Category Archives: Switched On

Switched On – Ian William Craig: Music for Magnesium_123 (Fatcat Records)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Often, when considering a new score for a TV show, film or game, the listener is presented with a series of short, inconsequential cues, with little of musical substance to make for satisfying listening. Ian William Craig is on a mission to change that, returning with a bold approach to soundtrack writing.

The Vancouver-based artist has written a substantial piece of work to accompany a computer game, Magnesium 173. This creation from Graham Johnson is described as ‘an elegant puzzle game inspired by quantum mechanics’. In response, Craig has fashioned a dozen pieces of music running for 80 minutes. The tracks evolve with the use of modified tape, electronics and Craig’s own voice, multitracked and manipulated to create a series of choral perspectives.

What’s the music like?

Haunting and otherworldly. There is a peculiar intensity here, taking hold as the sound begins to grow in volume at the start of the soundtrack, and barely letting up throughout. The presence of the human voice is deeply powerful, for although there are no obvious words the vocals command the music’s direction and colour.

Blue Suit Glitch finds a glitchy response from modular synthesizers, while a haunting choir hesitantly rises up out of the weather-beaten tundra on It’s A Sound, Not An Ocean, their sonorous voices soon dominating the landscape on the album’s longest track. A Crack And A Shadow is much shorter, but benefits from a distinctive, sighing motif that gets cut up and worked against a steady rhythm of snowy footsteps.

Viridian is another ambient yet intense piece of work, with falsetto and deeper bass vocals set in contrary lines. The music drifts through thick electronic clouds, as it also does in the weightless Sentimental Drift. Prisms is warm and fuzzy, while Attention For It Radiates exhibits a brighter, wide open choral sound. Meanwhile a wall of bright musical ambience awaits the listener on Sprite Percent World Record, richly coloured with heat-soaked drones, pierced on occasion by a solo voice.

Does it all work?

Yes, it does – and although the emphasis is on the ambient properties of Craig’s writing, there is intensity and poise throughout, along with a keen sense of direction. In spite of its slow moving trajectory, the music is always travelling somewhere.

Is it recommended?

Yes, enthusiastically – fans of Tim Hecker, Fennesz or the Glacial Movements label, to name just a few like-minded sources, will love it. Ian William Craig has made something rather special here.

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Switched On – Back To Mine: Tycho (DMC)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

For the latest in their long running Back To Mine series, now 23 years old, DMC turn to Scott Hansen, the San Francisco producer, artist, designer and songwriter better known in these circles as Tycho.

He is a completely logical addition, already known for some incredibly relaxing chillout music through albums Dive, Epoch and Weather, which offer sunshine-infused meditation to even the coldest listener.

What’s the music like?

As so often with the Back To Mine series, it feels like DMC have caught the right artist at the right time. Tycho’s specialities tend to lie in the electronic field, and that is well represented here, but there are some really nice contrasts and bends in the road to navigate as the mix progresses. It hits just the right balance of moving forward but also enjoying the musical scenery on the way.

Bibio’s remix of Tycho’s own Spectre is the ideal place to start, setting a nice walking pace within a woozy dynamic as the guitar ambles along. Some spacey productions follow, with an excellent bit of serious electronic pop from Panama standing out, the clean textures of Destroyer dating from 2013. Happily the music never veers too close to the mainstream, as Schneider TM’s hybrid track Frogtoise testifies. Tycho’s remix of Little Dragon’s Little Man is the perfect fit to bridge from this to the hypnotic cross rhythms of Luke Abbott’s Modern Driveway, after which the amiable grooves of Weval’s You Made It (Part II) are ideal.

Ulrich Schnauss is a logical inclusion, his brand of weather-beaten electronica leaving a strong impression with In All The Wrong Places, before Tycho’s PBS brings a cool groove to back its probing riff. By the time Slowdive’s Sugar For The Pill kicks in we are more or less horizontal, a feeling reinforced by Octo Octa’s Beam Me Up, the Please Take Me Away mix by Eris Drew panning out rather nicely.

Does it all work?

It does – as you would expect from someone with Tycho’s love of perspective, foreground and background. Like the best Back To Mine compilations it brings a satisfying juxtaposition of familiar names and unfamiliar grooves, sitting alongside each other with the maximum ease.

Is it recommended?

It is indeed – another excellent addition to one of the longest running compilation series around. Even in this era of online mixes and playlists, there is still room for an hour Back To Mine.

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Switched On – Simon James: Electronic Breeze (Lo Recordings)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s The Story?

There are just two tracks on Electronic Breeze, an album whose name really is matched by its contents. The composer is Simon James, described on the press release as ‘a master of electronic manipulation’.

The two tracks were written as a sound installation for the Lowry Gallery in Salford. James describes them on his blog as ‘durational environmental sound pieces’.

The electronic breeze of the title is a semi-random construction, made with wind chimes, modular synth clusters arranged in loops and field recordings. While using wind chimes, James was keen to avoid the clichés that can occur when they have been used in New Age music. Instead he chose a different set for each track to depict different times of the day, and programmed his Buchla synthesizer to randomly play back the notes from each chime, never repeating itself.

What’s The Music Like?

While the initial method of construction might sound like a cop-out initially, James used it as a springboard to begin his own composition, using the ‘breeze’ to dictate other musical events such as intensity, speed, pitch. Then he added the wind chimes themselves. At all times he wanted to complement the installation – so that means the dynamic level of the piece is low, and best enjoyed in isolation.

If you have the right listening conditions then Electronic Breeze is a piece in which to let your mind run free. The two extended sections complement each other, and the resultant sounds, which occupy mid to upper pitches most of the time, give the impression of floating. It is in effect the musical equivalent of gliding.

Does It All Work?

It does – certainly as background music to ease the troubled mind, and as a helpful accompaniment for mindfulness sessions or meditation.

Is It Recommended?

Yes. Electronic Breeze is a soothing way to spend just north of an hour, taking the edge away from the pressures of everyday life.

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Deepchord returns!

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As you will see from the last few days, Arcana has been interviewing and reviewing music by Deepchord – aka Rod Modell. You can read more about it

Switched On – Deepchord: Functional Designs (Soma Recordings)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s The Story?

Detroit musician, producer and field recorder Rod Modell returns from a relative sabbatical with Functional Designs, hid first album in five years.

Remaining with Glasgow label Soma Recordings, Modell has taken an enforced absence (see our interview with him) but one which has led to him coming back with more musical intent than ever. While it might sound strange to say that about an artist who makes very ambient music, Modell’s brand of ambience has an otherworldly intensity at its core.

What’s The Music Like?

This is indeed music on a deeply ambient plain. On first glance not a lot has changed in the Deepchord world – but given the earthy, weather beaten vistas we associate with him that is not a bad thingat all.

Amber sets the scene, with sheets of rain sweeping across the sonic picture, a wide open and comforting view if not completely settled. A four to the floor rhythm is established at the start of Darkness Falls, which is thick with outdoor ambience. Strangers is especially good, a moody cut that has a dub-infused undercarriage.

Deepchord compositions often feel like musical weather systems, such as Panacast, but Cloudsat feels in much more of a hurry to get across the sky. Ebb And Flow, on the other hand, is an effortless and beautiful sequence depicting slow progress against a warm bed of keyboard sounds. Warmer still is the dubby Sun, where a sonorous bass drum supports the heat haze of an incredibly restful added-note chord.

Does It All Work?

It does. As with almost all Deepchord compositions there is a surety to his work that is at once compelling and reassuring.

Is It Recommended?

Yes – and it’s great to have him back at the start of a new chapter.