Headphone Science ist Dustin Craig aus Oakland / Kalifornien, und unter dem Synonym Elasticlego auch in Ambient-Gefilden tätig. Einer Reihe von Web-Releases folgt nun seine erste CD-Veröffentlichung als Headphone Science.

We Remain Faded überzeugt mit einem durchweg gelungenem, melodischen Mix aus IDM, Hip Hop-Beats, experimentellen Sounds und subtilen Ambient-Elementen. Hinzu gesellen sich Jazz-Anleihen, gehackstückelte Rap-Vocals und Film-Samples. Einige der 6 Tracks erhalten durch die Verwendung von Piano-, Cello-, und Trompeten-Sounds eine eher melancholische Färbung, während andere durch den Einsatz der gecutteten Vocals straighter nach vorne gehen und mehr in Richtung Hip Hop abzielen. Leider ist der unterhaltsame Mix schon nach 38 Minuten zu Ende, aber es besteht Hoffnung — ein volles Album namens Consider The Problems soll noch in diesem Jahr auf dem Wiener Label Skylab Operations erscheinen.

Dustin Craig es un californiano que se esconde tras el pseudónimo de Headphone Science. Su faceta como remixer es mas conocida que la de productor en solitario, y actualmente esta trabajando en varios proyectos junto a Books on Tape o Martindx. Dustin empezó su carrera como productor publicando sus trabajos por net-labels, es el caso de Foundations Reflected que salio por Subverseco (allí conoció a los Books on Tape), o Distorted Joyholes que lo hizo por Illmatik vibes. Este trabajo por el net-label canadiense afincado en Montréal No Type, es un compendio entre el hip-hop, es el caso de los cortes por nombre Games y Larcenous, el dub digital en Air Bubble Material y clicks and cuts con toques drill&bass y two step en Life Struggles Constant. IDM en definitiva la que nos ofrece todo un genio de la ciencia del auricular.

We Remain Faded has the cool savvy usually found in better hip-hop records and would be the ideal album to soundtrack skateboard or dirt bike trick film footage. With surgical beats, fader perforated vocals and Ginsu-sharp IDM breaks, We Remain Faded inspires an adrenaline rush track after track. Headphone Science is what might happen if DJ Cam dabbled in IDM, infusing an attitude-driven strut rather than the customary sprint found in the likes of Phonem. The tracks are satisfyingly long while scientist Dustin Craig outdoes himself with mad skills. This album rocks.

Sublime atmospheric material I would not call ambient because the mood is too tumultuous to be considered bliss-out material. All your dreams are meaningless is intense and varied, ranging from noise to heavily processed field recordings to sustained electronic drones. Sounds akin to the tempest from computer and television monitors are coupled with sound chaos found in urban intersections that occur with stream-of-consciousness serendipity. The sounds though sometimes harsh and disagreeable are more often than not gorgeous. Because the sounds are juxtaposed with harsh textures, this actually heightens the beauty of the more agreeable parts. Some close analogies would be the sounds of Tim Hecker, only Coin Gutter is less restrictive and more adventurous. Rather All Your Dreams… culminates into a wondrously heady din.

La popularité de Tomas Jirku a-t-elle surpris ce dernier à ce point qu’il se voie contraint de recycler du vieux matériel? Quoi qu’il en soit, on ne lui en voudra pas s’il tire de ses cartons des galettes aussi bien léchées que celle-ci. Achevé en 1999 et demeuré inédit, Bleak 1999 est un assemblage de techno minimaliste d’une grande sensualité. À rattacher au côté plus rythmé de Jirku, ce disque n’en demeure pas moins abstrait, les mélodies étant distillées jusqu’au résidu vaporeux. Le mouvement est langoureux, invitant à se prélasser dans le sofa tout en gardant l’oreille attentive et la cheville active. Concert-lancement le dimanche 31 aoput à la Casa del popolo. 8/10

Noise artists Emma Hendrix and Graeme Scott seem at home in the Barfly-esque Astoria Hotel, an offbeat hangout for an out-of-the-ordinary duo that emulates neither dance culture nor the classical tradition.

In Coin Gutter’s work, beats are rare. Likewise absent is the contemplative, whooshy blip-bloop sound associated with the electroacoustic composers of academe. Both members admire popular and classical music but are not pulled in either direction, as listeners will hear in the pair’s concert at the Scotiabank Dance Centre.

Typically, Coin Gutter compositions feature electronic sounds improvised around samples, creating shadowy, ominous narratives.

“I put my guitar down one day and started fiddling with a cheap, crappy sampler back in 1999. That was like opening Pandora’s box,” says Scott. “It was like walking into an orgy, a big free-for-all where you could sample everything and everybody.”

“Before then, we were playing music,” continues blond, angular Hendrix, “but when we pooled our gear and started making noise together, we created dialogues. It seemed stupid to attach these dialogues to some art tradition or disco. What’s the point of making something [original] and then pussying out by attaching it to something familiar?”

“In the novel Trainspotting, the dialogue’s vernacular is strange to most readers,” Scott says by way of example. “But as these unfamiliar words are repeated in different intonations and contexts, they acquire meaning for the reader. We try and set up the same kind of discovery process with noise.”

“Noise is traditionally unwanted sound,” says Hendrix. “It’s mentally discarded. But if people concentrate on organized noise, it intrigues.”

“We’ve never intentionally put up barriers,” Scott argues. “Compared to the loudness of the Japanese noise bands, we’re quite polite.”

Polite in terms of volume perhaps, but a scrappiness pervades Coin Gutter’s material. In Timewise, from its latest recording, All your dreams are meaningless, a woman’s voice repeats the words “he’s gone” as Hendrix and Scott improvise around the quote with electronic noise.

The listener’s focus is made to shift gradually from anxiety over the missing man to concern for the speaker herself.

Hendrix and Scott’s nuanced soundscapes range from subtle to calamitous. In another Coin Gutter track, Lullaby, a recorded song by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu seems caught in a whirlwind of aural waste, flying from the mix’s background to foreground, compromised by crackle and hiss. The song itself now rages in a cyberpunk mode that Martinu could never have envisioned.

Each Coin Gutter piece has its own edginess, as does the Astoria. It’s late. A sunburned man tries to sell us a power drill. I pay and leave. Hendrix and Scott remain, acclimatized and comfortable.