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Timothy GabrieleAbout Timothy Gabriele Timothy Gabriele is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in PopMatters and other not-nearly-as-cool publications. He holds a BA in English and a Certificate in Film Studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has been a member of a psychedelic noise outfit, the Co-Director of an Upstate New York avant-garde sound organization, publicity manager for a small record label, host DJ to several college radio shows, intern to an experimental filmmaker, promotional products pusher for an evil corporate radio station, local news journalist, booker for a collective space, and a member of several other shadowy affiliations. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, his dog and his two cats. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also operates a blog. Features
Various Artists: Factory Records: Communications 1978-92Factory Records was as influential in design, sound production, and defining what a label could be as it was in music. [24 September 2009] The Fawn in the Burning Forest: Our Beloved MonsterUnlike John Lennon’s clumsy attempts to appear working class or Mick Jagger’s incessant chauvinist posturing, Michael Jackson had no strong desire to be “authentic” or “real”. [9 July 2009] The Signal and the Violence of American Identity PoliticsThe oppressor in The Signal is an underlying, parental figure in absentia. It is industrial civilization as pathology, inextricably and somehow willfully divorced from reality. [12 November 2008] 1968 is UndeadThe radio and television broadcasts of Night of the Living Dead depict a government unable to protect, alert, and prepare its citizenry for a national crisis, which reminds us of the mass bureaucratic bungling of the September 11th tragedies and the Hurricane Katrina disaster. [30 October 2008] Why Does the Mix CD Still Exist?DJ Spooky has a new book and album that each explore remix culture. But what value is the single mix CD in an era where remix culture floods the distribution network with endless freely distributed combinations? [23 September 2008] Some Things Just Can’t Stay BuriedBurial's recent revelation would appear to change nothing, but strangely enough it may just affect how we listen to his music. [8 September 2008] Columns
Electronic Music: The Invader and InfiltratorDeemed music that is “not real”, electronic sounds have come to occupy and permeate spaces focused on alterity, from the fringes of academia to the disposal heap of exotica. [9 February 2010] (more The Difference Engine) Reviews
Oneohtrix Point Never: RiftsThe dyschronia one experiences listening to Oneohtrix Point Never is similar, but not completely reverent, to the hypnagogic/glo-fi/chillwave axis in that it is music that is strangely familiar and familiarly strange. [9 February 2010] 
Four Tet: There Is Love in YouThere Is Love In You is among Kieran Hedben's best work, a dance friendly album that fits into the extensions of spiritual jazz he has spent a career crafting. [29 January 2010] 
Lindstrøm and Christabelle: Real Life Is No CoolLindstrøm plays Moroder to Christabelle's Donna Summer, but fails to keep the passion afloat all the way through. [21 January 2010] 
Karuna Khyal: Alomony 1985From the island of Japan comes this delectable, obscure Japanese psychedelic obscurity with aspirations to remain as far underground as it can. [20 January 2010] 
Final: Reading All the Right Signals WrongFinal is the yin to Justin K. Broadrick's yang. The latest under this name doesn't disappoint, but it slightly underwhelms. [19 January 2010] 
Fenn O’Berg: Magic & ReturnThe two out-of-print albums by Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke, and Peter Rehberg/Pita are collected by Editions Mego on this monster collection. [14 January 2010] 
Harmonia and Eno ‘76: Tracks and TracesNot a whole lot of supergroups can boast this kind of willed civil synergy, but not a whole lot of supergroups called themselves Harmonia either. [13 January 2010] 
Black to Comm: Alphabet 1968Like many of the recent spatter of horror soundtracks, Black to Comm's latest is a controlled environment, but one too often doesn't feel under the author's control. [7 January 2010] 
Various Artists: Retro Retry 2 - Another Another Green WorldDutch electronic acts cover Eno's classic album song for song but hardly in its entirety. [6 January 2010] 
Various Artists: Warp (Chosen) / Warp (Recreated)Warp wonders aloud who it is in 2009 and who it was for the past 20 years. Who it will be in the future is anybody's guess. [18 December 2009] 
Patrick Cowley and Jorge Socarras: CatholicAn astonishing never-before-released postpunk disc from 1979 by the Hi-NRG wizard Patrick Cowley and Indoor Life lead singer Jorge Socarras. [16 December 2009] 
Leyland Kirby: Sadly, The Future Is Not What It WasA three-disc opus of gorgeous ambient canvases that pine for the loss of a future with the kind of crackle and glow found here. [1 December 2009] 
Dada Life: Just Do the DadaIf you can get past the horrid band name, the equally terrible album moniker, and the dreadful album art, Dada Life is not half bad. [30 November 2009] 
Brock Van Wey: White Clouds Drift on and OnTracks are allowed to saunter as if there’s no edge of the earth to fall off of. They’re not like us, these songs. [23 November 2009] 
Various Artists: Mind Expanders Volume 2The neverending trove of dusty psychedelic treasures continues to be dug out. That's not to say we don't encounter cobwebs along the way. [20 November 2009] 
Kreng:L’Autopsie Phenomenale de DieuDark, brooding, and deranged atmospheric soundtrack work for avant-garde theater by a Belgian composer who raises every hair on the back of your neck one at a time. [18 November 2009] 
Kiasmos/Rival Consoles: 65/ MiloA split that divides time between dubby bleep 'n' bass and messy cut-up intelligent dance music that is indeed danceable. [16 November 2009] 
Broadcast and the Focus Group: Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio AgeThis a massive paranormal grimoire of sound that future generations may mistake for the audio book to the Necronomicon. [13 November 2009] 
Hecker: Acid in the Style of David TudorA massive scatological machinal mess, squirting rust and oil all over this island of misfit sounds. [12 November 2009] 
Prins Thomas: Live at Robert Johnson Vol 2There's a track on this compilation called "Giorgio Carpenter", seemingly equating Moroder with Christ. Prins Thomas expertly carves out idols like this and more on his latest eclectic mix. 
