Friday 4 January 2013

Orangenoise - Hopeful Creatures

//orangenoise's last release, 'A Journey to the Heart of Matter' is a continuum of sorts. The entire album is woven around a uniform archetype using the same fabric. Perhaps it reflects a conscious assertion of control and an envisioned direction. It shies away from randomness, and merely oscillates around its mutually agreed-upon core. The two tunes that stood out for me upon an initial listening were 'Children' and 'Hopeful Creatures'. Perhaps both are going against the grain. Or perhaps, both exhibit a direction that might've been snubbed. 'Children', for instance traverses from the obliviously saccharine to the precariously doubtful. While doing so, it touches upon areas visited by the likes of Deerhunter or even Sonic Youth. 'Hopeful Creatures' is an impelling display of complex-time signatures. Quite a lot of math involved there, I'm sure.




Wednesday 2 January 2013

Chi.Boss - IslamabadVice

Here's something interesting. A roughly-hewn bassline. A kick-snare combo making a foundation for a basic beat. Hi-hat hits flirting and swirling against flanged electronic debris. An awkward clearing that gives way to sinister/sleazy keys. Escalation, escalation, whitenoise, whitenoise, a complementary synth-line. Slippery when it comes to immediate intuitive grasp, it took me a few listens to absorb it fully. The tune is aptly titled 'IslamabadVice', and is composed by 'Chi.Boss': yet another musician to join the roster of the collective known as 'Forever South'. (Yes, they do crop up like steroid-fed mushrooms). The last few siren-yielding minutes of the tune are constantly pulsating. The pixelated cover art featuring a fat-bellied chillar/thulla just makes things better.