Detroit invented techno in the 1980s and 1990s, fusing the android-synth propulsion of Kraftwerk to the hedonistic excesses of disco and Chicago house.In the years since, machine-tooled electronics have continued to flourish and bleed into other genres in the Wolverine State (see the Dirtbombs’ fabulous covers album, Party Store, reviewed here by Emerson Dameron).Much fertile ground, then, lays open for Dr. Pete Larson’s new Michigan-centric electronic imprint Great Corner Sound to explore.This opening salvo from ECOATM is a very good start.
Great Corner Sound is somewhat cagey about exactly who is involved in ECOATM, though Larson has hinted (broadly, see photo above) that Michigan all-arounder Fred Thomas (of His Name Is Alive, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Tyvek, Idle Ray, Winged Wheel, etc.)is the man behind the curtain.If so, it’s a radically new look for him.ECOATM doesn’t sound like any of his previous bands.
The disc starts with skittery “Deluge,” an antic skirmish of drums and synthesizer that erupts periodically into full-on battery.It moves quickly and lightly, rattle-stomping barrages of terse snare and cymbals like gloves on a speed bag.“Stimulus Check” leaves more negative space between its thumps and rattles, an altered voice popping up on off-beats like a stuttery ghost.You can feel a drummer’s sensibility (again, maybe Thomas, maybe not) in the way these cuts box up time in tight, inelastic packages, a music made of points and vacancies, no colors.
Yet not everything is a rush and a clatter.Some of these cuts run surprisingly lyrical, with long echoing synth tones that sculpt otherworldly shapes in the air.“Glass Yard,” for instance, flickers and glows, nearly rhythmless as its bright notes blink on and off. “Dawnless” moves ponderously, a big drum boom punctuating the end of glittering glass-bead guitar lines.And “As You Said” floats in a percolating unreal synth space, the thump of kickdrum anchoring airy iterations of keyboard motifs.
It's all pretty good, surgically scrubbed but not unwelcoming, the kind of clean well-lighted sonic space that invites cogitation rather than bodily motion.Whoever made it (maybe Fred Thomas!) was from Michigan, continuing a mighty tradition of electronic experiment.Roll on Motor City.
Joseph Kamaru, the Nairobi-based sound artist and producer behind the KMRU moniker, is also the grandson of the influential and political musician of the same name and considered a “king” of Kikuyu benga. In 2018, KMRU started reissuing his grandfather’s records shortly after he passed away, and in a feature on Kamaru’s reissued catalog, KMRU spoke to his conversations with his grandfather about music. In terms of sound and with two generations between the two, it is hard to imagine they would have crossed paths naturally. In their talks just before Kamaru’s passing, KMRU’s grandfather consistently encouraged him to “stay honest” in his music, no matter what, a simple idea that carries more weight, and is easier to rehash in practice when it comes from a blood relative from the same field.
Peel by KMRU
KMRU, along with Uganda’s Nyege Nyege collective, is part of an expanding electronic scene in East Africa. The region has seen an exponential growth in software and internet access, especially Kenya which has one of the world’s fastest data connection speeds, exceeding the United States and South Korea. In turn, artists have adopted and incorporated music software into their music and developed their own ways of using them, infusing their productions with traditional rhythms and instrumentations of the area. In contrast to the energetic Nyege Nyege Tapes output and many artists sprouting from this scene, KMRU creates ambient music with slow beats and dub inflections in the vein of Detroit’s echospace label or early Andy Stott EPs, gleaning from his home country’s environmental sounds as much as it’s musical traditions.
opaquer by KMRU
Two weeks apart, KMRU releases the double-LP Peel and single-LP opaquer. Both albums, like the majority of KMRU’s catalog, contain deep and repetitive and captivating drone and sub bass sounds with subtle, microscopic inflections that rewards engaged listens. Although release within a month, the two have their differences. The pieces on Peel follow waves of repetitive, near-drones, surrounded by smaller outgrowths and separate, subtle manipulations. It could be analogous to a large whale swimming through a deep ocean with trailing schools of feeder fish living off the plankton its body creates. Opaquer also limits the bandwidth of its sound, focusing primarily on one reverberating sound source, usually a field recording, with smaller, electronic supporting tones. But opaquer alters its focus and doesn’t necessarily encourage the sensation of drone; the sounds, more decipherable however ambiguous they may be, live in the reverberations they leave behind, amplifying their contours and giving the impression of a whole, contiguous, solid sound mass.
Something that can define an effective ambient record is an ability to disintegrate the perimeter of the record itself and the outside world. Listening to either Peel or opaquer, say, outside at night, the albums are not met with too much interference, maybe the occasional passing car, laboring window air conditioner, or floating conversation from a neighbors’ windows. But these outside sounds incidentally bleed into the pieces and embed into what KMRU creates, becoming an unintended part of the composition. The wide-open nature of the pieces KMRU creates meet these outside sounds halfway, allowing a lively, tangible commingling, giving you an impression that the pieces on opaquer and Peel have an inherent generative property.
Tenants Beat Dagoreti Agent for Asking for April Rent
A Dagoreti agent was on Wednesday, April 08, beaten by tenants for asking them to pay rent.
Sources say the bizzerre incident happened on the morning of Wednesday, in Kabiria location, Dagoreti South Constituency Nairobi County.
An eye witness who sought annonimity for fear of victimization, who is also a tenant in the said plot told Opera News that the man Wes welcomed by kicks and blows as he…
The new Makeda Studio From #NewYork 2 #Nairobi #CrownHeights 2 #Dagoretti #Christmas #Sales Westfield Shopping Mall, Store B31, At the New Lavington QuickMart Gitanga Road, Nairobi #Fashionista #fashionblogger #Ladieswear #Ladiesnight #Eveningwear #Littleblackdress #Cocktaildress #Sundaybest #SundayFunDay (at Crown Heights, Brooklyn) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6TOSFTg5mF/?igshid=133x4wvzetou2
At Least 7 Children Killed, Dozens Injured In Kenya School Collapse
At Least 7 Children Killed, Dozens Injured In Kenya School Collapse
In Kenya, a collapsed classroom building has killed at least seven children in the capital Nairobi and injured dozens early on Monday morning.
Kenya’s government spokesman Cyrus Oguna says, 57 students have been taken to hospital for treatment. Oguna says the government will be responsible for medical bills.
Local television showed pictures of Red Cross workers sifting through the wreckage at…
Kenya: sept enfants tués dans l'effondrement d'une salle de classe
Kenya: sept enfants tués dans l’effondrement d’une salle de classe
Une salle de classe s’est effondrée peu après 7 heures dans le quartier de Dagoretti, à l’ouest de la capitale kenyane. Les opérations de sauvetage sont encore en cours, et le bilan provisoire fait état de sept morts et 57 enfants hospitalisés.
Sept élèves d’une école primaire de Nairobi ont été tués et des dizaines blessés dans l’effondrement de leur salle de classe ce lundi matin, selon une…