Moritz Von Oswald Trio: Vertical AscentThe irresistible beat of Basic Channel's Von Oswald, Vladislav Delay's Sasu Ripatti, and NSI's Max Lodbauer captures four splendid sets of abstract patterns. [4 November 2009] 
Ata Ebteka: Ornamentalism: Ata Ebtekar and the Iranian Orchestra For New Music Performing Works of AHints of Persian music are masked by a confounding digital ruckus as one of Iran's premier electronic composers takes on one of the country's pioneering electro-acoustic minds. [28 October 2009] 
NOMO: Invisible CitiesNomo imagines every city skyline as a sound wave and, building on Ghost Rock, diffuses their Afrobeat-centeric sound in directions that could get any city's party pumping. [26 October 2009] 
Robert Hampson: VectorsWe've done worse than to follow the trajectory of the Main and Loop frontman before. [12 October 2009] 
The Present: The Way We AreThe name of this new experimental band could either stand for a gift or the current moment. The Way We Are could appropriately be called either. [8 October 2009] 
City Center: City CenterFred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good to Me creates a city of sound and almost gets lost in the noise. Thankfully, that's kind of the theme. 
Various Artists: Spiritual Jazz: Esoteric, Modal, and Deep Jazz from the Underground 1968-1977Fourteen hymns from the heavenly church of rare groove. [2 October 2009] 
Luke Vibert: RhythmLuke Vibert records an album he could have written in his sleep and loads the drum machine presets. [18 September 2009] 
Various Artist: Round Black Ghosts 2The second attempt at rounding up the finest spectral dubstep progeny by Stefan Betke's (aka Pole) ~Scape label. [16 September 2009] 
Various Artists: FabriqueA quite enlightening mix of many of the sounds you might have heard during Brisbane, Australia's experimental music series. [31 August 2009] 
Stardeath & White Dwarfs: The BirthIt's unfortunate, but it bears mentioning. This is Wayne Coyne's nephew's band. That might explain some things. [28 August 2009] 
Roedelius: Jardin Au FouBefore Komische got gaudy, Roedelius released a haunting wind-up ambient work of austere joy. [13 August 2009] 
Kid606: Shout at the DönerMaster of the musical pun, Kid606 still lives up to his puerile namesake and brings us all down to his level for an amazingly fun journey through wonky-synth dance music. [5 August 2009] 
Various Artists: Fly Girls! B-Boys BewareA monster collection of female hip-hop from its most empowering to its most dispiriting. [30 July 2009] 
Blur: Midlife: A Beginner’s Guide to BlurSure, Blur were at times all over the map, but this two-disc set actually accentuates the incongruities of their occasional diversity by odd selection choices, bizarre sequencing, and about as much focus as a shuffle button. [29 July 2009] 
Alva Noto: Xerrox Vol 2.Xerrox Vol. 2 treads darker textural waters than its predecessor. [27 July 2009] 
Susumu Yokota: MotherYokota trades electrostargazing idyllic plinktronica for the celestials of nature-worshipping ethereal wave [20 July 2009] 
Claro Intelecto: Warehouse SessionsHouse music, years after the club, stripped and muffled under bass-damaged ears. [9 July 2009] 
Bibio: Ambivalence AvenueBibio reinvents himself as a number of different people -- Neil Young, J Dilla, Ariel Pink, bands named after animals -- but retains a thematic proximity to the idea of the persistence of memory. 
