Echo9 – ‘Stutter Freeze’

Echo9 – ‘Rekindling’

So there’s this guy called Echo9 and apparently he recently wrote and recorded an entire album in nine days (it was meant to be done in seven days but he went overtime). He’s released the fruits of that project for free, the link to which is at the bottom of this post, and it’s an impressive result regardless of the time frame in which it was produced. I enjoy his music. I enjoy the concept. I enjoy his socialist approach to distributing that concept.

The hardest part of this post was picking which of the seven tracks on the album to post (one track for every day of the intended seven day day recording period). The whole album is instrumental and consists largely of major-key electronica arrangements atop some IDM-inspired programming. ‘Stutter Freeze’ opens with several minutes of dark synths clashing with standard arpeggios over a straightforward beat, which works to paint a fairly beige musical canvas before throwing fistfuls of colours at it when, halfway through, the fast, micro-produced rhythms kick in. ‘Rekindling’ closes the album with one of the more straightforward but driving beats on the album. The subdued, layered synths map out an icy sonic landscape before building to an uplifting M83-like neo-shoegaze climax, trading on huge dynamic shifts and sheets of distorted guitar.

This is exciting music and the circumstances of its creation only make it more vital. Whilst it’s clear that a lot of that nine days went to beat programming (often signalled by the repetitive synth lines), it still combines to form a cohesive and impressive whole. Kudos, Echo9.

www.myspace.com/echo9music

The album can be downloaded for free at: www.mediafire.com/?w4bmppu231g

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Papa Vs Pretty – ‘Arrestem’

This song… I don’t know what the fuck it is. I don’t know what it’s trying to be – by the sound of it, everything. At times dissonant and sparse, at other times sounding like the score to an old superhero movie, ‘Arrestem’ is the sound of a band dismantling a song and putting it back together with as many different, sometimes even ill-fitting, parts as possible. Far from being detracting, the clashing styles that grind against each other only make this Frankenstein’s monster of a song far more interesting. Suffice to say, ‘Arrestem’ would be a bitch to dance to.

Even just a cursory listen to some of Sydney’s Papa Vs Pretty  output reveals a deconstructalist ethic that is applied to traditional song structures. There will inevitably be critics who deride the lack of shape and focus in some compositions but that experimental outlook is complimented by some fine production strokes and a pop sensibility that informs even their least pop-inspired moments.

The vacillating arrangement may be too abrasive at first but a lucid charm emerges from the musical mire that is ‘Arrestem.’ Give it a few spins and decide whether these guys are inspired or just schizophrenic.

www.myspace.com/papavspretty

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Aleks and the Ramps – ‘Antique Limb’

So their old stuff sounded a bit like the teletubbies on crack, and made no sense to anyone except those versed in a language consisting only of semi colons. And I don’t mean that in a good way.

Refreshingly their new stuff is more Architecture in Helsinki than arcane fail. This time injecting only infinitesimal doses of wack, the result is whimsical trip pop with vocals as tight as meggings. Finally hugging in all the right places. Keep them coming guys.

www.myspace.com/aleksandtheramps

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Snob Scrilla – ‘Heartbreak Scorsese’

You’ve no doubt heard the original Snob Scrilla track getting thrashed on Triple J lately. ‘Heartbreak Scorsese’ is another taste off his forthcoming debut album Day One, which I can confirm is fantastic. When I get the green light I’ll be giving you guys more of a taste of the diverse hip hop/electronica/indie stuff that Scrilla pulls from and nails. Here’s a Groove Terminator interpretation of the aforementioned latest single, which adds a distinct French house flavour replete with chiptune flourishes.

“I’ll never change” he shouts in the chorus. After listening to Day One a few times, I hope he’s telling truth.

http://www.myspace.com/snobscrilla

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Spoonbill -‘Feather Leather’

Spoonbill – ‘Finger Food’

Spoonbill is an electronic artist from Melbourne whose stylistically disparate samples and synths combine to form scattershot but unexpectedly cohesve pieces. While undoubtedly an electronic record, he regularly uses the tools of digital production to explore other genres like jazz, country and hip hop to great effect.

‘Finger Food’ is a short track from his latest album, Zoomorphic, and  is built around a beat of sampled mouth percussion and potato chips that resembles the incidental music on old-school Nickelodeon – that is, until the sinister synth line kicks in. ‘Feather Leather,’ on the other hand, is the de facto centrepiece of the album and combines squelching synths with a clap-happy disco beat and, oddly enough, a jazz trumpet. It’s a much more fleshed out piece and, while repetitive in structure, its arrangement is intricate and evolving enough to entertain and excite.

www.myspace.com/spoonbillsound

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