#dpm357x

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An Experimental Review: DPM357X Greenlands Melting Glaciers

DPM357X is a collaborative project between Swiss-born sculptor/experimental percussionist Franzisca Lantz and sound-collage/composer, Howard Jacques. They began improvising together at Bermuda Triangle Test Transmissions for Resonance fm. This is their first album. 

I think it is original - and much more listenable than the words below might seem to suggest. 

DPM357X’s music demands a certain listening attitude.  There are familiar beats and grooves - but it is not EDM. There are melodic interludes, but these are not the point. The music has a meaning, a song is sung - but there are no words.

So, I wanted to respond to it openly and avoid the standard review format. Instead, here is a stream of consciousness as six short poems.

1.Sermon Qujalleq

Hypnotic loops Have you heard this tune before? Echoing from a vanished world. A tin-can drummer listens intently - But beats with a separate imperative.

Distorted sub-bass   A dysfunctional warning siren A vessel passing Strange distant wailing   Sinister appearances on the landscape Mutations, Appear and vanish on the margins

At some point A new sound is taking over We end in a different place to where we began.

2.Kangerdlugssuag

Almost a sweet tune A keyboard melody In the grip of a migraine Which should I listen to? Both command my attention. Equally.

3.Igdlupdlip

Computer games collided.

A drum and bass fused together in Armageddon.

(Catchy monstrosity)

I will try to dance to it One day in the future.

4.Nunakatassaap

Recorders and industrial machinery Helicopters landing in the valley Alien voices sing to me

A nightmare lullaby

Computers beeping

Life support machine keeps humming.

Stopped now.

5.Umlahmako

Music of frequencies Beeps Fizzes

Radio waves or Microwaves

Radar through dark matter

Tune antennae responding. (Tunes are almost reaching us.)

Something is scanning us from out there. Melodies trickling through Evaporating Dying away Leaving their residues behind

6.Tingmjamiut

A groove Undergoing strange processes And interruptions

Pretty singing Calling through Detuning Unenforced

Harsh marching Is more insistent

Tribal War Dance After the apocalypse.

You can hear the album and download it here: https://globalwarmingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/greenlands-melting-glaciers?undefined=

It is also available on vinyl, beautifully designed by Global Warming Records. Order from their bandcamp page.

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DPM357X at Wallscratcher - photos courtesy Natalie Svedlund.

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The Wallscratcher Archive!DPM357X

 I had them billed as “Experimental”, though I learned later they preferred the “Primitive” tag. Experimental music is often noodly, over-busy and difficult to listen too. DPM357X were thankfully none of these things. This is perhaps why they were curious to venture beyond the art-house show into the alien, possibly hostile territory that is THE LONDON PUB.

 Like Lunar Engine, they had a spot of bother setting up. I had no idea how much they had to do: Franzesca Lantz, one half of the duo, described the set-up as acoustic. I thought this meant they needed a mic and somewhere to plug-in! In fact they had such elaborate gear, it was quite a spectacle in itself watching them prepare: lap tops, effect boards, dangling oven trays, biscuit tins, flutes, prongs, plastic tubs… by the time they had set it up and smeared greasepaint over their faces, we were 15 minutes from closing time… But Hey! - What a 15 minutes!

After the heat, frayed nerves and pressure they were surely under, DPM357X created a calm, open space with their music. It began with a voice singing out of nowhere (For, with a thick smudge of black paint across her mouth, we could not see Francesca’s lips moving.) As the singsong cycled and duplicated, Halvard Ja Kwez tapped a lid here, a block there, rattled something.  At times either one or both were humming and drumming… sometimes a section of a scale was played on the flute, then vanished, in a clatter of beats.

 DPM357X do not play instuments: they position sound. And just as the features on an open landscape help you perceive its vastness, DPM357’s aural markings help us hear and comprehend the nature of silence.

 The effect was at once stimulating and restful. We listened intent and subdued – as we too had found our own quiet place inside their creation.

 It was 10.59. I held up the watch, reluctantly. They had to stop. The audience went wild with applause – and I think DMP357X were glad they’d gone to all that trouble

- as was I.

[thewallscratcherblog]

greenlands melting glaciers, by DPM357X

6 track album

DPM357X has a new album out! Watch this space for my review.

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DPM357X live at Club Integral, The Others, London 23/01/15

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DPM357X, greenlands melting glaciers, Promo

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Visit Original Link

misc - DPM357X

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DPM357X, Wallscratcher, London 2013