Tag: Cyclic Defrost

Review: Frank Bretschneider – Super.Trigger (and some gear)

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A couple of months ago, I wrote a review of Frank Bretschneider‘s Super.Trigger album for Cyclic Defrost. Here’s a sample:

Eschewing romanticism doesn’t remove character, though some tracks are more favoured in this regard. ‘Pink Thrill’ is all nerdly tetchiness, but ‘Machine.Gun’ is the clear winner. Staccato drum rolls imitate the track’s titular weapons while a frenetic background conjures the image of a gunfight held over the top of a Blaxploitation soundtrack. It crackles, and when the end comes – in an echo-chamber of steely ricochets – it’s triumphant. Worth special note too is the album’s attention to bass sounds. On some tracks – the opener ‘Big.Hopes’, and ‘Day.Dream’ in particular – there’s window-shaking kicks and tones that are so immense that it’s difficult not to fist-pump in celebration. Coupled with the appropriate atmosphere, such as the dubby, dark sound of ‘Over.Load’, it’s overwhelmingly great.

You can read the full review here. But the reason I’m linking it today is that this rather neat article details Bretschneider’s studio setup and workflow. If you’re interested in electronic music (and like the track above) then you’ll find some good info in there.

(As an aside, I like reading this and discovering that I mentioned fist-pumping. I hadn’t even seen Regular Show when I wrote this, but the power of the Fist Pump can’t be denied. See below.)

 

New Arche review

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My review of the debut from Arche has been published on Cyclic Defrost.

Aside from the pads which flow over the track like bioluminescent waves, there’s a lot in opener ‘Elevate’ that would sit nicely on Coil’s Time Machines. The same late-period Coil approach to roiling, unfurling sounds is present, adding mystery to a soundscape that has distinct physical/inner-ear effects if played through headphones. It’s as if the listener is zapped with a ray gun of restful unease.

You can read the rest here.

New split 12-inch review

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My review of If, Bwana and Gerald Fiebig’s split 12-inch on Attenuation Circuit has gone live at Cyclic Defrost. You can listen to excerpts from the record here. 

Gerald Fiebig’s ‘Sustained Development’ features the same reedy organ tones, but with more organisation. They’re constructed in waves, creating a feeling of motion, of tidal drift. It’s a slow-burn piece, but seems more at home in the ambient Nurse With Wound part of the world; its slow iterations and feeling of bobbing, rising waves would sit well with any fans of NWW’s Salt Marie Celeste.

Read the rest here. 

New Yellow6 review

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Another Cyclic Defrost review has gone live. It’s a write-up of Yellow6‘s 5 EP, part of Silber Records’ 5 in 5 project. Five minutes, five songs. A buck to download. 

‘5.2’ sounds like Sling Blade-era Daniel Lanois, while ’5.3′ brings to mind Charlie Owen’s guitar work on Louis Tillett’s Midnight Rain. ‘5.4’ brings a venomous, plodding chunk to the mix, coupled with a howling noise which manages not to upset the measured, clean chord pluckings that command attention, leading to the EP’s final Godspeed You Black Emperor guitar-neighbourhood track.

The review is here.

New Carl Kruger review

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My Cyclic Defrost review for Carl Kruger’s Sexist Tranny (out on Silber Records) has now gone live. A brief sample?

The prevailing feeling of the recordings – and their provenance is unknown, buried in multiple layerings and laptop manipulations – is that of deep space, or of machinery talking to itself. Opener ‘Dead Biz Novelle’ is the sound of gigantic terrestrial radios, tuning from bogs to the vistas of cold space. ‘Bead Hell Oven Zit’ is a record of someone dropping their keys down the back of a DEC PDP-9 while it complains, loudly.

Enjoy.