Questo disco mi ha fatto fare un salto indietro nella memoria davvero fenomenale… Nella prima metà degli anni novanta erano diffusi programmi musicali dai nomi come scream tracker e fast tracker, spesso poco più che semplici sequencer, che permettevano di comporre suonando campioni: anche se molto molto rozzi, avevano il vantaggio di essere i primi strumenti che permettevano di comporre musica con campioni personalizzati a costo nullo. All’epoca venivano usati da molti, per comporre un po’ di tutto: dalle cover di tutti i generi, a tutta la sottocultura electronica dell’epoca: techno, trance, commerciale; da qualche parte in casa ho ancora una pila di floppy disk con campioni e pezzi vari. Dopo la metà dei novanta vennero soppiantate dall’arrivo di Windows, con cui non erano più compatibili; Podweek è registrato esattamente con quelle tecniche, e ha nella composizione dei pezzi quella semplicità data proprio dalla “archeologia digitale” degli strumenti, ma allo stesso tempo mostra come con la povertà di mezzi si aguzzi l’ingegno (avendolo a disposizione, naturalmente…). Come già nell’epoca d’oro succedeva, c’era chi sfruttava al massimo le possibilità portando l’ascoltatore a chiedersi “ma come fa?”: di seguito si andava a curiosare nel suo codice per imparare un trucco dopo l’altro… Frédérick Blouin ha classe e gusto da vendere, e da vero “tracker” si cimenta con più generi, dalla rotterdam geniale di King of the Elephants, a brani ambientali, pezzi simil hiphop, cafonate hardcore come i nove minuti della splendida A Ride in Elephant City… Poliedrico e davvero sorprendente il suo repertorio, in questi quindici brani composti tra il 1995 e il 2001, tutti a base dei suoni che cominciavano già ad abbandonare la freddezza del midi, tastiere ariose della prima ondata ambient e batterie ancora in odore di synth pop; nota per la confezione cartonata davvero originale. Questo disco oltre ad essere valido documento del legame tra questa sottocultura e i mostri sacri di metà novanta (Orb e Aphex Twin per citarne solo due), è anche pieno di belle invenzioni sonore ed elettronica di gran classe.

Oeuf Korreckt’s CD Podweek is released by the label No Type as one of four upon the label’s launch. On this album Oeuf Korreckt (aka Quebec based Frédérick Blouin) has produced a variation of techno tracks from hardcore oriented to more melodic and ambient, but always with a strong rhythmical base and melodic content. For the creation of his music Oeuf Korreckt uses the currently quite obsolete pre-windows Tracker assemble software like Impulse Tracker or Scream Tracker. By using the Tracker software the tracks on this CD very much get a 1980’s techno pioneer vintage sound. Most of the instrument sounds have this particular 8 bit quality.

But by cleverly arranging various sounds it is possible, even with the cheap sounds from the Tracker software to produce full sounding and complex arrangements. Obviously in many compositions he uses an extra drumcomputer for the drumtrack. That way he has a broader palette of drum beats and control over percussion sound and mix. And many songs feature the typical computer-game sequences to complement the limited sound palette.

The way the tracks are mixed and the quality of the recordings varies. On some tracks he manages hardly to escape sounding like the background music of an early computer game. The Podweek Theme features could probably be transferred to a soundtrack with little effort.

Tracks, like Pochacco, Alright Well Okay or Four Channels sound as if they’re recorded straight from the Tracker software with a little added reverb for ambience. On other tracks like King of the Elephants and A Ride in Elephant City recording is more worked at. Percussive and sequenced sounds are mixed in the stereo field. The voice of a young boy makes Alright Well Okay more interesting to listen to.