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas: IIII is an epic space jam that seems to tweak celestial ephemera in real time. [5 June 2009] 
Jon Hopkins: InsidesJon Hopkins's wizard-like productions have gotten the thumbs up from Brian Eno, and this reviewer. [2 June 2009] 
Chloé: Live at Robert JohnsonExpect no grimey dusty blues here, just dirty, sexy, slick beats. [28 May 2009] 
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Out of NoiseSakamoto has learned much from his recent partners and contemporaries, not the least of which being how to craft an eloquent and masterfully produced album. [22 May 2009] 
Elegi: VardeThe snow shovels heard at the beginning of the album are both carving out a path and digging a grave. The voyage is doomed. [20 May 2009] 
Moderat: ModeratDon't call it a supergroup, but Modeselektor + Apparat = pretty super stuff. [1 May 2009] 
Jacob Kirkegaard: LabyrinthitisScientifically constructed to engage your ear, Labryinthitis features you. Yes, literally. You are on this album. [21 April 2009] 
Various Artists: Protected Massive SamplesMassive Attack is opened up, and its insides are revealed to be made of muzak and precious stones. [13 April 2009] 
Junior Boys: Begone Dull CareJeremy Greenspan wants to convince us that being a Junior Boy is somehow dull. Luckily, he is unsuccessful at doing so. [10 April 2009] 
Guitar: Honeysky / SaltykissesReissued for the first time in America, Guitar's two best albums are strongest when they deliver what listeners tune in for. [3 April 2009] 
Faust: C’est Com..Com..CompliquéFaust continue to defy continuity and release the album that came before their last one. As per usual, traditional song structures are turned on their head. [25 March 2009] 
Ricardo Villalobos: VascoIf you can believe it, the latest from international sensation Ricardo Villalobos is a work of progressive minimalism. [24 March 2009] 
Pauline Oliveros: Four Electronic Pieces 1959-1966Four challenging and deeply rewarding pieces by the maven of Deep Listening [9 March 2009] 
The Prodigy: Invaders Must DieThe Prodigy are back. No, it's not just that they've put out another album. They're actually back. [6 March 2009] 
Lowfish: Frozen & BrokenDetroit is right on the border of Canada and Lowfish is right on the border of Detroit. [2 March 2009] 
Luomo: ConvivialConvivial emphasizes the disconnect between the audience and the DJ in a series of extremely sharp electro-pop tunes. [24 February 2009] 
Mikkel Metal: Peaks and TroughsMikkel Metal's sound continues to gravitate, with sumptuous echoplex ever at its core. [19 February 2009] 
John Baker: The John Baker Tapes Volume 1The John Baker Tapes stands with Rephlex Records' Music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research, Inc. as an essential slice of unconscious listening. [13 February 2009] 
Xela: In Bocca Al LupoXela goes darkly, but rarely deeply, into the chasm of religious horror. [11 February 2009] 
The Lines: Flood BankBand leader Rico Conning calls this a "Pulp Fiction" edit of his excellent post-punk band's only two full-length albums. [6 February 2009] 
Pierre Bastien: Visions of DoingFilmmaker Karel Doing's films capture ordinary images at unusual angles. Musician Pierre Bastien forces unusual objects to act in predictable and fascinating ways. [4 February 2009] 
Helios: CaesuraGoopy, sentimental mood music that's plenty pretty, if somewhat somniferous. [27 January 2009] 
Grouper/ Inca Ore: SplitTwo of the most vital artists populate the fringes of the new weird America with spirits and sorrow. [26 January 2009] 
Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno: Journey Into the Cosmic InfernoOne need not count the minutes on an Acid Mothers Temple album that anticipate climax, nor the proper length of time for slewing in the oozy afterbirth of said pinnacles, to find just how much time has been wasted on navel-gazing. [23 January 2009] 
Koen Holtkamp: Field RitualsKoen Holtkamp has created an album thickly coated in tons of effects, but textured by real world field recordings. [22 January 2009] 
Alva Noto: UnitxtAlva Noto often ignites our fear of omnipresent technology, largely accomplishing this by highlighting ways in which we’ve undermined the complexity of our chronic interface with machinery. [8 January 2009] 
Jackie O Motherfucker: FreedomlandTo call these recordings bootleg quality is to strongly discredit advancements in modern bootlegging technology. [6 January 2009] 
Seven That Spells: Black Om RisingMasterful Croatian psych-rockers expound metallurgic riffing, freak-outs, and time signature changes by way of a history lesson. [4 January 2009] 
Koushik: Out My WindowKoushik's vocals on his vintage-sounding meditative psych-pop sound like they're in a kind of permanent waking state. [18 December 2008] 
Peter Rehberg: Work for GV 2004-2007Pita and KTL's Peter Rehberg's scores for domestic hellscapes realized in the form of puppet plays are unsettling, but uneven. [16 December 2008] 
Culture: Culture and the Deejays at Joe Gibbs 1977-1979A collection of rare 12" disco singles which extend, and in some cases enhance, the early catalogue of the brilliant Culture with guest DJ slots. 
