I originally wrote this album review of the new Autechre record - Quaristice - for my “day job” at MOG.com. This is a slightly different version here because you are a different audience!

Longtime fans of Autechre will probably be ecstatic about Quaristice. It hearkens to early Autechre music - more experimental, more chaotic, and less dance friendly than the last 4 albums or so. I’ve been a fan for ages and bought nearly every album they ever released. But I started to pine for their earlier sounds, when they were trailblazing the experimental electronic scene that later became known as IDM. This is the Autechre album I was longing for! If this sounds like you, you need to listen to Quaristice!

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Overall, the album sounds less clinical than many of Autechre’s more recent releases. The sounds evolve more organically and the sequences have more random elements to them. I LOVE it! The synths on Quaristice sound like an Evolver (Dave Smith Instruments) with its quirky sounds and step sequencers. If it isn’t an Evolver, I would still hazard a guess that this music was inspired by some new piece of hardware. It’s just a guess, but this album sounds so much like a return to hardware for the band. Either that or some serious cut-ups and processing like the Matmos albums based on surgery instruments.

Autechre explore new ground with the use of human vocal elements on “IO” (something they rarely incorporate). The human vocal is nicely balanced by one of the most recognizable machine voices ever: a Speak-n-Spell (or Speak-n-Math). The main vocal in “IO” isn’t very comprehensible since it’s filtered through what sounds a bit like a megaphone and a distortion petal. It’s graininess is perfectly complemented by the digital voice of the T.I. toy.

([ Click To Add "IO" To Player ])

A few songs into the album, it begins to remind me of certain songs by Coil: experimental synth stuff like Elph vs. Glitch or Music To Play In The Dark or similar… My impression keeps changing with each song, because they all sound so different. The tempo varies widely from one song to the next, from ambient washes to triplets at 120 bpm. However, the closest thing to a dance track in the collection is the schizophrenic hip hop beats of “90101″ that sound like a Timbaland production on 45 rpm.

It wasn’t until Track 17 “WNSN” that I started to hear the Autechre that we have come to know in more recent years. A few tracks later, “Notwo” (track 19) gets so minimal it’s downright zen. “Notwo” and “Outh9X” (the last two tracks of the album) are pure atmospheric bliss, very similar to the planetary music of murcof, and a beautiful way to fade out the album. This is an unexpected pleasure of Quaristice - the music varies so much. No two songs are alike and they convey a range of influences and skills.

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Autechre have a new album called Quaristice that will be released on March 3rd 2008. The experimental electronica duo haven’t updated their own website since the release of Untitled in 2005, but Warp Records revealed that Autechre will release their 9th album in ‘08. Autechre has scheduled one live show for March 10th in Poland and it seems likely that many more dates will be announced in support of the new album.
([More →])

This is a concert review of Murcof and .pig at the 2007 San Francisco Music Festival.

Last weekend featured an accidental theme of deep relaxation. Maybe it was cosmic alignment, or reaching an omega point of stress and fatigue, but everyone around me was discussing how to relax and feel creative. On Wednesday I reached a state of zen relaxation while sitting in the Artaud Theater at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival listening to Murcof play ambient atmospheric music over a wonderfully rich soundsystem. I have a sample for you, so that you can try to create a place of zen for yourself with the beautiful song “Cielo” off of Murcof’s new album Cosmos. But first, a review of the band who started off the evening and the entire Festival: .pig an electronic noise band from Mexico City. ([More →])

Hi Music Fans!
I have been on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco’s finest concerts all weekend and have so much to share with you! I’ve barely slept; all I’ve done is go to shows and edit concert photos…. So, there’s been a lull in new articles for a few days, but I will be back with a fury of good things very soon! Upcoming concert reviews include:

• Murcof and .pig at the SF Electronic Music Festival
• Underworld and Paul Oakenfold at The Warfield Theater
• Nommo Ogo, Kadet Kuhne with Mem 1, and Fred Frith with Patrice Scanlon at SFEMF

([More →])

Maybe it was the eclipse last week, or a special alignment of the cosmos when I stated here that I would fly to London to see Murcof play a planetarium show. I haven’t hit the lotto or become a jetsetter yet, but part of my wish will come true nonetheless: I will be relaxing and enjoying a live performance by Murcof tonight at the Artaud Gallery Theater in San Francisco! I’m so excited to go and become so relaxed by his soothing layers of ambient electronica. ([More →])

DJ Krush has compiled all of his music videos, 2 documentaries, plus a book of colour photographs into one complete DVD package! The box set enjoyed a limited release in Japan earlier this year, but that wasn’t enough for Krush fans. Due to a flattering demand for the discs worldwide, it will be re-released on September 18th. The two documentaries cover most of the turntablist’s career: from his debut album to his world tour in 2006, a full eight albums and ten years span. Krush was the first Japanese artist to join Mo’ Wax, and he is credited as the first dj in Japan to play music with live musicians. Legend has it that the boy decided to become a dj after leaving the Yakuza and watching the movie “Wild Styles” (an 80’s film about graffiti and hip hop dj culture). I didn’t know anybody left the japanese mafia alive, but it seems a high-profile lifestyle is a good choice if you do… ([More →])