The works on this CD date from 1995 to 2001, making it a kind of retrospective and they give a good impression of what Oeuf Korreckt is capable of. The Podweek CD also gives a good impression of the musical development in the period in which the recordings were made and the roots of this particular kind of electronic music. His early work tends to be more digital hardcore oriented with strong straightforward hardcore beats. King of the Elephants and A Ride in Elephant City both feature the well known Rotterdam hardcore beat also known as Gabber. His more recent work gets more melodic and rhythmically complex and resembles the work of Orbital, Black Dog Productions and even Kraftwerk.

With the Podweek CD Oeuf Korreckt has released his musical heritage of a little less than a decade. Because of using a limited set of musical tools the variation in sound is a bit small and the compositional limitations of the tracker software make that the whole record sounds a bit the same. And doing so the variation in emotional content of his songs is also limited. The limitations of his musical tools also are his strength. One has to listen more closely to his music to discover how his music was made. He succeeds in creating interesting and entertaining music by exploring the sonic and compositional boundaries of the quite obsolete Tracker PC software. Oeuf Korreckt is a master in his field.

Vers vocht uit de druipende uiers van het Canadese No Type-label. Het duo Coin Gutter maakt niets ontziende, hard industriële en dan weer sacrale elektronische ambient en noise, vaak doorspekt met moderne compositie. Denk aan Yannis Kyriakides in een remix door Merzbow.

Oeuf Korreckt is, ondanks zijn lullige groepsnaam, een bijzonder groovy elektronicacollectief dat met scherpe, licht industriële ritmes erg doeltreffend uit de hoek komt. Alleen jammer van die introverte, weinig verheffende productie.

De sampling-artieste Diane Labrosse werkte de voorbije tien jaar met klinkende namen zoals Ikue Mori, Martin Tétreault en Zeena Parkins. Elektronicafreak A_Dontigny was dan weer lid van het beruchte collectief Napalm Jazz. Tesamen brengen Labrosse en Dontigny spannende, verrassende en verontrustende elektronica -en ambientpassages die je het best beluistert met de deur op slot en het huisalarm op extra sensitive.

We Remain Faded van Headphone Science is de meest beklijvende release bij No Type. Met zijn mix van stuiterende hiphop en aan flarden gesneden raps leunt dit project van Dustin Craig nog het meest aan bij Prefuse 73. Maar de epische soundtrackmuziek die Craig in zijn composities verstopt, sleept deze plaat weg uit het avanthophoekje.

Twee erg leuke 10inch-vinylletjes zijn die van de Zweedse Claudia Bonarelli en de Amerikaan Todd Brooks a.k.a. Books on Tape. Met respectievelijk wollige clickhouse en punky elektrobeats zetten zij de street credibility van No Type extra in de verf.

Blouin, Internet-Programierer aus Quebec, packt seine digitale Lust und seinen Frust nachts in seine Software. Erst nur im Netz veröffentlicht, bietet diese Compi glücklichen Hartkern, charmanten Synthpop und seufzig altbackene Elektronik.

De prijs voor het slimste cd-doosje gaat deze maand naar Oeuf Korreckt, waarachter de Canadees Frederick Blouin schuilgaat. Zijn debuut-album Podweek (No Type) is verpakt in drie stukjes gevouwen karton. Blouin is sowieso een slimme jongen, die al een artikel in het muziekblad Spin had terwijl er nog geen plaat van hem in de winkel lag. Met simpele software maakte Oeuf Korreckt de afgelopen jaren elektronica, terwijl hij luisterde naar platen van de Black Dog, Aphex Twin en Rotterdamse gabber (!). Al die invloeden hoor je inderdaad terug op dit ruwe, rammelende album dat hoorbaar met veel plezier gemaakt is. Een soort best-off van iemand die net zijn eerste plaat uit heeft.

