Asher Tuil from Rhode Island with Opus (ROOM40 DRM4167) – all he can tell us is it’s a layering of synth sounds with field recordings and processed rhythms, and he doesn’t seem inclined to utter on anything to do with artistic intent or meaning in his work. But he is comfortable describing this process of assembling music from disparate parts. It’s a commonplace working method now, but surprisingly interesting results on this Opus; there’s a constant sense of forward motion, and even when the sound textures keep changing into something else, it always manages to invoke an indefatigable steam train traversing the landscape. (02/04/2024)
Histories de soldats (empreintes DIGITALes IMED 24187) offers us two military-themed pieces from the New Zealand composer John Young. For ‘An Angel at Mons’, he’s done his research into the origins of this popular “apparition” story and worked hard to build a sympathetic portrait of John Ewings, one of the witnesses of these WWI angels, incorporating snippets of his story from a 1980 TV interview. John Young combines story-telling with suitably eerie and “magical” music and sounds, hoping to say something about the nature of allegory and make a wider statement about the human condition. A similar technique has been applied to ‘Once He Was a Gunner’, realised four years earlier, but now the theatre of operations is the second world war, and the person interviewed is John Young’s own father. I suppose there’s more authenticity, realism, and personal truth in this second work, but it’s also very prosaic; I prefer the Angelic vision with its mysticism and magic. (02/04/2024)
Ana Lua Caiano’s impressive debut record is Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado (GLITTERBEAT GBCD 156) – the selling point is that she blends contemporary production and sounds (especially beats and electronics) with traditional Portuguese music. I’m largely unfamiliar with that country’s traditions, although I have seen a performance in Lisbon of young people performing in the Fado genre (very moving and emotional). Caiano’s real strength for me is her voice, which has a wiry strength indicating a real precision of thought and tough-minded stance; when she layers her harmonies, the effect gathers in intensity, and it’s like facing a volley of sniper’s bullets. Her minimal electro-pop beat arrangements are pretty good too – nothing excessive, and entirely focussed on hammering home her messages. The label liken her to Bjork and Laurie Anderson, and tell us she’s emerged from a “fertile” underground music scene that’s flowering in Lisbon just now. (02/04/2024)
Ryan Huber of Indiana has been sending us records since 2011 (if not earlier), had his own micro label INAM Records, and had more than one alter-ego – Olekranon and Sujo were both him, and Sujo was when he used to let rip with quite intense stoner-rock noise, possibly doing all the overdubs himself with loud guitars and drumming. No such noise on today’s CD Memories of Falling (NO LABEL), which is all squarely in the genre of ambient drone. He claims to be emulating certain European artists associated with experimental electronica and the glitch. I like to see music attempting to portray psychological disturbances and dream-states, which is what I guess Huber is aiming at, judging by some of his titles and the uncertain ambiguous tenor of these droners. If anything, he might have overdone it when it comes to effacing the horizon line in these landscapes, and applied too much grey paint to the smooth canvas. Some nice sounds do eventually emerge form the slow sludge, but the music lacks a human face we might recognise, and each track is compositionally unsatisfying, fading away with no real sense of an ending. (06/07/2024)