Apjiw

Electro/ambient is a pretty vague description of what an artist may sound like. One who embodies this term could possibly be an offshoot of Board of Canada's pioneering IDM meets ethereal ambience style, or perhaps a more subtle reincarnation akin to Stars of the Lid's hypnotizing aural submersion. Still not on the mark? How about some of Hammock's gloriously melodic concoction or Sigur Ros' angelic panacea? Or maybe something along the lines of God is an Astronauts shimmering rock styled ambience, or Lights out Asia's emotive post-rock rendition? Truth be told, Chamberland does a pretty good job at working his way through all of these over the course of Think Over. The ground he covers is impressive, to say the least, and it certainly demonstrates that he has a fine understanding of the forces he's working with and makes a strong argument of their mastery as well.

Think Over comes bundled with a nice little conceptual theme that ties the tracks together, which is most noticeably expressed in the voice overs. If you haven't figured it out by the last track, it should become blatantly obvious, and the realization is nothing that is all too shocking for an ambient experience. Through this vehicle Apjiw gets a lot of mileage out of his diverse influences, and the variety of the album is one of its strong points. Tracks flow from one an excellent ambient synth or drone into a heavy programmed beat or piano line without blinking an eye. Apjiw makes it all look so easy, it's a wonder why we see so many disastrous electronic albums released every year. Chamberland's past experience clearly is an asset to Think Over; even though there's such a plethora of ideas and exchanges occurring on a track by track basis, he maintains the cinematic air throughout, which wraps the listener in a warm, envigorating cocoon. "Fun" also permeates through the album, with some use of musical boxes and other toys for musical effect. While some have over exploited this novelty, Chamberland is sure to balance this component with the rest of the layers; balanace is one of the key themes of the album, after all. And whether it be the strong melodies, the caustic ambience, or the glitchy beats, Think Over keeps the pace moving quickly and doesn't let our attention stray too far from home. Primarily upbeat and sometimes downright groovy, the audience should be grinning from ear to ear while eating up Apjiw's every last note. Some criticism must be made towards the album's length, which is not justified by the content provided here. True, Chamberland is wonderful at his craft, but there's not a lot of substance in the tiny three to four minutes tracks, which sometimes sound like fragments than full fledged compositions themselves.

One explanation might be that the album resembles that of a score for a film, which he is understandably accustomed to, but musical albums are a much different matter. The last third of the disc simply regurgitates ideas and sequences that we've already experienced during the first forty minutes, and I do believe cutting a good twenty minutes from the album would greatly benefit Think Over's overall effect. As is, it's overlong and drags towards the end. Criticisms aside, Think Over is an enjoyable album which should fit nicely in the collections of many electro and ambient enthusiasts. If Chamberland continues work on this project, I forsee great things in the future, though some distinction must be made from his day job in order to maximize results.

Label: 9.12
Country: Canada
Genre: Folk
Style: Experimental, Ambient

Apjiw - Think Over (September, 2007)

1. Is that all you want from me
2. Living in a box
3. PPP
4. The man who talks to birds
5. YYY
6. Prism Flame
7. 15
8. Tears
9. 1 sec left
10. Angel Sleep
11. Make a wish
12. Ouverture
13. 2 sec left (remix)
14. Think over
15. Amniotic (remix)
16. 3 sec left (remix)

Apjiw - Things (April, 2009)

1. Things
2. Anilu
3. Maat
4. Fly With Me
5. Continuous Present
6. 134
7. Tears for Us
8. the Shared Fate
9. Breach
10. Human Rights
11. Just a New Day
12. Printemps
13. the Magic Circle

Bibio

Take the layered, unhurried folk exuberance of a Bibio album, replace the source material with something that brings to mind calliopes and cymbalophones, cast it in sepia tone, run it through organ grinder speakers and you’ve got the limited edition EP, Ovals And Emeralds. Marrying musical sincerity with electronic jousting Bibio constructs a sweetly disorienting wall of whirs and electronic moans to create a soundtrack well suited for a gauzy aquarium carnival. Released exclusively on emerald green vinyl, the album packaging is appropriate to its beautiful yet disorienting feel. Dark at times, Ovals and Emeralds is still Bibio, rollicking and full of musical motion. For all your killer-clown-goes-electro-folk kicks, kids, step right up.