Oeuf Korreckt es un proyecto fruto del insomnio de Frédérick Blouin, un programador de internet que ha dedicado gran parte de su tiempo de sueño a la creación musical durante la última década. Podweek, su álbum de debut, recoge las mejores producciones realizadas por este canadiense en el periodo 1995-2001. Una recopilación de tracks que abarcan desde la experimentación “a lo Warp” de los primeros temas (LFO, Autechre o los primeros trabajos de Black Dog enseguida nos vienen a la cabeza tras escuchar Get Binary o We Have Arrived) al hardcore holandés tan de moda a mediados de los noventa (King of the Elephants es un alegato en favor de la saga Thunderdome), pasando por el synthpop e incluso el rock (el jugueteo con sampleos de guitarra y bajo es constante), todo ello ordenado de manera impecable, sin notarse el exceso las diferencias temporales entre cada uno de los temas. Un disco que bien podría resumirse como el resultado de la larga y pacífica convivencia de Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin y Dj Dano en un mismo reproductor de cd durante varios años. ¡Todo un valiente este Frédérick!.

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.

Oeuf Korreckt aka Frédérick Blouin, tagsüber Internetprogrammierer, des nachts Computermusiker, aus Quebec City war mir irgendwie sofort symphatisch, schon alleine, weil er wie meiner einer aus der Tracker-Szene kommt, und dieser wohl auch heute noch sein Hauptwerkzeug darstellt.

Mit Podweek präsentiert er uns sein erstes volles Album, welches einer ganzen Reihe von Online-Releases auf No Type folgt. Es enthält 15 Tracks aus seinem bisherigen musikalischen Fundus, sozusagen seine persönlichen „Greatest Hits” — allesamt zeitlos, einprägsam und faszinierend. Mit geradezu genialer Einfachheit und einer gesunden Portion Humor vereint Oeuf Korreckt Elemente aus IDM, Synthypop, Rock und Happy Hardcore — kein Wunder, reichen doch seine musikalischen Einflüsse von Orbital, Aphex Twin und Autechre über „klassischen” Techno und Rotterdam Hardcore a la „Thunderdome” bis hin zu Kraftwerk. Oeuf Korreckt versteht es, sich auf angenehm lässige Art von High End-Software, Perfektionismus und überkandidelten Produktionsweisen loszusagen, und Tracker-Skeptiker eines besseren zu belehren — frei nach dem Motto: „Weniger ist mehr”.

From the innovative, origami paper jewel case (a No Type trademark) right through to the disc’s crunchy megalomania, no analogs exist for ascribing parallels to Podweek. Brillo-techno manufactured in Canada since 1995 (the earliest listed date for the tracks on this collection of ‘œuf-history’), Frédérick Blouin, aka Oeuf Korreckt, is credited with being influenced by Black Dog, Orbital, Rotterdam hardcore, Björk and Autechre. Faint echoes of the latter’s Incunabula crop up here and there (on 1999’s Before Bedtime), and the Rotterdam connection makes its presence known during the bassball stomp of A Ride in Elephant City (nods to Atom Heart circa 1990 as well). Otherwise, styles implode in short order and markers become irrelevant. The most recent work here, 2001’s We Have Arrived, runs the IDM treadmill at modest speed, the whoop and holler of its electronics and snarling snaredrums a bark or two removed from the Dog. Blouin thumbs his nose at the ultra-serious laptop cadre on Screw my Samples, a rollercoaster ride around theme park mountain peaks that, despite the monotone pulse informing its plugins, whirls a singleminded dervish dance replete with pop-mocking beats. On Taco Fiesta, 303 moisture missiles are hurled at you with devilish abandon, the incessant flatulations and strangled synths a turgid mass uncomfortably occupying your colon. Ruffly is a bit less taxing, trashcan-lid cymbal crashes aside, but once it settles into a locked steam-engine groove, it’s simply surrender or die. Œuf to one side, the laptop techie grins, stroking all the Korreckt keys.

