(The music below has been issued on cassettes. Patrick Thinsy was kind enough to provide me with CD burns)



Patrick Thinsy - Disappearances (Yanuki)

Two fine electronic tracks form Thinsy, a new name to me. The first shimmers vaguely into existence, the merest wave, gradually developing a slow pulse. A higher pitch is added, almost in sync with the previous pulse but just enough off to provide a delicious quaver. A harsher layer is applied, that pulsation becoming deeper on the one and, generating quasi-beeps on the other. A concise piece that does what it needs to do in 12 minutes and then retires; excellent. The second begins with a lower, deeper thrum, again undergoing a slight additive process. But about four minutes in, a rhythmic tapping emerges, a spare but complex dance between semi-metallic strikes and paired pneumatic sighs. Very effective, very eerie. More so when a calmly speaking female voice enters (in French), eventually, slightly, splitting, becoming the sole element as the piece ends. An impressive, unusual release--try it!



Woodger Speece/Thierry Burnhout - 14 Rhythms for Jamilla/This Beehive State (Tanuki)

Woodger Speece is Pauwel de Buck. His pieces flicker between electronic noise and fractured semi-dance rhythms, all subject to deterioration. The sounds tend toward the sharp and thin, often cackling and yielding high-pitched whines and wheezes. There's a mechanical feel, as of some rickety, jerry-rigged contraption run amok. One sometimes imagines whole crews of miniature street workers with inch-long jackhammers. Not quite up my alley but engaging enough at times. Thierry Burnhout's "This Beehive State" commences with a lovely, low drone adorned with discreet pops; given the title, one is hard-pressed not to think of a hive's hum with the pops representing individual arrivals and departures of worker bees. This continues throughout, the drone changing pitch and timbre periodically, sliding into an organ-y area. It's very comfortable music, not so demanding but an enjoyable wallow, the clicks adding just enough grit to offset any potential cloying aspect. Nice work, would like to hear more from him.



L.E.G. - The Dogs in You (Tanuki)

Spacey hip-hop (trance-hop) by a Belgian group. Well outside my ambit so I'm reluctant to say much. I was a big fan of early 2000s Anticon product and I can hear something of a relationship to that sensibility here but not enough for my taste, a little too much posturing. The effects are sometimes winning, diverging substantially from what one might expect, the last portion of the second of the two tracks traveling especially far out, though it also hits on some excessive wooziness. I'm afraid I can't say much more, though excerpts of this and the previous two releases are available on bandcamp and soundcloud, so hear for yourself.

tanuki