#rc:gloomp

[albumswapping]

Radio Tank Mix by A. G. Cook [via glmox]

Theoretically, writing this review should be difficult to do because of my complete inexperience with contemporary dance music. My jam is Hi-NRG and "alternative" disco like what Bowie was doing on Station to Station; any popular dance music from the past five years just reminds me of the times in college where I've been out of my comfort zone - orientation week, being forced to go clubbing, partying, et cetera. However, the majority of the time I hear contemporary dance music nowadays, it is used in a context where it serves a unique artistic purpose, either subverted or subverting the status quo. Perhaps I bring up this point because I watched The Bling Ring yesterday, which utilizes a barrage of modern-screaming genres in a pop-art context, daring the audience to leave their standards behind. Spring Breakers did a similar type of thing with brostep and trap rap, perhaps trumping The Bling Ring by crafting a euphoric, loving appreciation of those genres through party scenes that made partying seem fun.

There are two reasons I bring up those filmic examples: firstly, I have no context to talk about Radio Tank Mix, being completely vacant any knowledge of EDM after Hi-NRG. Thusly, I can only really talk about this mix through a medium I'm experienced with, such as film - the second reason I talk about film is that, transposing those two movies' treatments of music, I can get at what I think Radio Tank Mix is doing. Snippets of dialogue throughout (one from Freaks and Geeks, I'm certain) conjure up the theme of adolescent sexuality ... I use the word conjure, because this mix doesn't at all represent what it is like to want a sexual partner as a teenager. This is a great bad teen movie version of sex, where sexual awakening is a Carly Rae Jepsen song. This through-line isn't condescending, though; it is pure camp, nostalgic of the silliness of that universal-ish experience. Granted, I'm sure this isn't the first mix to have that sort of approach, but it was a way to hook me to the music.

Aesthetically, I'm told that this is "UK Bass", but I have no idea what that is. I did notice a lot of British accents, though. There are some strange moments, but again I have no point of reference when it comes to contemporary dance music so I'm not sure of the degree of this strangeness. My favourite moments are the bubblegum section at the beginning, the super-early-nineties parts around halfway and 3/4 of the way through, and the part near the beginning that mixes a glee-club Pictures at an Exhibition with music that I swear was on my Magic School Bus Explores the Ocean game. Overall, this is a very listenable mix, but not one that can transcend my genre preferences.

» TommyWiseau

P.S. you can get your hands on this mix right here.

[albumswapping]

Dystonia Duos by Joe Panzner & Greg Stuart [via gloomp]

And once again gloomp attempts to "expand" my "musical horizons" with ""noise" "music"" (imagine I had to get someone to make finger quotes around my finger quotes there). Except this time I think he succeeded, because I don't want to run until the hurting stops. I mean, I'm not going to play this again, but maybe I can use it to freak out old people.

Anyway, this is apparently some of the best that "electro-acoustic improvisation" has to offer. I honestly don't know why it has that name, it makes me think of a Kplecraft jam session. Hey, we've got a hacked NES, some drums, and a sax, let's jam! I don't know what this solo is going to turn out to be! Then again that's electro-acoustic jazz, so, something totally different.

I will say though, it's not the worst thing I could think of. It's unnerving, sure, really loud in a lot of part, but it doesn't come randomly out of nowhere, it slides in and out. There's some definite progression to it, though I honestly don't know where it's going. Maybe it's going nowhere, just like all of our lives! Deep. But at the very least it wasn't an hour of static.

I have no idea what was used to make this album, but based on some of the sounds and pitches I heard, I will have to guess a dial-up modem of some kind was involved. There's a lot of cheap microphone noises, with humming and hiss, but they go in and out so I have to assume that was a stylistic choice of some kind.

This is more of a single-album experience, and it's not like noise music has anthems anyway, so the tracks are pretty much all roughly the same. Organ b/w Timpani Solo gets points for reminding me of how much Homestar Runner likes the term "b/w" (backed/with), i.e. "Pork b/w Beans." Casa de Pedras had some nice bass to it. Also at the very end, when it faded out, my ears started ringing and it could've been part of the music and I wouldn't know.

If you're into this sort of thing, I'm sure it's already mysteriously made its way into your music collection like whatever that thing in Evil Dead 2 was that had the camera in first-person view as it zoomed around the woods. Maybe you'll enjoy this more than cutting off your hand with a chainsaw.

I'm going to go listen to Brazilian funk now. You know, smooth everything out.

>> xwd