Ben ottanta minuti occorrono per fare una panoramica sulla musica del venticinquenne canadese Frédérick Blouin che con questo disco raccolta ripropone episodi salienti del suo percorso artistico dal 1995 al 2001 e un vastissimo campionario di suoni e attitudini. Non ci sono canoni definiti nelle composizioni di Blouin, solo una gran quantità di informazioni, codici, punteggiature, frammenti elettronici e innesti melodici messi insieme con spiccato senso del ludico in un andamento metroritmico martellante e alquanto irregolare. Le fughe visionarie della musica del progetto Mµ-Ziq di Mike Paradinas e la cerebralità della scuola elettronica di Colonia spiccano come influenze primarie, anche se gli episodi più squisitamente ‘intelligent dance’ sono di chiaro stampo Warp, la miscela che ne deriva è una elettrostimolazione neuronale che cattura fin dal primo ascolto. Da prendere anche come breviario su ciò che di importante è andato avanti nell’elettronica degli ultimi 10 anni, senza però perdere di vista l’estro e la personalità del canadese nell’assemblare umori. Un disco a dir poco intrigante e la No Type, ex net label da poco uscita allo scoperto, ci fa un figurone.

Podweek is a collection of tracks culled from the highly-personal output of Frédérick Blouin (aka Quebec’s Oeuf Korreckt). Though the disc covers a number of years — 1995-2001 — the uniformity of feel is surprising. There are no dodgy recordings, no unevenness of production; it’s pretty much quality all the way. Of course, when you’re in the realm of tracking, the limits of the sound generation devices — though it’s not explicitly stated, Oeuf Korreckt could be banging this stuff out on a supercharged (and superannuated) Atari ST — become obvious in terms of the tonal palette. Indeed, the album’s opener, Get Binary, could’ve be a GoldenShower release; it’s top-heavy on the chunky Atari sounding palette, and immediately puts one in mind of hours of retro gaming fun. But there’s something more in the mix across this selection of tracks than just a canny ear for good ol’ sounds. Screw my Samples comes closest to the Aphex Twin’s neck of the woods — delightful marimba or glass harmonica sounds over a frenetic drumbeat. However, the end of the tune sees it rapidly accelerate away with a fantastically meaty repeating organ riff; surprising, as are many of the tunes here, inasmuch as it’s an interesting escape from the box that one imagines is set up by any of the tunes in their first couple of minutes. Blouin’s style is that of the escapologist. We Have Arrived is perhaps an example of what Oeuf Korreckt does best: very simple, almost reflexive percussion, with a long-plucked bass-sound behind it, overlaid with organ that veers almost into the realm of cheese… but not quite. The effect is amazingly creepy; we’re in Future Sound Of London territory, perhaps, but with more paranoia. This is pretty much as good as the disc gets — it’s more of this sort of thing that’s craved. Forget rave-ups; the ambience speaks more effusively of Blouin’s talent than anything else on the disc, though that could be largely because it’s the newest thing here. If that is the case, whatever comes out next should be jaw-dropping. As a retrospective, Podweek is dazzling. The mix of big-booted dance, creepy ambience and cheese-grinned sunrise choruses is enough to wet anyone’s appetite for more. Get into it; it’s warm, it’s retro, and it makes you want to hunt down some tracking software for yourself. It’s that good.

An Oeuf Korreckt archive offering an overview of Frederick Blouin’s audio experiments from 1995 till the present, Podweek touches on a number of points of reference: early, unfolded, Autechre; Black Dog Productions; Speedy J; B12; in fact, most Warp output circa its hugely popular ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Series. David Turgeon’s insightful liner notes place Oeuf Korreckt’s overlooked output firmly within this pantheon, arguing that this selection is, “important not only in the context of Blouin’s own musical development, but also as part of a broader history of electronic music.” It’s hard to disagree with this concise definition of an album whose content places it firmly at the crossroads of this period of intensely fertile electronic musical development. Resem One features the hyper-distilled squelch of Aphex Twin circa his ‘Richard D. James’ album (a glance at the respective release dates — both 1996 — comes as no surprise). Before Bedtime meanwhile recalls the clipped melodies of Black Dog’s ‘Spanners’ (again similar release dates, again no surprise). It’s hard to resist these musical comparisons, the overlaps are striking and the comparisons are testament to the fact that the quality of the tracks throughout are superb. A fascinating backwards glance and a long-overdue opportunity to set the record straight, Podweek sounds as fresh now as it surely must have done when its varied tracks were first released.

