Various Artists - Notochord

Notochord Recordings noto-01

A sampler made in Holland, released by a new Dutch label with a variety of international artists. And if your eyes open a bit more when hearing like downtempo industrial and innovative IDM, please continue reading this review.

The fifteen tracks on this album are from seven different artists - actually eight, because one of the Autoclav1.1 tracks is a remix by The Liar's Rosebush. And with this first name-calling (hi guys!) you should already have a bit more of a connection to what you can expect. But well, we'll just go through the list of artists now:

Slacknote has the honour to open the CD and the track 'Huge Wooden Radio' is right away a treat. Experimental IDM, very nicely produced. Also his other tracks 'Skulls' and 'Always remain hardcore' are very promising. Slacknote is a new name, but I'm definitly looking forward to his first fulltime CD. And with that last mentioned track of his, well, he has humour and that's something a lot of people don't have enough in the world.

Semionome is the second name we get to hear. Also from Holland, his tunes remind us to some of the works of Beefcake, but still different. Where Beefcake is a complete mindfuck in following rhythms and structures, Semionome's tracks show more unity and are therefore better suitable for a larger audience.

Third one is Wisp, who just released a 12" on Hymen-Records. This track isn't amongst his best, but it's definitly not bad either. For my taste the hint towards childrens-songs is a bit overdone. His second tracks on the other hand is quite brilliant, so you won't hear any complaints.

Stephen James Knight aka Edgey is the only artist with just one track. But this is a damn fine track! Not anything like Edgey's harshness or speed, but nice complex rhythms with gorgeous ambient layering.

Sunao Inami hails from Japan and his works should appeal to people into bands like (for example) Autechre and Vromb. Sunao's music has deep bass sounds and a minimal approach to the structures and rhythms.

Recently Gothtronic reviewed 'You are my all and more' by Autoclav1.1. This track continues on the path which was set on there. Just one thing: The track is called 'The low down of cows' and I so hope they read this review and they'll explain what the f*** the title means.

Blue T-shirt comes from Canada and his tracks are the most ambient tracks on this album. Due to the 'normality' of the used sounds and the lack of experiments in the structures of the tracks he is sadly my least favorite artist on the CD.

The ultimate highlights on this CD are definitly Slacknote and Sunao Inami, they are worth buying the CD alone. But hey, there are about 10 more awesome tracks on it ... Whadda u wait'n 4!