Deaf Center - Pale Ravine

Label: Type Records
Released: 2005
Style: Modern Classical, Ambient

"With the astounding quality of releases that have appeared on Type recently, it would be easy to become blasé over their output. Deaf Center shake you from any such complacency - delivering here a record that will be extremely hard to beat as album of the year for 2005. Apparently inspired by "old silent 8mm film reels and historical architecture", the Norwegian duo of Erik Skodvin and Otto Totland have produced a lambent debut that recalls the likes of William Basinski (particularly the 'Disintegration Loops' indebted 'Lobby'), Marsen Jules and Harold Budd. Over layers of warmly battered aural sediment, Deaf Center build the kind of vista-expanding, piano tinged music that has you thinking you're in your very own film. Manifesting itself in the stravaig and epic iciness of 'Thread', or the etiolated Nyman piano of 'White Lake', Deaf Center have a seemingly bottomless supply of aural dignity and pathos on which to draw. Other highlights include the tense strings and snatched choirs of 'Stone Beacon', the thrumming piano of 'Loft' and the soaring orchestral pomp of 'Thunder Night'. Just incredible music." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Lobby (3:01)
2 Thread (3:39)
3 White Lake (6:35)
4 Path To Lucy (4:54)
5 Stone Beacon (3:29)
6 Weir (6:34)
7 Loft (4:15)
8 Thunder Night (4:28)
9 Lamp Mien (3:58)
10 The Clearing (4:13)
11 Fog Animal (4:24)
12 Eloy (2:15)

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Tom Burbank - Famous First Words

Label: Planet Mu
Released: 2006
Style: IDM, Downtempo, Experimental, Instrumental Hip Hop

"Alongside the likes of Kyler and The Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble, Tom Burbank further extends the Planet Mu remit beyond the perceived boundaries of its splenetic catalogue - with 'Famous First Words' a glitchy river of melodic hip-hop and electronic intricacies. Very much a contemporary of Prefuse 73, Burbank's sound relies heavily on the slippage that occurs deep within the digital heart when all is not right; lending 'Famous Last Words' a moody and melancholic edge that marks him out from the usual cut-up merchants. Kicking off with 'Fragile', the usual tick-list of elements are undoubtedly present (juddery beats, bursts of electronics, disrupted emissions) - yet whilst others have seen the surface as all important, Burbank ensures a real depth exists that sees him happily ranked alongside the likes of edIT and Prefuse. From here, 'Knuckles' is brashly regimented in it's gun-fire of crumpled tronics, 'Stay One' goes straight for the widescreen jugular with watercolour soundscapes of some beauty, whilst 'Tha Chop' sees the acoustic and machine living in perfect harmony. Closing with the sun-bleached strings and Air-esque atmospherics of 'Riding Off', Burbank has delivered a blissfully simple debut that doesn't need to show off to get its point across." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Fragile (3:12)
2 Knuckles (3:57)
3 Stay One (3:57)
4 Gnats (4:11)
5 Baghdad Mood (5:06)
6 Tha Chop (5:00)
7 Cracked (3:54)
8 Blabber Mouth (3:58)
9 Slab (3:56)
10 Dot (4:28)
11 Juno Rhapsody (5:35)
12 Riding Off (5:01)

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