Of the four CDs the label No Type released upon its launch in May 2002, Podweek is the most straightforward. Compared to Magali Babin’s microsonic metallic studies and morceaux_de_machines’ digital noise, the tunes of Oeuf Korreckt (aka Frédérick Blouin) derive from early techno and keep rhythm and melody as immutable constants. The quirk in Oeuf Korreckt’s music resides in the means of production. He still uses pre-Windows assembling software like Scream Tracker, connecting him to the 1980s pioneers of the techno scene. Still, besides an affiliation to the “vintage” sound, similar results could have been obtained with more up-to-date techniques. The real interest in these pieces is more in the way they sound fresh, positive, and entertaining. If it weren’t for the heavy rhythm tracks, one could think of naive electro-pop figures like Felix Kubin or Reznicek. The pieces collected on this very generous album (78 minutes) date from 1995 to 2001, making it a retrospective of sorts. There is plenty to go around, maybe a bit too much considering the rather limited sound palette used. But the tracklist offers many highlights, from the crude opener Get Binary and the cute Alright Well Okay (featuring a child’s voice) to hardcore rompers like King of the Elephants and A Ride in Elephant City.

Frédérick Blouin, alias Oeuf Korreckt, aurait commencé à produire de la musique dans sa ville natale de Québec en parodiant avec des amis les musiques techno, hardcore et gabber. Quelques années plus tard, il présente sur disque ses compositions plus sérieuses (sic) avec Podweek, un amalgame de techno saccadé et de pièces plus lentes, presque aliénantes. C’est d’ailleurs dans cette dernière classe qu’il excelle, répétant béatement des sonorités aux harmonies doucement troublantes (voir entre autres Alright Well Okay). Bien qu’un peu simpliste, le produit fini demeure un pertinent mélange d’inspirations de l’étiquette Warp et de vieux techno. Réunissant des pièces de 1995 à aujourd’hui, il semble tout de même que Podweek fasse office d’exercice de style plutôt que d’album-concept. Une série d’essais tout de même fort singuliers et prometteurs.

Montréal ne détient pas le monopole de la musique électronique au Québec. À partir de la Vieille Capitale, Oeuf Korreckt assure une IDM gentille, pointue, rigolote et inventive. L’histoire des sons créée dans une chambre, faite pour un salon…

Bien que Frederick Blouin apprécie l’anonymat derrière le nom étrange d’Oeuf Korreckt, il se risque aujourd’hui au jeu des questions-réponses. Surprise… Le chercheur sonore s’avère volubile, partageant sans réserve ses procèdés créatifs. Vécu en 1992, le coup de foudre pour les ordinateurs et leurs logiciels le consume encore. De cette liaison, Frederick n’éprouve aucune vanité mais un sentiment de contrôle envers ses machines. «Maintenant, je sais comment aller chercher une tonalité grasse ou délicate. Et aussi, je me concentre beaucoup plus sur les sons, alors qu’avant je passais plus de temps sur les mélodies. Quand les technologies ont évolué, elles ont permis une plus grande manipulation du son par rapport au simple clavier qui était plus mélodique. J’ai sauté les pieds joints.» Tellement que Frederick n’a pas hésité à flirter avec plusieurs genres, touchant au hardcore et à la transe, en passant par la techno, la musique pour jeu vidéo et en s’arrêtant longuement sur l’IDM.

