Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep: Various Artists : “These Waves…” (Sound In Silence Records)

Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Various Artists : “These Waves…” (Sound In Silence Records)

Whether it is intentional or not, there seems to be a global scene slowly taking place, where bands are marrying electronic sounds with shoegazer or post-rock structures. This compilation from Greek based label Sound In Silence has attempted to document what has being happening over the last couple of years. ‘ Scene’ heavyweights Port-Royal, Epic45 and Yellow6 weigh in with some unreleased material, for this limited 200-only compilation (each edition comes with its own unique hand-made cover), but it is some of the lesser known acts who pull off the biggest surprises.

Of course, at 19 tracks you will not like everything on offer and that proves to be the case here, but the good far outweighs the average. The disc starts with a collage of discordant guitars and sparse sound effects courtesy of Greek octet
2L8, that definitely warrants further investigation. “Close Your Eyes When Orbiting A New Planet” is an interesting start.

She Moved Through The Fair follows with “Safe Painters” and this Pennsylvania, USA musician provides a gentle and dream-like passage with some lovely guitar work for the next two minutes or so. But the first real standout track comes courtesy of Oxford, UK’s Ylid. “Sunlight All Falls On Her Face” is a stunning track with layered vocals looping over one another creating a waterfall of sound. It recalls a more experimental (and quiter) My Bloody Valentine.

Cold Landing”, by Greeks
The First Aid is an odd track combining Richie Hawtin-esque beats with some nice acoustic guitar work and lush female vocals. At first, I didn’t like it much, but after a few listens it completely grew on me.

I have heard
Schengen a few times before and I have heard better quality from them in the past than “Bake Off”, it actually becomes quite annoying with some high-pitched sounds and lacklustre beats.

The reverbed “Salva De Mar” by
Gnac restores some calm. It’s a chilled track, with some interesting programming touches and pretty melodies. Arbol, on the other hand, doesn’t do himself any favours with his murky sounding brand of glitchy electronica. His effort is devoid of any melody whatsoever and makes it a forgettable experience.

Yellow6 opts for an ambient passage for his contribution, in a similar vein to the work of Stars of the Lid. UK-based Yellow6 can move between genres with ease, but always retains that certain edge that has become a hallmark of his sound and "From Here To When" is no different. According to the sleeve notes, it is an improvised piece recorded in one take, making this furhter testament to this musician's abilities.

Play Hours and Half Holidays (a collaboration between
July Skies and Epic45) may be a strange name, but the folky stylings of “For Freddie Phillips” is thoroughly enjoyable, featuring a guitar progression that plays over and over. It may be a simple idea, but it is an effective one too.

I have a lot of time for
Lope’s music and have been impressed by everything I have heard from this Swede thus far. “Au” is another slice of quality indietronica. I often see similarities with Labradford in Lope’s music, but this one is highly inventive and most definitely his own work.


Hey Marla provide another surprise kicking off with an amazing My Bloody Valentine-esque riff, that actually had me thinking it was the work of Kevin Shields. The title track of “Shoegazing” shows what angle this band are coming from, but with a smattering of discordant electronic noise and some braekbeats towards the end, this track veers into unexpected territory and is all the better for it.

Televise follows and is the work of ex-Slowdive member Simon Scott. “Smile” crackles with static and sounds like it was recorded in Space. Underneath the hiss, though is a beautiful melody.

Obtaining contributions from both,
Epic45 and Port-Royal has proved to be a masterstroke on the part of Sound In Silence. Both bands have being creating some of the best music around for the last couple of years. Although both tracks are remixes of previous material, they are both re-worked to the point that they sound completely fresh. Acidhead’s remix of Port-Royal’s “Jeka” probably edges out Oppressed By The Line’s remix of Epic45’s “Swerving To Avoid Leaves”. Having said that though, both are well worth a listen.

Sound In Silence co-owner
Absent Without Leave provides the excellent “These Days Are Cold”, while Kimonophonic impresses this time with “Wooden/Electrical”. Both artists’ contributions are of higher quality than their submissions on this release.

Matthew Roziek’sCitrus Dirge” seems out of place on this compliation employing a range of cut-up, flitered and looped voice excerpts and live sounds to create a beat. It is interesting at first, but looses its appeal quickly.

It is left to Italians
Die Stadt Der Romantische Punk to end this mammoth compilation with “Destroy Your Love : We Are Lost Rock”. This a highly evocative piano-led piece that would please any fans of Johan Johansson’s last album and proves to be bright end to the compilation.

Not only does this limited edition CD offer some unreleased material from some of the brightest bands around (Epic45, Port-Royal, Yellow6), it also brings together some of the finest underground artists in and around the electronica, post-rock and shoegazer genres (Ylid, Lope, Gnac, Absent Without Leave and Hey Marla). There is some real quality and largely untapped material on “These Waves...”, but to obtain a copy you must act fast. Limited to 200 copies, mine states that I have copy number 119, so there are not much left. You can order “These Waves...
here.

Rating = 85%

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5 Comments:

At 04 January, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not fair, sounds like an outstanding compilation! Wish we could get one over here!!!

 
At 04 January, 2007, Blogger Andrew Taylor said...

I can indeed vouch for this CD. It is awesome.

 
At 04 January, 2007, Blogger Micky67 said...

you can, just send 7 euro's to the record label and they will send you a nice shiny compilation!!1

 
At 04 January, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i checked with the George at Sound in Silence and i'm told copies should be available from the following stores:

"these waves..." is distributed by:
www.lejosdiscos.com
www.linusrecords.jp
www.tonevendor.com
www.whitenoiserecords.org

cheers
jon.6

p.s. thanks for the reviews

 
At 04 January, 2007, Blogger Micky67 said...

thanks for that info, jon

 

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