Raglani: Of Sirens BornWithout ever getting us seasick, Raglani sails this ship into the depths of hell and back. 
Various Artists: Computer Incarnations for World Peace IICosmic Disco? Cosmic Schlock! [25 November 2008] 
Kraftwerk and the Electronic RevolutionCovering far more sonic terrain than just the astronomy mapped out in the title, this is the rare music film that doesn't talk down to its audience. [18 November 2008] 
Tobacco: Fucked Up FriendsTobacco may not distinguish himself from his past in Black Moth Super Rainbow, but he at least plucks from the best of that band's catalogue. [5 November 2008] 
Joe Gibbs: Scorchers from the Mighty TwoWhen listening to a compilation like Scorchers from the Mighty Two, ownership of a certain piece of music seems like a quaint and inconsequential idea. There's a communal spirit that reigns. [17 October 2008] 
Monolake: Hongkong RemasteredThe eastern sensibilites of this classic dub techno release lie in its reductionism, repose, and restraint, rather than any globalist appropriation of traditional music. 
Max Richter: 24 Postcards in Full Colour24 Postcards in Full Colour might almost be condemnable as a rotten tease were it not so powerful in its absences. [2 October 2008] 
Adventure: AdventureCarpark continues to document Wham City's enchantment with juvenalia, this time taking on some chiptune teenage victory songs. [1 October 2008] 
Morgan Geist: Double Night TimeMetro Area's Morgan Geist and Jeremy Greenspan of the Junior Boys play to each others's strengths on an album that sounds best set against the iridescent scrim of city lights [16 September 2008] 
Pole: 1 2 3Pole exists in minimalism's ghetto and its grotto, impoverished and sparse but never lacking in appreciation of its personal surroundings. [11 September 2008] 
Pluxus: Solid StateSolid State plucks, plinks, blips, glitches, and shuffles in an off-center framework much unlike its namesake. [10 September 2008] 
Univers Zero: Univers Zero (1313)In the late 1970s, while America was still mortified at what Zeppelin and Sabbath records sounded like when played backwards, abstruse European prog bands seemed to be directly summoning up the dark lord for those who played their albums the intended way. [8 September 2008] 
Irmin Schmidt & Kumo: Axolotl EyesThe legendary Can keyboardist's partner is about as old as his former band. That's over 110 years of pop and avant-garde history between them. [14 August 2008] 
The Bug: London ZooLondon Zoo is the epitomical soundtrack to the summer of horror. [11 August 2008] 
Vibert/Simmonds: RodulateThe duo that started Luke Vibert's career compile some of their unreleased collaborations 15 years after their last album [30 July 2008] 
Various Artists: Dubstep Allstars Vol.06Dubstep's forecast for 2008: dark, dank, and surprisingly untainted by newfound attentions. [29 July 2008] 
Various Artists: One HundredA ten year birthday party with old friends and new intimate timeless grooves. [25 July 2008] 
Daft Punk: Electroma [DVD]Inevitably, Electroma will eternally be defined in music and film history by what it lacks. Calling the film one-dimensional would be understandable, but it would be simplifying a complex moebius strip whose surface, if lethargic, at least engages the screen for 70 minutes. [22 July 2008] 
Alan Licht & Aki Onda: EverydaysTwo noted experimentalists make divine alchemy in the form a celebration of the everyday. [17 July 2008] 
The War on Drugs: Wagonwheel BluesWagonwheel Blues daubs electronic and acoustic watercolor sketches of Americana from the Midwest prairie through the lonesome crowded west on to the beaches and rocky shores. [15 July 2008] 
Black Devil Disco Club: Eight Oh EightA slight variation on the established praxis of a well-respected elder statesman of dark disco. Retro-futurism nostalgic for an era this artist was once miles ahead of. [14 July 2008] 
The Lines: Memory SpanMore marvelous and dusty material unearthed from the late 1970s and early 1980s, the years punk, and just about everything, broke...and bands like the Lines put it back together again. [26 June 2008] 
Jay Haze: Love & BeyondGerman DJ Jay Haze has hefty load of music he wants you to hear. Maybe you could connect the dots for him too. [20 June 2008] 