Ces multiples embrassades de style s’entendent quelque peu sur son tout premier album, Podweek. Quinze morceaux ont ici été regroupés par No Type, un label dedié à la diffusion de MP3 expérimentaux et qui essaie depuis quelques mois le format CD. Fait étrange pour une première galette, l’album se veut une compilation des meilleurs moments d’Oeuf Korreckt, de 1995 à aujourd’hui. Podweek était le nom que je donnais à mes premiers démos, explique Frederick, et plusieurs pièces se sont retrouvées sur ces cassettes. La seule exception serait le morceau Podweek Theme, qui est devenu un succès internet. En fait, mon entourage a réellement créé des pressions pour que ce matériel voit le jour officiellement.» Il est facile d’en cerner la raison. Le passionné conserve précieusement des centaines de CDs ne comprenant que ses compositions.

Le voyage dans le temps se réalise agréablement, sans descente abrupte inexplicable, même si les finales d’Oeuf Korreckt sont très séches, même rapides. Comment l’expliquer? Oeuf Korreckt pond sans grande couvaison. «Ouand je m’installe et que je fais de la musique, ça va toujours très rapidement. La plupart du temps je produis toujours mes tracks en 45-90 minutes, ce qui est assez rapide. C’est sûr que ce que je fais n’est pas toujours assez bon pour être sur un disque. Je ne fignole jamais les tracks qui ne sont pas intéressantes pour les améliorer et les rendre meilleures. Et ca prend autant de temps faire une bonne pièce qu’une mauvaise. C’est une question d’occasion, d’inspiration et de situation.»

L’inventivité et la recherche motivent chaque élan de ces productions qu’il nomme amicalement des «versions bedroom». Pendant qu’il s’affaire à parfaire un nouveau pouls mécanique, Oeuf Korreckt pimente inconsciemment la vie de Ouébec. «Il est vrai que la scène électronique de Québec est très faible. Mais c’est un terrain grandissant. Le public se déplace puisqu’il n’est pas saturé comme à Montréal. On y voit donc des individus appartenant à plein de milieux différents dans une rave puisque la scène est trop petite pour avoir ses cliques. Je te le dis. Si Autechre venait à Québec, même ma mère irait.»

Podweek d’Oeuf Korreekt se trouve sur la maison de disques No Type.

Très active depuis 1998, l’étiquette montréalaise No Type se spécialise dans l’expérimentation électronique. Oeuf Korreckt en représente assez bien la démarche avec son petit cabaret chimique qui, dès les premiers sons, possède la propriété de faire fuir votre chat sous un divan, avant que des rythmes plus dansants ne viennent modérer le paysage sonore. Podweek, qui couvre le travail depuis 1995 avec des techniques faussement démodées, rappelle tantôt Autechre, tantôt Chris Clarke, et si la chose manque parfois de personnalité, on peut encore beaucoup attendre de cet œuf déjà fort correct. ★★★

Third in the first series of No Type releases following the overwhelming compilation with which they burst out of cyberspace (see 03 for the compilation, 07 for the other two albums). Oeuf Korrekt (Frédérick Blouin) creates varied techno using obsolete software (Scream Tracker, Impulse Tracker) which creates ‘a kind of sequenced, robotic music devoid of fluff, but often complex and surprising’ (David Turgeon describing the computer music pioneers on the liner notes) and this album collects an overview that David considers important, created since 1995. The liner notes accurately describe the music contained here – the software provides a crisp clean sound, simple sounding elements layered and combined to create meaty beaty big and bouncy tracks which often have a kitschy retro sound that is complex and inventive. Simple melodies remind you of Kraftwerk or YMO and other early purveyors. Longer tracks such as King of the Elephants and A Ride in Elephant City demonstrate Oeuf’s skills – they are both meditations on the thudding techno of hardcore or trance, but through varying the surrounding beats, some finely judged breaks and a sense of playfulness, maintain an interest and intelligence. The mood had been set through Get Binary a futzy melodic piece combining the synth lines with some edge and beats, followed by a slower moody murmuring in We Have Arrived. The album then traverses a number of audiostrategies. There are some fine techno pieces like Pochacco, Byte the Funk, Before Bedtime and Podweek Theme which combine bright melodies (some displaying an eastern influence) with varied beats, taken to an edgy extreme in the fast Taco Fiesta. Another longer track Resem One has more of the choppy beats and breaks, and also tunes which sound quite baroque – Oeuf has quite a nice ear – and ends with an autobahn-ish buzzing. Screw my Samples creates a base of rhythm/melody loops with fragments of different sounds with slow and squelched tones plying over, and samples are taken further in Alright Well Okay where that phrase cycles irregularly through a slow stepping beat and synths, expanding to a short narration later on. Voices appear later in Osaka Commtech Nine, obviously Japanese, looping and sticking, leading to a strongly oriental sound in the second half. The Four Channels seem to be a fairly pedestrian beat, woozy scifi synth, piano and a gritty sound paralleling a synth guitar solo, combining to create complex layers. A contrast between more ambient tones and synths sets up Ruffly as a smooth piece, which encapsulates the balances throughout the album — rhythm/melody, fast/slow, simple/complex – which keep the ears alert where many techno albums slide past. An great collection to complete this first set of releases – No Type has successfully entered non-virtual reality.

