Marina Rosenfeld - Plastic Materials

Marina Rosenfeld
Plastic Materials
(2009, Room 40)
RIYL = Kallikak Family, Alan Licht & Aki Onda, Mark Templeton

I received Marina Rosenfeld’s Plastic Materials without any real knowledge about Rosenfeld’s four previous albums and at least ten years experience as a musician/composer. The truth is, even now I still don’t have much of an clue about her previous work, except I know that it exists. After listening to Plastic Materials I am wondering how this is possible. Rosenfeld’s work is mind bogglingly good. Like, really really great and good and incredibly really super and awesome. The kind of stuff that sends you into fits of gibberish praise just like when you received that new blue bike for Christmas when you were ten. However, other than some of the metallic and ‘plastic materials’ (couldn’t resist), comparing the two is kind of a stretch. Rosenfeld’s work on Plastic Materials is pretty insular and will be undoubtedly alienating for more than a few listeners unaccustomed to experimental works. But for those with an ear for adventure, Plastic Materials is like new snow for making tracks. It's pretty easy praising Rosenfeld’s work, describing it though is another matter. In my imagination, Plastic Materials sounds like an strange autopsy where the deceased is part robot, part creature from another planet and each progressive incision opens new caverns of spiraling innards that are both structurally amazing and kind of freaky. There is even an ever present sterility of steel tables and clean instruments to the whole thing. The album is bizarre in the most fascinating way. Rosenfeld’s doesn’t actually use any knifes in the creation of her work, but still manages her fair share of cutting by the heavy use of turntables and sampled voices (both talking and singing out of tune) cut up with medical precision. In addition to the re-emerging vocals, Rosenfeld has crafted a moody sub-noise aesthetic that incorporates turntable tics and spasms along with other electronic mumbling which flow in and out of piano tinkering and other unidentifiable transmissions. It’s a mystical little album, this Plastic Materials; something inhabiting beauty and austerity in equal measure and definitely a must have for experimental listeners.

-Thistle

Marina Rosenfeld - "I Treated Myself"

DJ Olive - Triage

DJ Olive
Triage
(01.2009, Room 40)
RIYL = Keith Fullerton Whitman, Stars of the Lid, The Fun Years

DJ Olive works in epic territory. He has been for some time now and with Triage, the third piece in his sleep triptych (a serious of albums specially made as an ode/aid to sleeplessness), DJ Olive has secured a spot among the ambient elite. For some readers, this may seem like a late assertion, but for little old me, the constant latecomer, Triage is an eye opening, mind expanding experience. Along with being a succulent slab of drone-based dreamscapery, DJ Olive’s latest marks a wonderful accomplishment in being received as an installation in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. I was at the Biennial in 2006 and it was superb, one of the best art experiences of my life, so it is a pretty hefty honor to be chosen as a participating artist. I was just checking the album information and Olive can now name check Mr. Christian Fennesz as well, who assisted in the production on Triage. That is never a bad thing, right? Yeah, definite plus. However, these are just auxiliary talking points - associative buzz. What is really wonderful about Triage surpasses the talking points. The work DJ Olive has put forth here enters another realm, a semi-spiritual space that is equal parts gorgeous and grave. Like his previous entries in the sleep series, Triage embarks on a journey via one lengthy track that clocks in at just under an hour. As a work associated specifically with sleeping, active listening requires patience and results in transcendence. Approaching Triage as an album is kind of like approaching the Pacific ocean (or any ocean for that matter), all you can see is the blue skyline. It’s endless appearance seems daunting. However, once submerged, Triage is anything but monotonous. DJ Olive has come into his own on this one, employing a barrage of vintage effects and utilizing a variety of musicians in order to create a perpetually forward moving animal that is constantly entering new, enchanting areas of sound and space. Sleep seems quite fleeting for me as of late (and even more so for Sassigrass), but even if Triage isn’t aiding my slumber, listening to it is just as rejuvenating as good eight hours of shut eye.

- Lil' Thistle

DJ Olive - Triage (exerpt)

Tomasz Bednarczyk - Summer Feelings

Tomasz Bednarczyk
Summer Feelings
(03.2008, Room 40)
Verdict = Beautiful Tones and TV Static

If this is the way summer feels to Tomasz Bednarczyk then Mr. Bednarczyk must make his summer home in a fuzz addled TV buzzing in some abandoned field in the middle of nowhere. Really, Bednarczyk lives in Poland where wintery summers are the norm. This fact brings some understanding to summer feelings built out of sparse, fragile pianos delicately played under a dusty layer of electronic tape hiss. Similar in feel to (though not quite as mammoth in spectrum as) Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking of the Titanic or William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops, Bednarczyk’s Summer Feelings plods slowly and introspectively as if it were trudging through a snow storm of static. The crackle is subtle and everything seems slightly blurry as if viewed through coke bottle lenses. Despite the frostiness of the work there is a definite heart buried underneath the layers of sound. An under current of warm synths and the occasional use of field recordings underscore a humanity caught in the midst of the scrambled white out, steering it to constantly redeeming territory. This really is an amazing accomplishment for Bednarczyk, who maintains a confident restraint well beyond his years (he’s 22 years old if my math is right). I mean this stuff could easily be attributed to the aforementioned artists who are both decades older the Tomasz. Summer Feelings is a beautifully quaint, cordial exercise in gorgeous melancholy and a stunning debut for Room40 by an exciting new (to me), young artist.

-Mr. Thistle

Tomasz Bednarczyk

Tenniscoats - Totemo Aimasho

Tenniscoats
Totemo Aimasho
(07.2007, Room 40)
8.0/10

Beautiful music needs no translation. Such is the case with the Tenniscoats, a duo from Tokyo and current purveyor of delicate avant pop that despite the language barrier, is emotive and entrancing. On Totemo Aimasho (which their label says translates to “Lets Meet Very Much”) Tenniscoats seem to follow an interesting world feel in their compositions but never overwork their formula. In addition, much of Totemo Aimasho has the excitement and refreshing quality of musicians who just learned how to play – that is not to say that the music is not well played or constructed, but that there is a certain unseen innocence that permeates the tracks. With a childlike whisper, the female lead vocals also capture a delicacy that can occasional tip toe into uncomfortable territory as it is coupled with frozen pianos and unconventional melodic motifs. Tenniscoats show immense promise and with Totemo Aimasho being the first of two full lengths released in 2007, the band seems bent on reaching their full potential. With the beautiful statement of Totemo Aimasho they won’t have far to go in order to get there.

-Mr. Thistle

Tenniscoats on Boomkat

Tim Hecker - Norberg

Tim Hecker
Norberg
(2007, Room 40)
9.0/10

Noberg will inevitably go down as a little miniature release for Tim Hecker because of its short length and obscure label. This is a tragedy because Norberg is one of the most beautiful musical excursions released this year. A singular track spanning just past twenty minutes, Norberg embodies everything that is wonderful about Tim Hecker. Following the absolutely devastating wonder that was last year’s Harmony in Ultraviolet, Norberg carries on the granulating deterioration of its big brother with a far more inviting quality. Gone is the severity of Hecker’s previous beauty replaced with a constant feeling of warmth like the flawlessly acclimated temperature of some hidden island cove, a minor beach that secluded and perfect like it was created just for you. Norberg was recorded live in similar nature to Keith Fullerton Whitman’s Lisbon in the summer of 2005. Like Lisbon, Norberg shows no signs of this, playing out like a meticulously crafted studio composition. The ambience is perfect in that it completely transports you to your own little paradise. Short as it may be, Norberg is the top tier of ambient bliss.

-Mr Thistle

listen to it free atwww.rhapsody.com