Books on Tape is Todd Drootin who is known from his MP3-label Subverseco. Todd also makes music as Click Tracy and is involved in few other projects like Dewey Decimator (with Kerri Kerrang), Sluts On Tape (with Eryk Salvaggio), Tape Science Version (with Dustin Craig) and Box Social (with David Klotz). You can find MP3s from many of these names at Subverseco.

What’s important to say about Todd’s musical influences is that he’s a huge fan of Pavement, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Art Ensemble Of Chicago (and lots more) and calls his electronic music style “beatpunk”. It’s music with lots of energy, noisy beats and often unconventional rhythms — loud, beat-oriented and uncompromising songs. Not being a personal interpretation of a well known musical expression, Books on Tape goes in another direction — fresh, new, funny and yet very serious and adventurous. Sings the Blues is recommended for those who like great new adventures in lo-fi music.

Tomas Jirku is certainly one of the most challenging and groundbreaking producers today who makes minimal music for both listening and dancing. He is well known and his music has been realized on labels like Substractif, Force Inc, Mille Plateaux, No Type, and Intr_Version to name a few.

The music on Bleak 1999 is more on the listening side. All tracks from this album were produced in 1999 but are now officially released for the first time by No Type, obviously one of the bravest labels today pushing the limits of electronic music forward. And Jirku fits nicely there. The production of this new album is a bit rawer but it does not affect the depth of the music; a sound design of minimal rhythms balanced with bass lines, occasional obscure noises and a distant atmospheric flow, even dub sometimes; melancholic, desolate and accessible at the same time. The design of the CD-cover is by Tomas Jirku himself (who works as a designer) and it goes well with the music. Nicely designed musical textures from the outside and within.

It’s out, and it’s so nice. It’s Books on Tape Sings the Blues. Let’s make this clear: this is one of the most dynamic, eclectic and enjoyable CDs you will have heard of all year. Todd Drootin’s sampler technique is unmatched by anyone, and it’s a pleasure to hear it on this new CD. Books on Tape is currently in a North American tour. In the meantime, check out our sound clips and be one of the first to buy the record online!

Da rockt die Playstation, da bebt der Atari und dazu spasten die Teletubbies, Schweißperlen am Popo. Oh oh. In etwa so arbeitet sich der Humor des Kanadiers Frédérick Blouin an der Puppenstube ab. Aus dem Cover zur CD lässt sich sogar die passende Deko zur Performance basteln. Alright Well Okay: das ist Humor maskuliner Prägung, ganz eindeutig. Der Mann aus Quebec bugsiert seine Launigkeit in etwa bis zur Hälfte des Albums. Und dann: dann ist das Massaker an den Tubbies dran. Die Musik wird lauter, schlimmer, drastisch; sogar distanzlos zum Schluss. Was Oeuf Korreckt da abliefert, ist kaum als neu oder innovativ zu werten. Aber zu unterhalten vermag der Stoff durchaus, sowohl in seiner Aufgekratztheit, wie auch als verkunstetes Output eines Patienten auf der Couch.

La escena musical canadiense concentra a un buen número de músicos abonados a la experimentación. Existe una escena que profundiza en los impulsos de la música y los reconstruye ya sea con nuevos recursos tecnológicos o de manera clásica . A_Dontigny y Diane Labrosse llevan años haciendo individualmente aportaciones a la música avanzada y ha tenido que ser en la ya mítica sala Casa del Popolo donde estos dos particulares músicos se han encontrado y fusionado su talento. Dontigny con su ordenador y Labrosse a manos de un sampler grabaron una actuacion que ofrecieron en dicho lugar, el 20 de abril del 2003, y en la que interpretaron cuatro largos temas donde improvisan uno sobre el otro y en el que la particular conexión entre ambos da lugar un disco de electrónica experimental equilibrado, ordenado, con cierta abstracción y momentos acertados, algo presumiblemente dificil, al contrario de lo que pueda parecer.

El trabajo de Dontigny y Labrosse es todo un experimento en el que ponen a prueba esa Telepatía que aguran en el título. Sin duda una puesta arriesgada no apta para todos los oídos.

One morning, I walked over to my car and discovered that it had been broken into during the night. The thieves were professional, in my view, and courteous too, since they managed to unlock the doors without causing a single scratch. But, alas, they still made off with all the CDs I had been collecting in there, about 10 or 12 at most, and nothing else was missing or damaged, so in the end it was just a nuisance that was best left ignored, to be taken lightly as a mere inconvenience. One of those CDs was the latest release from Books on Tape, the ongoing project by Todd Drootin who has been busy with a number of recent releases crowding the shelves of late. Sings the Blues, out on the No Type label (IMNT 088), is not a blues record, to be sure. It’s energy is incessantly high; right from the first moments, the hard, up-tempo, almost aggressive rhythms build your energy up to a raw, inexplicable high. Like a climax in a heist film, Henry Mancini’s music blaring wildly with jazz touches; but this isn’t Mancini, and there is no jazz touch here: it’s all electro, all pounding rhythms and simple, energetic melodies, from start to finish. If my copy wasn’t stolen, I couldn’t say how often I would return to this music, but it was great company for a few hi-speed car chases.