Deux nouvelles sorties pour l’étiquette montréalaise No Type, qui fait surtout dans l’électronique à risque. Formé d’Aimé Dontigny et Érick d’Orion, tous deux du collectif Napalm Jazz, morceaux_de_machines travaille un art numérique où l’improvisation se mêle au bruitisme. Sur liberum arbitrium, les compositions ressemblent à des fresques abstraites où un univers assez étrange et sombre émerge de cette matière sonore plutôt complexe. Pas toujours facile à suivre, morceaux_de_machines mise beaucoup sur les principes de superposition et d’accumulation. Tel un véritable magma de textures paradoxales, le résultat fascinera quiconque s’intéresse à une musique improvisée non orthodoxe.

Peut-être un peu plus accessible, Frédérick Blouin, qui utilise le nom Œuf Korreckt, propose une musique de facture assez minimale et délicate. Les titres s’enchaînent sans pour autant imposer une signature originale. C’est un peu le défaut de ce disque, qui n’arrive pas véritablement à se démarquer d’une musique plus tout à fait expérimentale. Loin d’être désagréable, Œuf Korreckt aurait avantage à mieux approfondir une démarche encore à l’étape préliminaire.

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.

Dopo circa un lustro di intensissima attività di pubblicazioni esclusivamente online, l’etichetta canadese No Type (www.notype.com) è recentemente passata al supporto termoindurente (leggi CD) con la formidabile doppia compilation The Freest of Radicals e l’album di debutto della compositrice elettroacustica Magali Babin.

La terza produzione in catalogo è firmata dal venticinquenne Frédérick Blouin in arte Œuf Korreckt ed è una raccolta di composizioni concepite dal giovanissimo autore quebecoise nell’arco degli ultimi sei-sette anni. E se alcuni materiali risultano decisamente caotici e datati (i compressi ritmi hardcore techno stile Rotterdam di King of the Elephants del ’95, ad esempio), è nelle più recenti realizzazioni che si apprezzano nettamente le capacità di Blouin di dar corpo a configurazioni electroniche meno spigolose, dove astrazione e melodia trovano opportuna calibratura e giusta dose di giocosità in un eccellente ibrido tra Autechre e scuola di Colonia. (7/10)

La rhétorique de l’Oeuf et de la poule est désuète et sans intérêt. La seule question qu’il convient de poser à présent serait… Où était la musique électronique canadienne avant Oeuf Korreckt… Y en avait-il d’ailleurs?

À la fois insoumise et corvéable, amplie de clichés et judicieuse, désinvolte et réfléchie, la musique sur Podweek détaille le panorama global de ses propres inspirations autant que le paysage plus large de la musique électronique, avec tous les angles concaves et contreforts qu’elle connaît.

