electrocd

Review

Brian Lavelle, Vital, June 13, 2002

Label-owner David Turgeon makes reference to this compiling release as an ‘overview’ of the musical career of Frédérick Blouin between 1995 and the present day, and, boy, is this a seven year itch that begs to be scratched. Oeuf Korreckt’s music demonstrates for me one of the vital facets of this type of electronic composing, one that brings me back to it again and again over long periods of time: the ability to engage an unstoppable grin and send the proverbial shiver dancing up and down the spine at that moment when two fantastically simple melodic lines entangle themselves in just the right fashion, creating something which is so much greater and more joyous than the individual components themselves. Before Bedtime, with its ecstatic sequencing, is only one example of this phenomenon here and one which could justify itself at twice the length: a beautiful piece of frustratingly simple yet haunting and timeless electronica. Throughout Podweek, layers and layers of harmonic sheets of analog-sounding electronics build and fall in drawn-out simulacra of the peaks and troughs of the very sound waves that go to make up this music. There is a great variety over the space of these 15 tracks and the single disappointment for me was the beat-dominated hardcore of King of the Elephants which outstays its welcome at a gruelling 8 minutes. (Perhaps tellingly, this is the oldest by far of the pieces on the disc.) What is conjured up elsewhere, however, is a backdrop not of laptop screenshine and over-intellectualisations of sound-as-art but of hulking printed circuit boards, strobe lighting and gleaming solder. Anyone who has ever relished the more considered and adventurous residents of, say, the Warp stable, especially Black Dog in its various guises and early Autechre, will find a wealth of wonder to enjoy on Podweek.

… engage an unstoppable grin and send the proverbial shiver dancing up and down the spine…