Surgery 89

Gabriel Séverin - Soliloques (Sub Rosa)
Cindytalk - The Crackle Of My Soul (eMego)
Black To Comm - Alphabet 1968 (Type)
10-20 - Island (Highpoint Lowlife)
Antye Greie Aka AGF - Einzelkämpfer (AGF Produktion)
Molly Berg & Stephen Vitiello - The Gorilla Variations (12k)
Aaron Martin - Grass Wounds (Under the Spire)
Akira Kosemura - Polaroid Piano (Someone Good)
Caethua - The Long Afternoon Of Earth (Into The Dog-Dayed Night) (Preservation)
Leyland Kirby - Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (HAFTW)
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Playing The Piano (Decca)
Tsukimono - Heart Attack Money (Kalligrammofon)
Ian Hawgood - Wolfskin CDR (Hibernate)
Autistici - Complex Tone Test (Keshhhhhh)

Track Listing

Gabriel Séverin - Jacqueline: "Je Ne Sais Pas Faire De Charme Devant Un Micro" [0:00]
Cindytalk - Our Shadow, Remembered [0:59]
Black To Comm - Jonathan [4:30]
10-20 - Thing From Inner Space [11:09]
Antye Greie - Rhythm, Rules And Ink [15:59]
Molly Berg & Stephen Vitiello - Variation 2 [21:01]
Aaron Martin - Shot Tower [26:04]
Akira Kosemura - Would [30:08]
Caethua - The Cold Stark North East [33:13]
Leyland Kirby - Tonight Is The Last Night Of The World [36:56]
Ryuichi Sakamoto- A Flower Is Not A Flower [46:21]
Tsukimono - Oh Cannibal [49:31]
Ian Hawgood - All These Memories Are Blue Type [51:55]
Autistici - Resonating Wire [54:10]

Listen to Surgery 89 click here

Surgery 88

Nudge - As Good As Gone (Kranky)
What Capitalism Was - Plays Philip Glass on Accordion (Self-released)
Heather Woods Broderick - From The Ground (Preservation)
Porzellan - The Fourth Level Of Comprehension (Hibernate)
Klimek - Movies Is Magic (Anticipate)
Steven R. Smith - Cities (Immune)
Milieu - New Drugs For Nuclear Families Of The Seventies (MMD)
Bvdub - We Were The Sun (Quietus)
Loscil - Strathcona Variations (Ghostly)
Pleq - The Metamorphosis (U-Cover/CD-r)
Isnaj Dui - Unstable Equilibrium (Home Normal)
Chihei Hatakeyama - The River (Hibernate)
Brave Radar - A Building (Fixture)

Track Listing

Nudge - Harmo [0:00]
What Capitalism Was - Etoile Polaire [4:53]
Heather Woods Broderick - Left [7:21]
Porzellan - One Week & One Day [12:05]
Klimek - Sound Of Confusion [20:43]
Steven R. Smith - Night Upon Us [25:58]
Milieu - Dionysus In Reds [30:20]
Bvdub - Lest You Forget [33:45]
Loscil - Midnight on Princess [37:47]
Pleq - Song Of Nonsens [43:50]
Isnaj Dui - Chill Turns To Cold [48:58]
Chihei Hatakeyama - Gray Hued Sky [54:33]
Brave Radar - Fireball (Surgery Edit) [59:07]

Listen to Surgery 88 click here

Christopher Tignor - Core Memory Unwound

An aptly titled solo debut from the musical director/violinist of the Slow Six ensemble that tests the elasticity of piano and violin themes with live sampling software. Where Slow Six dabble in Glass/Reich minimalism these pieces come closer to the chamber classical of Koji Asano or even austere John Cale. The eight pieces progress in pairs that alternate purely acoustic and treated electronic works.. “Last Thought at Night” is a lovely duet that slowly interlocks and pulls apart like a door latch, while the piano of “Last Nights on Eagle Street” tiptoes through an arpeggiated patch of violin samples. The title track at the centre of the album inverts the cascade, creating waves of piano samples that envelope slowly shifting drones spiking in the upper frequencies. Both sides of the equation approach each other closely on the subtly evanescent moments of “Cathedral,” a two-parter that closes the album.

Western Vinyl

Various - Iceberg

Montreal’s experimental music scene has a new label to exhibit its wares, both hard and soft. Minimalism is the watchword here, but the twelve artists approach it from intersecting spheres of ambience, concrete, dub and techno. Simon Carpentier (Sapin) provides a fitting introduction with “Balade,” a track that combines a soggy electroacoustic soundwalk with a chilly network of electronics from the Raster-Noton catalogue. Laforge and Sul.a follow up with a couple of micro-beat pieces that are part Tangerine Dream part Frank Bretschneider. “Luminescence” is a vapor by Julie LeBlanc (/de.i.te/) that seems to hover and vibrate in the middle distance just out of focus. Martin Dumais (AUN) labels his efforts as “blight metal,” but “Human Prince” seems light on doom, heavier on the hazy echo. More haunted is “Somewhere Cold” by Pascal Asselin (Le Chat Blanc Orchestra) that conjures quiet moments of devastation from Lynch films. At heart a post-dusk collection that contemplates isolation as the streetlights flicker.

CCCLTD

Martin Schulte – Depth of Soul

Having spent a few years rising through the ranks on netlabels like Red and Op3n, Russia’s Marat Shibaev has found a new hard disc home on Tokyo’s fledgling Lantern Records. While there are echoes of dub and Kompakt-influenced minimalism (his pseudonym hints at the gutte vibrations), there is a compacted surface to these tracks that render them dancefloor-friendly. What distinguishes them from your average upper-middle tempo cuts are the detailed undercurrents built into pieces like “Big City Street” and “Supper.” The latter’s clattering flatware and mealtime chatter is more prominent, while the former features more subliminal snippets of voice that encourage slightly paranoid sidelong glances. Even the less ambience infected tracks are gibbous with little working parts. Even as the topmost 4/4 is prodding the plexus there are blurry washes that graze the surface, like moving water under ice. Having just cracked the big 2-0 Shibaev has many promising nights ahead of him.

Lantern Records

City Centre - S/T

The same shifty restlessness that made Saturday Looks Good to Me such an undervalued pop curiosity blossoms at the heart of Fred Thomas’ City Centre. Parts of this eponymous debut have the feel of a pillow fight where exploded feathers touch off loops of mbira, gamelan and then unexpectedly drop like rhythmic hammers. It takes a few tracks for the disparate elements to synch, but “Bleed Blood” succeeds by shunting the acoustics and embracing the Panda Bearishness of sweet and sticky tug-of-war layers. The wall of noise on “Cloud Center” is an appropriately nebulous one that is the aural equivalent of the debris that circles Saturn. Even in varied states of deliquescence, the hard pop core of each track retains enough form to survive declassification. “Young Diamond” sounds like a wet dream Kevin Drew wishes he could remember and closer “Unfinished Hex” proves there is a machine inside the ghost with its more minimalist guitar/vocal approach. Get your pillows ready.

Type