La structure de l’album, sa coquille charnelle, s’est chargée au contact des meilleurs calcaires, du résistant tri repetae d’Autechre, au lumineux traits du Aphex twin de Ventoline ep, Disjecta, Plaid ou The Black Dog (qui ont utilisé le même logiciel il fut un temps…).

La floraison de rythmes, leurs échos dansants et rebonds joyeux dans l’atmosphère étroite du disque dur de Frédérick Blouin évoquent tant l’aspect anecdotique qu’historique du processus et de l’outil de création, un logiciel inusité: le trackers.

Inusité parce qu’en conflit avec l’interface Windows qui l’a banni de son plan de développement (que l’on connaît). La résurgence de ce petit logiciel, couplé à l’intelligente vision musicale d’Oeuf Korrekt donne un album sans faille, séquencé, cadencé, en un mot rutilant de santé avec même des cimes de Gabber basique qui passe bien à l’oreille, une fois n’est pas coutume.

Si le label expérimental No Type souligne avec humour l’outrage personnel d’avoir osé diffuser un disque “mélodique”, le réel outrage, s’il y en a, aurait été de passer sous silence cette onzième table de loi. À découvrir d’urgence.

This is the new release from No Type, following The Freest of Radicals compilation, and it comes in the same awkward packaging. Oeuf Korreckt is one of the last survivors in the so-called “tracking scene,” a lot of electronica artists started with mod-tracking and evolved by using newer technologies to create music. But that doesn’t mean it’s no longer possible to create good tracks, as being proven here. This album is somewhat of an overview of his music spanning from 1995 till 2001. At first it comes off as a bunch of rather simple compositions, sometimes funny, sometimes silly, but in the end most of them are enjoyable thanks to, for instance, the lush synthwork in Four Channels or the slowly emerging melancholic melody in We Have Arrived. Altough this electro-breakbeat sound can get very mechanical at times, things like the blistering in your face funkyness of Byte the Funk or the amusing voices in Alright Well Okay put enough diversity in there to keep things interesting. There even are two lo-fi hardcore tracks on there, as a sort of hommage to the early rave-sound that influenced many during the early nineties. Let’s say this is a nice example of what the forging of old-skool electro and quirky IDM could sound like…

Once you get past the torrid package design of this release, you will find a pleasing array of upbeat, knotty little tracks from Québec’s Frédérick Blouin. The mood is light and quirky, with softly crunching beats backing effortless melodies and layered syncopations. The disc is a collection of tracks recorded between 1995 and 2001, and as such, could be construed as some sort of “historical” release. But on listening to the disc, you will find that there is a sense of timelessness about the pieces here. They may very well have been recorded some years ago, but they still sound freshly constructed, and rival a good number of electro artists’ releases from today. Perhaps it is the premise of keeping things simple that engages, or perhaps the fact there are no real musical “trends” prevalent in the music here, just well-formed and entertaining compositions to reach your ears. A very worthwhile release, from beginning to end.

Bien avant l’arrivée de Windows, les «trackers» étaient les rois des logiciels de composition dans le domaine de la musique électronique, mais l’environnement graphique de l’Oncle Bill a tôt fait de les étouffer, remplacés par des programmes beaucoup plus intuitifs et moins complexes. Ce qui n’est pas un mal en soi. Cependant, Frédérick Blouin de Québec, qui signe sous l’étrange pseudonyme Oeuf Korreckt, s’entête et s’en sert encore des «trakers», nous faisant redécouvrir le son de tout un pan de la musique électronique, séquencé et dominé par des rythmes robotiques. Souvenez-vous de Kraftwerk. Ce n’est pas du tout sans plaisir qu’on écoute Podweek qui comporte de beaux et joyeux moments à la Orbital dans Pochacco et le sensible Alright Well Okay ou le carrément techno hardrore King of the Elephants qui piétinera les cœurs sensibles. Une valeur sûre pour ceux qui sont curieux des sons qu’on n’entend presque plus.