Machine Girl (End.User and Line 47) once was half of a limited edition split with 3 tracks from End.User himself on the flip side. The record was released in 2003 and quickly sold out. But, for those who are looking to plump up their breakcore/noise/electronica collection, Sonic Terror has just provided a fresh opportunity to own this gem. Meanwhile, if you can be in the SF area on September 6th, you can catch End.User, Exillon, Fluorescent Grey and more electric Circuitry live and loud! ([More →])

As soon as possible, I am going to become a jet-setter; I will acquire a flat near London and a frequent flyer membership. Then, every time I hear about something happening in London that is INFINITELY cooler than anything happening in SF, I am going to book a seat, grab my passport and jump over the pond. If I were able to procure these things in the next month, you would definitely find me in London on 4 October for a very special live performance by Murcof. The Mexican laptop wizard is about to release his third EP, Cosmos, as a CD or triple vinyl on 17 September via The Leaf Label. To celebrate, he will be performing in surround sound at the Peter Harrison Planetarium, at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. I don’t know if there will be a laser show, but just leaning back and gazing at infinite space, swimming in a sea of stars and solar systems, and letting the Cosmos wash over me would be such relaxing bliss… ([More →])

Our favorite psychedelic space-rockers - Spectrum - are currently weaving across the Northern US on their way to V Festival in Toronto. If you heard Sonic Boom on his tour earlier this year, you may have been left with an appetite for a full Spectrum experience. Boom played a handful of songs from the Spectrum archives during his sets, and now we can hear them in proper stereo. Spectrum just played two shows in NYC over the weekend and Tuesday night they were in Cambridge Mass. After that, it’s on to Philly, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Then in September, they hit Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, and a lot of midwest in bewtween. And of course, Portland, SF and LA will get their turn before the band travels through the south, finishing up the tour at the Wall of Sound Festival in Fort Worth, Texas. ([More →])

We’ve got two grand tours by Ipecac artists: The Melvins with Big Business and Otto Von Schirach with The Locust! The Melvins have announced a jam-packed tour of the US from mid-September to mid-October where they will be screening the new DVD they created with hipster cartoon toy designer Dalek - “Purge of Dissidents” at each show! Big Business will be opening the shows, but first The Melvins play one show with Mudhoney in LA (which will also screen the new DVD). If sludge rock isn’t your mug o’music, but weirdness is, you might want to check out the Otto Von Schirach tour with analog afficionado insectoids The Locust that is winding around Europe! Ahhh, I remember when Otto was just a lad, playing underground warehouse shows in SF and The Locust were scaring kids at The Gilman… ([More →])

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything new from the french ambient artist, M83, but that’s about to change. Next month he will digitally release an album of songs that he recorded in 2006 and he is currently in the studio working on a full length studio album that will be released some time next year. The studio album is being recorded with Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Sugar Cubes, Cocteau Twins, Suede) and Ewan Pearson (Tracey Thorn, The Rapture, Ladytron) and has not been named yet. Meanwhile, we have the chance to listen to Digital Shades Vol. 1 which begins a series of “textured richness” which will weave a “lunar and dream-like path.” ([More →])

Matthew Herbert makes great Bjork sounds. “Hidden Place” is one of my all-time favorite Bjork songs, and it was Herbert who produced the beats. He also produced music for 3 songs on Vespertine and remixes of “Pagan Poetry.” He’s most popular for his experimental electronica bordering on atmospheric noise, similar to Matmos (the found-sound audio collage artists who produced and toured with Bjork on Vespertine). ([More →])

Downtempo electronic folk creator - Maps - has been nominated to compete for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for We Can Create. The album was released on June 19th and has been so successful that James Chapman, aka Maps, may take home the Mercury Prize when the award show is broadcast live on BBC TV on 4 September. ([More →])

Environmental campaigns seem to go hand-in-hand with music events. Live Earth is a fine example. Many bands are using their tours as platforms for environmental education and recycling programs, like Linkin Park, Cheryl Crow and the Beastie Boys. But nothing sings about environmental doom and destruction like a carefully chosen documentary soundtrack. Finally, someone has matched planetary doom with the perfect soundtrack of doom metal and dark ambient electronica! I feel I have finally found a single category of music to describe many of my favorite bands - a class of music that I haven’t been able to summarize with a single name until today - Music For Environmental Doom! It’s perfect! What other category could so perfectly link Khanate with Gas, Brian Eno with Arve Henriksen, and Mogwai with Sigur Ros or Lamb? I’d love to own a soundtrack with this music, especially if it were on gatefold double vinyl! ([More →])

Rupert Parkes composes music that you have probably listened to without considering who or what created it. He composed the theme song for the popular tv show “Six Feet Under” and the music that accompanies action scenes in movies like “Invincible” and “The Italian Job.” But Parkes is much more well known for his compositions as Photek, music that could be found in most record bags being lugged around by drum and bass djs in the late 90’s. Photek came into the drum and bass scene when it was thriving, and fell in love with the energy in the music as it was thumping out of huge soundsystems at renegade warehouse parties in the UK. ([More →])