Bibio - Ovals & Emeralds

Label: Mush
Catalog#: MH-042
Country: US
Released: 03 Mar 2009
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Folk, Experimental, Ambient

Enjoy

Tracklisting:

1 Oval Emerald Vertigo (5:54)
2 The Death Of A Trapeze Artist (2:15)
3 Carosello Ellitico (4:17)
4 Six String Marenghi (1:45)
5 Polycoulrophon (7:35)
6 Segee And The Indian (3:59)

D_RRadio & Marcia Blaine School For Girls

Latest split 7" on the Awkward Silence label featuring the mysterious scottish electronica outfit The Marcia Blaine School For Girls and D_rradio (death row radio in full), another "little-information-available" collective form the north-east of england. Marcia Blaine offer up 'Kamara Debagging', a 6 1/2 minute workout which has melody at its core but features a deep building percussive understructure that comes to dominate the track with its squashed, mighty rumble. The track's many intricate fizzes, pops and beautiful synth lines keep you occupied while the simple backing beats build and build, all to be topped off with a rumbling outro that will blow your cheap speakers up! Awesome. On the flip, meanwhile, D_rradio take the quiet route with their track 'some other time', another lengthy piece, this time in the vein of Labradford, Stars of the Lid or quieter Tarentel (but with an electronic twist). It's a beautiful piece that works in that distinct, understated way that is so rarely executed with as much panache. Strictly limited to 500 copies only, lovely.

Enjoy!

The Marcia Blaine School For Girls & D_rradio 7"


Label: Awkward Silence
Catalog#: AWKWARD 16
Country: UK
Released: 18 Aug 2003
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental

Tracklisting:

A. Marcia Blaine School For Girls - Kamara Debagging
B. D_rradio - Some Other Time

Rhian Sheehan

I have no idea of Sheehan's standing in the local electronica community, I am sure some may pass this album off as a bit light -- but I've always had a soft spot for his interesting sonic landscapes which seem to me to owe an intellectual (not necessarily a musical) debt to Brian Eno's albums such as Music for Films, Music for Airports and his intelligent ambient output in the Seventies. This new album is even more directly in that lineage, and these 14 (mostly short) short tracks are in the manner of music for imaginary films or refer to internal states rather than invoking geographical locations. From a guy who used to make people dance, in a cosmic and swooning style, rather than a boogie woogie way, to someone who inspires us to stand perfectly still and, sway gently. That's the transition Wellington electronica producer and musician Rhian Sheehan makes on his third album, Standing In Silence. Divided into parts 1 to 14 it plays out more like an artwork than an album. Initially, it might come across as idle drifts and ambient meanderings but on sucessive listens some magical charms are revealed, like found sounds from around the world (including an airport announcement on 8), and most cleverly, his daughter's music box. Sheehan uses a lot of guitar this time round, played by Jeff Boyle from sonic instrumentalists Jakob, but it is virtually impossible to pick out a single strum, pluck or riff. The glitchy pitter patter of 2 has a playful, whimsy to it, and 3 conjures up that deliciously delirious state you wake up in after falling asleep in the late afternoon sun. The first signs of a more staunch and cutting sound comes in 5, with heavy chinking bells; then 6 gives way to gentle glitches, chimes, and the first beats are ignited; and 8 erupts into a maelstrom of noise. But from then on the album settles back into a more even-tempered mood, with swooning strings, unravelling drones, and 12 brings together melancholic piano, eerie synth, and cheeping birds. This is an album for fans of Sigur Ros or Boards of Canada. And, hate to disagree with its creator, but not so much music to stand in silence to, more like music to laze in a hammock to. Or, perhaps to lounge on a comfy couch with as it devours and envelops you.

Rhian Sheehan - Standing in Silence


Label: loop
Catalog#: lp050
Country: New Zeland
Released: Feb 2009
Genre: Ambient
Style: Electro-acoustic

Tracklist:

Enjoy..!

1 Standing In Silence Part 1
2 Standing In Silence Part 2
3 Standing In Silence Part 3
4 Standing In Silence Part 4
5 Standing In Silence Part 5
6 Standing In Silence Part 6
7 Standing In Silence Part 7
8 Standing In Silence Part 8
9 Standing In Silence Part 9
10 Standing In Silence Part 10
11 Standing In Silence Part 11
12 Standing In Silence Part 12
13 Standing In Silence Part 13
14 Standing In Silence Part 14

