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Basic Channel: Mutism

While the most memorable of Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus’ Basic Channel’s tracks are built around techno 4/4 beats, perhaps softened to suit the rest of the mix, the interesting ones redefine electronic music. Or music, generally.

Mutism is what happens when you take away to an extreme level. It’s the sound of a bare dub-plate left to score its groove from the ambience that surrounds us. Documenting the smallest responses to the physical reverberations that bind our lives to this planet. Butterfly chimes, the chatter of micro-organisms, electronic gurgles, dusty tunnels and crackle of burning wood. It’s all here. It may have been born from machines, but it’s clearly not owned by them. This is our music.

Basic Channel: BCD – Amazon UK

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Ah yes, I see

It’s fascinating to read that the BBC have now decided to adopt open standards in the delivery of their audio and video content. Why? Because they’ve now “matured enough to make them viable alternatives to other solutions.” This will allow them to deliver content across a wider range of devices and improve the quality of the content delivery.

What formats have they decided to adopt? AAC and H.264, i.e. the ones that Apple has been using since day 1 of iTunes (AAC) and October 2005’s introduction of video content on the iTunes Store (H.264), reminding me of my original thoughts on the BBC not using Flash.

Still, it’s good to see them moving in the right direction, even if it needs to be spun.

The BBC’s Anthony Rose sells it more convincingly, although I don’t consider H.264 to be the ‘new kid on the block’, given that it has been in iTunes for nearly three years. At present the BBC’s content providers are using Quicktime to encode H.264 content but will move to MainConcept’s transcoder shortly.

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Miss Kittin: Pollution of the Mind

Batbox, Miss Kittin’s excellent second solo album, takes her clinical electro into new areas, reaching warmer pan-European climbs, whilst embracing the sounds of Detroit techno woven to stark gothic drum beats and basslines. It’s more musical and song-centred than previous releases, but Caroline HervĂ© still manages to retain her witty club-sexy aura.

Pollution of the Mind sizzles with a buzzing arpeggiated bass that’s spine chilling, occasionally accompanied by isolated whiny piano-synth riffs. These alone are impressive, but her surprisingly crystalline vocals are the true standout.

Miss Kittin: Batbox – Amazon UK
iTunes UK

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Blonde Redhead: Pink Love

Blonde Redhead’s debut on 4AD, 2004’s Misery Is A Butterfly, doesn’t really fit with my idea of how a 4AD record should sound. Nor should it. But critics will tell you that the brooding dark atmospheres that rise from the smoothest of productions are evidence of an evolution which drew the band to its new label. It is true that in the late 1980s, 4AD did develop a particular sound, around its outer margins via its less popular groups, but today there’s such diversity in its roster that such a comparison is lazy. More than this, because Misery Is A Butterfly doesn’t even compare to what was released twenty years ago, except for a passing resemblance to Cocteau Twins atmospherics.

Pink Love is the lengthy album climax painted on top of fluttering organ keys, which swirl around, left and right, and a determined bassline. Both manage to sit in the background, which gives greater emphasis to Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace’s indulgent duet. Each vocalist is given time to breath their words. It’s fabulously plush and naked.

Blonde Redhead: Misery Is A Butterfly – Amazon UK
iTunes UK
Official Website

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