April Payday splurge

Went to town (metaphorically)...I'll divide the formats up:

CDs

Holy Other - Want U (Tri Angle)



I've been a touch suspicious of Tri Angle as I haven't quite sussed them out and they seem to be doing a lot in little squirty amounts, this is a 22 minute EP and the other recent CD I have of theirs (OoOoo) is a 25 minute EP.

Though, I've over looked the high quality of their albums: How to Dress Well are, in spite of the shit name, magnificent and I encourage you all to check out his album on Tri Angle as it is gorgeous...millions of blog-words have been written about it so shan't go on but, outside of the gruelling hype machine, it was actually dead good.

Oh, and that Balam Acab album isn't bad either...(the 2nd one, not the above) just imagine yourself crouching in a cave looking out into a forest that shares a colour-scene with Acab's first single and that, apart from it being wet, this is a lonely place and you're sad. To put it simply, this sums the record up. It is, lest we forget, also achingly beautiful in places and has some nice spooky atmospherics (but was a bit heavy on the whole pitch-shifted vocals...went a bit there a some points).

So, wait, Holy Other. Very similar to BC and OoOoo, really, sluggish house, disembodied, sexless samples loop, swoop and lament over the fuzzily chugging percussion and synths swell and disappear. Very good but in danger of being lost forever if it doesn't shape up and get an identify that would last 5 minutes outside of Tri Angle's cosy aegis.

(Really, go and buy that HTDW CD, it's wicked).

Demdike Stare - Elemental (Modern Love)


Not sure about Demdike...not sure yet at all. Haven't actually listened to this guy yet but have been preparing myself all day. I splurged on the Triptych set in December and was a bit put off...the opening track "Caged in Stammheim" contained a sample of some early electronics that had been compiled on the mega-cool OHM: Early gurus of electronic music (Elipsis Arts) boxset that I received for a B-day present when I was 20. It was a 3 CD +DVD +book thing of beauty and because I was in my early electronics/noise stage (Subotnick, Derbyshire, Oram, Oliveros, Cage etc) it was a massive joy.

I can't recall the actual track that Demdike sample but, sadly, it smacked me initially as "Cool sound -but you didn't make that, you sampled it", which I'm no stickler for -I love sampling, passionately, but because this sound has a direct connection to my youth AND self-education in electronic music, I felt like I was instantly in the presence of hangers-on, coat-tail riders or something.

I love Demdike's music, their aesthetic is great, their sense of bleak fun, haunted-carnival mirth and general narrative edge makes their tracks really intricate and enjoyable but, dammit, I can't shake that this is made up of beardy LP finds, magpie finds and doesn't seem to offer ANYTHING original. NWW, Nordvagr, even Der Blutharsch, Coil and PTV
have all done the dark ambient thing much better...although their humour was cruel and aloof, to be fair, while Demdike sound like they've had a couple of pints and are dicking about with a Oujia Board or something.

I'm working on it...I think there's a lot to enjoy and I've already invested in Elemental (and, guiltily, a live album) so I'm saturating myself with their music at the moment. My wife likes it instantly, so that's OK.