Area C

Charmed Birds Against Sorcery" is the third studio album by New England-based musician Erik Carlson, and constitutes a startling development in his sound. The first Area C record, 2006's "Traffics + Discoveries," was a small marvel of whirring loops sourced primarily from processed guitars. Last year's "Haunt," Carlson's second record for Last Visible Dog, was a different affair entirely, investigating the provocative drone capabilites of farfisa organs. The compositions which constitute "Charmed Birds..." develop and, often, transcend the motifs found on these prior albums, with Carlson revealing an astonishingly refined and singular approach to guitar-based composition. Soundwise, the album recalls more the crystalline, kaleidoscopic webworks of the first Area C record than the ragged organ workouts of "Haunt." Glacial harmonics drift in and out of each channel, skittering, modulated notes pulse and surge, sputtering suddenly to luminescent manifestation before disappearing just as quickly. Many of the compositions here are in fact more remniscient of the ambient side of Wolfgang Voigt's work in Gas, or perhaps the less beat driven aspects of "94 Diskont"-era Oval than what we've come to expect from what is ostensibly a 'guitar and electronics' based project. An almost kraut-like rhythm subtends the topography of "Composition Journal," the album's stunning opener, its low throb punctuated by brittle shocks from deconstructed drum machines over which Carlson weaves a spiralling lattice of bowed and picked notes. Later, on "Sleeping Birds," we're presented with a lulling idyll concocted by way of flute-like tones and languid note clusters, a shorter piece which dissolves seemlessly into modulating static at the onset of the pointillist microcosm that is "Spell of Resistance." The title track is without question the album's apex and constitutes a formal peak in Carlson's discography, as brilliant, bright guitar lines tread effortlessly in a sea of tranquil pulses and disembodied percussive elements.

Area C - Charmed Birds Against Sorcery

->Enjoy

Label: Students of Decay
Catalog#: SOD-18
Country: USA
Released: February, 2009
Genre: Leftfield
Style: Electro-acoustic

Tracklist:

1. Composition Journal
2. Of Set Purpose, No Arrangement
3. Fact, Fancy, Legend
4. Sleeping Birds
5. Spell of Resistance
6. Meeting Mid-Air
7. Charmed Birds Against Sorcery
8. Black-Thorn, Falcon, Picris

März

German duo Albrecht Kunze and Ekkehard Ehlers open their sophomore effort with the gently acoustic “Forever Never,” which floats through the room on a feather and a sigh. The avant garde sonic experimentation of the field recordings “März Im Park” and “Oktober Im Park” (March and October in the Park, respectively) mix backwoods banjo-driven German folk songs with sounds of laughter, babbling brooks, bicycle bells and assorted percussive effects to the point of distraction, and the album would have been even more enjoyable without them. But the proggy, mildly psychedelic “The River” rescues the day with its appropriately rolling melody which reminded me of Peter Gabriel fronting The Dream Academy covering The Byrds “Ballad of Easy Rider” and features nice trombone flourishes from Jakobus Siebels. Glitch music fans may enjoy the next musical interlude, “Tropige Trauben” (I’m guessing “Tropical Dreams”), but others will be left scratching their heads at this puzzling phenomenon – the digital equivalent of the old scratching technique employed by turntablists back in the 80s, the most famous example of which is probably Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.” The swirling, loopy “Blaue Fäden (“Blue Threads”), which, along with “The River,” previously appeared on a limited edition 10”, would make a perfect entry in Darla’s “Bliss Out” series and compares favorably with the works of Jim Rao (aka, Orange Cake Mix) and Detroit ambient spacerockers, Füxa. And just when you think you’ve got a handle on März’s sound, they hit you with “Some Things Do Fall,” a childishly silly, infectious as hell loop whose lyric consists of the title repeated ad infinatum over a jaunty, carnival-like backing, and the carny atmosphere continues on the jovial instrumental “Biber & Enten” (“Beavers & Ducks”), and it’s soft-shoe shuffle rhythm will put a smile on even the most jaded listener’s face. I also liked the romantically quiet strings, vibes and electronics of “Welt Am Draht” (“World at the Wire,” which, probably not coincidentally, was also the title of a 1973 Fassbinder movie for German television), which wouldn’t be out of place on a Soothing Sounds for baby compilation, and if there was a better example of pure pop perfection than the aptly titled “The Pop Song,” I’ve yet to hear it. So, despite some minor misgivings on the electronic noodlings, experimental sonic collages and field recordings, this is one of the year’s prettiest, quietest releases and is highly recommended to fans of soothing, electronic soundscapes.

März - Wir Sind Hier

Label: Karaoke Kalk
Catalog#: karaoke kalk 29
Country: Germany
Released: 25 Oct 2004
Genre: Electronic, Pop
Style: IDM, Experimental

Tracklisting:

Enjoy!

1 Forever Never (4:20)
2 März Im Park (3:31)
3 The River (5:13)
4 Tropige Trauben (4:20)
5 Blaue Fäden (6:40)
6 Some Things Do Fall (3:18)
7 Biber & Enten (Plattler) (5:00)
8 Welt Am Draht (3:38)
9 Oktober Im Park (4:44)
10 The Pop Song (4:36)
11 Wir Sind Hier (4:05)