heritage. The end result is her new self-produced double opus.

Having once stated ‘Love Is A Lonely Thing’, when that relationship ends, ‘There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved’. Self-explanatory, it comes in an English language version (which will be available singularly to the international market) and in her native Mandarin, although for now, this double package will be exclusively available to her ever expanding army of crowdfunders.

With a whisper, opener ‘Out Of Clock’ sets the downtempo intentions with bent double bass and reversed sounds combining for a deathly kiss. Mildly picking up the pace with a primitive drum box, ‘Only Man’ is classic Fifi Rong with its hushed angelic vocal tones, harmonies and effects capped by a fabulous tape manipulation ending.

The bent double bass returns on ‘Love Yourself First’ with some exotic synth textures before moving along at a subtle 3/4 mood recalling COCTEAU TWINS, while ‘Another Me’ is another classic Fifi Rong track, sparse and emotive, doing exactly what her fanbase love her for. ‘Distance’ sees our heroine take to guitar while ‘Beg For More’ is more vibey. ‘I Refused To Break Down’ acts as a determined spoken interlude before leading into ‘Alchemist’ which makes the most out of the songstress’ authentic vocal presence.

The piano-led ‘Dream On’ follows a similar path as ‘I’m Enough’ ramps proceedings up with a slice pace variation and some wonderfully atmospheric interplay. The marvellous ‘Stay Away’ makes the most of the melancholy in a slice of ambient trip hop before an acapella reprise of ‘Another Me’ closes ‘There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved’

This is heavy but beautiful listening, where the vocals are central with the musical backdrop providing them with a haunting embellishment. “To let my music live, I had to let everything else die in my heart” Fifi Rong said, “But the ghosts of doomed romances had nowhere to go…”

Five years in the making, this is an intense intimate body of work with a timeless soulful quality via its heartfelt ambition. Becoming broken hearted is an aspect of the human condition will never change but as with all good melancholic music, it does so with hope and with melody.

‘There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved’ is released on 10th December 2021, available from https://fifirong.bandcamp.com/

http://www.fifirong.com/

https://www.facebook.com/fifirongmusic/

https://twitter.com/fifirong

https://www.instagram.com/fifirong/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Dylan Chubb
8th December 2021

KINGSTON UNIVERSITY STYLOPHONE ORCHESTRA Stylophonika

6 December 2021 /


The Dubreq Stylophone created by Brian Jarvis was for many people, their first direct experience of an electronic music instrument.

Operated with a stylus in contact with a metal keyboard that was etched as part of a printed circuit board, musical notes were created via different-value resistors connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator when the circuit was closed. Entering production in 1968, the Stylophone was seen as a novelty instrument until Marc Bolan introduced the pocket sized device to David Bowie who subsequently used its otherworldly qualities on his breakthrough hit ‘Space Oddity’ in 1969.

Over the years, tracks using the distinctive tones of the Stylophone have included ‘Style’ by ORBITAL which was constructed out of samples rather than played live and BELLE & SEBASTIAN’s ‘Mayfly’ with its buzzy solo. From stylus to stardust, the KINGSTON UNIVERSITY STYLOPHONE ORCHESTRA was created by Dr Leah Kardos in early 2019 after legendary producer Tony Visconti introduced her to Dubreq who donated a collection of new and vintage Stylophones to Visconti Studio’s instrument archive based at the University.

The idea of a performing ensemble using these unique instruments took shape in Kardos’ head. After a notice was posted up, a number of curious students showed up for the first rehearsal. Despite the Stylophone’s known limitations, its restrictions were to inspire creativity and ingenuity with a unique collective noise.

The worldwide pandemic meant regular rehearsals were impossible so a collaborative recording project which could be worked on remotely was conceived using not just the original Stylophone series but Dubreq’s newer instruments from the same family like the Gen X-1, Gen R-8 and Beatbox, along with Korg Volca sample sequencers, Theremins, Omnichords, a Moog Grandmother and the human voice. When Kinston University opened up again in March 2021, the orchestra returned to Visconti Studio finishing their long playing debut.

Entitled ‘Stylophonika’, half the album pays homage to electronic music’s pioneers and while those delightful cover versions act as entry points, the original material that was composed specifically for ‘Stylophonika’ also excels. Takes on Jean-Michel Jarre’s ‘Oxygene (Part 4)’ and the Tony Visconti-produced ‘Space Oddity’ featuring some commendably authentic vocal phrasing from Ershad Alamgir and Jack Holland are very enjoyable.

But ‘Blade Runner (End Titles)’ sounds glorious with the Stylophone ensemble playing the main melody and it could be argued that their grainier timbres add an even greater dystopian quality to the iconic Vangelis theme. The same goes for the rework of Wendy Carlos’ ‘Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary’ from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ with assorted variants of Stylophone penetrating the backdrop of Moogs.

As the album’s closing piece de resistance, the piercing Stylophone tones sound magnificent (complete with just about audible “keyboard taps”) in the affecting sonic cathedral that is Brian Eno’s ‘An Ending (Ascent)’.

Composed by Zuzanna Wężyk and building into a multi-layered soundscape, ‘Akoustiki’ utilises some eerie cyclic choir phrasing and an angelic lead vocal by Arte Spyropoulou alongside bursts of vintage Stylophone set to a rhythmic mantra that is distinctly ritualistic.

However Leah Kardos’ own ‘Brundle Beat’ soothes with a dramatic swirling soundscape while the elegiac ‘Olancha Goodbye’ acts as her touching musical eulogy to the late Harold Budd with a hushed blend of Omnichord drone, glistening electronics, soothing choir and appropriately understated percussion. If Harold Budd was the master of “soft pedal”, then this is “soft stylus”, constructing its own dreamy pavilion.

Directed and produced by Leah Kardos to capture a Yesterday’s Tomorrow aesthetic via the Stylophone’s classic component vibrato and glide, ‘Stylophonika’ is a fine tribute to the instrument that also explores its strange future possibilities with love and affection. If you love the Stylophone, then you will adore this album.

‘Stylophonika’ is released by Spun Out Of Control on 28th January 2022 as a limited edition Protein Pills Purple or Pink & Blue Cosmic Swirl vinyl LP and download, pre-order available from https://spunoutofcontrol.bandcamp.com/album/stylophonika

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Text by Chi Ming Lai
6th December 2021

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