Ellen Allien: BoogyBytes Vol.04The four-on-the-floor rhythm on Allien's hand-selected tracks is less of a motivational command than a metronomic stop watch for adventures. [6 June 2008] 
Estelle: ShineThe rest of Estelle's album doesn't quite live up to the promise of her enormous single, but she also avoids flooding it with filler and pick-a-note Idol-atry. [28 May 2008] 
Barry Adamson: Back to the CatAdamson's murky world gets a bit more refined, though no less sleazy, with a decadent big band to back him up. [20 May 2008] 
Ministry and Co-Conspirators: Cover UpMinistry, for what could actually be their last album, give in and just play the songs everybody knows. [16 May 2008] 
Various Artists: Musicians for MinneapolisFifty-seven artists line-up semi-alphabetically to salute those affected by the Minneapolis bridge disaster last year. [13 May 2008] 
Theatre of Disco: Theatre of DiscoThe only thing obstructing Theatre of Disco from wheelbarrows of high praise is the fact that you can only occasionally make out what they are saying. [12 May 2008] 
Voyager One: Afterhours in the AfterlifeThis trip could have been serviced better instrumentally. [1 May 2008] 
Cloudland Canyon: Lie in LightAn album of beautiful contrasts from Brooklyn, Germany, and outer space. [29 April 2008] 
Air: Moon SafariAir's Moon Safari invented the hip Easy Listener, an icy plateau that merged film music, jazz exotica, and analogue soft prog. Now a decade old, Air adds a bonus disc and a DVD. [18 April 2008] 
Meat Beat Manifesto: AutoimmuneJack Dangers makes intimations and considerations of dubstep that evoke hell and back. Then, for better or worse, he throws a Meat Beat Manifesto album into the mix. [7 April 2008] 
Rod Modell: Incense and BlacklightIt's exactly this type of voluntary hypnosis that seems to promise that Modell's brand of encapsulation will sustain for years to come. [21 March 2008] 
Kevin Ayers: The UnfairgroundKevin Ayers returns from a long absence with an album that shows how much he has aged since we last saw him. [18 March 2008] 
Justus Köhncke: Safe and SoundJustus Köhncke brushes off perfectly crafted discotheque anthems and lush ambient pieces with breathless ease, but he can't seem to get the tracklisting right. [7 March 2008] 
Willits + Sakamoto: Ocean FireAfter collaborating with Fennesz, Ryuichi Sakamoto moves down the glitchtronic chain of command to make a headphone album's worth of nautical sound waves with Christopher Willits. [5 March 2008] 
Heidi Mortenson: Diamonds & UnderwearDiamonds and Underwear shares perhaps its closest kin with the stoned experimentalism and sound collage chicanery of Chicks on Speed. [3 March 2008] 
Mtn. High: Wicked WandererMtn. High shoot for the sky, but wind up double drumming to 88 and traveling back in time. [18 February 2008] 
Boxcutter: GlyphicBoxcutter’s latest contains plenty of macro dub infections, but with any luck the album will also help cement his status as a singular artist of many forms and fancies. [31 January 2008] BlogsMixed Media: The Best Singles of 2009: Shakira - “She Wolf” [10 December 2009]Consuming Consumables: Spiritual Jazz: Esoteric, Modal, and Deep Jazz from the Underground 1968-1977 [8 December 2009]Channel Surfing: V for Vacancy [5 November 2009]Mixed Media: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Higher Than the Stars (stream) [18 September 2009]Mixed Media: Cloaks - R.F.I.D (stream) [17 September 2009]Mixed Media: William S. Burroughs: A Man Within dir. Yony Leyser (trailer) [16 September 2009]Mixed Media: Low - “Transmission” (video) [31 July 2009]Mixed Media: Steel Harmony - “Transmission” (video)Mixed Media: Covers of Joy Division’s “Transmission” (video)Mixed Media: Leyland Kirby - The Darkness That Separates Remembering From Not Remembering (video) [29 July 2009]Sound Affects: Disco’s Not Dead [13 July 2009]Mixed Media: PS22 Chorus - “I’ll Be Your Mirror” (video) [13 March 2009]Sound Affects: The Texturalists vs. The End of Time [14 November 2008]Sound Affects: A Prehistory of the Pandemic [18 July 2008]Sound Affects: Who Listens to Music These Days? [14 July 2008]Sound Affects: The Threat Posed By Girl Talk’s New Album [20 June 2008] |
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