Schneider TM:
Guitar Sounds:
Bureau B:
Out 30th September 2013:
7/10
Normally you'd find one Dirk Dresselhaus experimenting with all manner of electronics, even blimmin' building sites (see his previous album Construction Sounds). But on Guitar Sounds, he's back with a familiar instrument - and boy, does he make it sound anything other than a guitar.
Comprised of three lengthy jams and two shorter passages, Guitar Sounds is by turns, listenable, unlistenable, discordant, melodic, sweet, sour and downright abrasive. Each track seems to represent Schneider TM's limitless ability to turn on a digital sixpence at the flick of a switch - the opening glitch-fest Landscape will either have you stroking your chin in earnest or reaching for the nearest crossbow. I'm rather partial to it and at just over 8 minutes long, it won't kill you to listen to it all the way through anyway. A little bit Fennesz, Landscape sets up the following quartet nicely albeit with an air of threat and menace.
Perhaps the most atonal work here is the most sprawling but decisive. If you thought Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was tricky, throw your ears into this audio maelstrom. I imagine if Reed, Glenn Philips, Lee Ranaldo, Karlheinz Stockhausen and My Bloody Valentine teamed up to make a charity single, this could be the result - an uncompromising soundtrack to someone handing over a small fortune just to make it stop. Superb stuff.
The other pieces bleed forth at various volumes, normally loud but never so loud that you want to turn psychotic. First Of May is even remotely similar to The Durutti Column, albeit after a few vodkas. If you make it to the end of the 45 minutes on offer here, it'll be like experiencing bright city lights after being sat in a cinema for a few hours - disorientating and with a sense of neon-blindness but oddly satisfying as well.
Guitar Sounds:
Bureau B:
Out 30th September 2013:
7/10
Comprised of three lengthy jams and two shorter passages, Guitar Sounds is by turns, listenable, unlistenable, discordant, melodic, sweet, sour and downright abrasive. Each track seems to represent Schneider TM's limitless ability to turn on a digital sixpence at the flick of a switch - the opening glitch-fest Landscape will either have you stroking your chin in earnest or reaching for the nearest crossbow. I'm rather partial to it and at just over 8 minutes long, it won't kill you to listen to it all the way through anyway. A little bit Fennesz, Landscape sets up the following quartet nicely albeit with an air of threat and menace.
Perhaps the most atonal work here is the most sprawling but decisive. If you thought Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was tricky, throw your ears into this audio maelstrom. I imagine if Reed, Glenn Philips, Lee Ranaldo, Karlheinz Stockhausen and My Bloody Valentine teamed up to make a charity single, this could be the result - an uncompromising soundtrack to someone handing over a small fortune just to make it stop. Superb stuff.
The other pieces bleed forth at various volumes, normally loud but never so loud that you want to turn psychotic. First Of May is even remotely similar to The Durutti Column, albeit after a few vodkas. If you make it to the end of the 45 minutes on offer here, it'll be like experiencing bright city lights after being sat in a cinema for a few hours - disorientating and with a sense of neon-blindness but oddly satisfying as well.