Tag: electronic

Shinichi Atobe – The Red Line

The Red Line is the final track on the long sought-after gem Ship-Scope, released in 2001 by the enigmatic Shinichi Atobe. Initially released by the German label Chain Reaction, Ship-Scope was reissued in 2015 by DDS, a label run by the experimental duo Demdike Stare. In addition to repressing Ship-Scope, Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker were also able to convince Atobe to release material he had been working on after the 2001 release and he has since put out two more albums also on DDS, World and From The Heart, It’s A Start, A Work Of Art. I couldn’t find much more information about Atobe, and frankly I’m okay with that as long as he keeps making music.

infinite bisous – past tense

infinite bisous is a solo project from Paris-based musician Rory McCarthy, and while past tense comes from 2015, he released an album about a month ago titled w_love. Before these solo recordings, he was one half of the duo Hot Horizons, which seems to have gone dormant since 2011 but not before producing a killer cover of Roy Orbison’s Crying. All of his music is released through a collective label called Tasty Morsels, which features other work by McCarthy released under other names, including Column and R. McCarthy along with material by Laurie Holiday and Dialect. Most of the output from Tasty Morsels seems to be on Soundcloud, though you can also download files from their site as well.

Spectral Display – It Takes A Muscle [To Fall in Love]

Michael Mulders was the primary engine behind Spectral Display when they were signed to a contract with EMI in 1980, though it wasn’t until he collaborated with Henri Overduin that they were able to put together this driving synth-heavy tune. Overduin wrote most of the lyrics and provided the vocals for It Takes A Muscle, which was recorded in Mulder’s home on his own equipment with the help of a few studio musicians. One notable if odd connection: the percussion for Spectral Display come courtesy of Kim Haworth, who did the drums on the America song A Horse With No Name. Though the song never achieved widespread success at the time, the group did follow up their 1982 self-titled debut with one more record in 1983 called Too Much Like Me. According to their site they are be recording new material, though that was in 2012 so I wouldn’t hold your breath. It was covered by M.I.A for her 2010 album Maya, proving once again that most of the things that have been good about mainstream music today can be found in even better form in the 80s.

Though I will probably never get to meet the men behind this jam, this fact from a section of their site called 5 Things You Did Not Know About Your Body suggests we would get along swimmingly:

“3 -The Storage capacity of human brain exceeds 4 Terabytes. (That makes 400,000 MP3’s. So, there’s no way to learn the entire Prince catalogue by heart).”

If only all click-bait was this relatable.

Sandro Perri – Wolfman

When I think about what I was listening to in 2011 instead of this album by Sandro Perri, it’s hard not to shudder a little bit. I may be late to the party, but I’ll be damned if I be quiet about it now that I’ve found it. Wolfman comes courtesy of Toronto multi-instrumentalist Sandro Perri, who had been a local favorite for years. In notes which accompanied the release over at Constellation, music curator Ronen Givony sums up the feeling and Perri’s unique sonic palette:

Sandro is the true best exemplar of that unique intersection that characterizes the city’s omnivorous musical scene: partly improvised, partly composed, and roughly equal parts acoustic, electronic, melodic, noisy, rock, jazz, folk, classical, psychedelic, and experimental.

Wolfman comes off 2011’s Impossible Spaces, which is the last release I could track down for Perri, not including a few singles comprising remixes done by other artists. Before he had released anything of his own, he played lap steel in Great Lake Swimmers. In addition to his own work, he’s racked up quite a few production credits on the technical side of things. Though it’s unclear when another Sandro Perri record will be released, he is a member of a group called Off World that released an album last year, also on Constellation. Another fun bit of trivia: the cellist on Wolfman, Mike Olsen, also appears on Arcade Fire’s breakout album Funerals.

K. Leimer – Very Tired

K. Leimer (aka Kerry Leimer) has been releasing ambient/experimental music since the late-1970s, primarily on his own label Palace of Lights. Very Tired closes out his 1983 release Music for Land and Water and is a good demonstration of his deliberate method of constructing sonic landscapes, primarily with synthesizers and tape loops. Music for Land and Water was originally composed not for commercial release but as part of a performance and installation series. Though I couldn’t find an audio clip of it available to share, the setup for the lead track “Art and Science” consisted of four tape systems playing loops of different lengths, which sounds like a real treat. Yet another example of the pioneering work that can be found in your local New Age bargain bin. Leimer made extensive use of loops in both his solo work and as part of the group Savant which featured Marc Barreca and other ambient artists. You can purchase physical releases from Palace of Sound here though it doesn’t look like Music for Land and Water is available on the site.