Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Believers Roast presents The Exquisite Corpse Game

    Believers Roast presents The Exquisite Corpse Game

    The game of Consequences has a long history, probably in the order of two centuries, but quite possibly longer. Back when parlour games were essential lubricants to the passage of time, a progress not demarcated by the dazzling increments of the media age, such diversions had a far more prominent role in culture, and could… Read more

  • Dementio 13 – Imperial Decimal (electronica)

    Dementio 13 – Imperial Decimal (electronica)

    Historically, the music released under the Dementio 13 aegis has been sufficiently consistent to sound like the work of a single project, but it has also developed and evolved in quite striking ways. The earlier work had a more signally electronic sound, and although it involved some remarkable explorations of texture, was notable more for… Read more

  • Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Various Artists – Album Roundup

    You’ll hear a lot of familiar echoes in The Executioner’s Lover, but I can more or less promise that you haven’t heard anything quite like it. It opens with a song, ‘Half Life’, that is mainly arranged for ‘orchestral instruments’, but which also incorporates a rock rhythm section, which comes and goes at strategic moments;… Read more

  • ZA! – Wanananai (experimental)

    ZA! – Wanananai (experimental)

    Post world-music is one term used to describe ZA! in their promotional materials; well, in the sense that such a term doesn’t rule out anything whatsoever, it’s not a bad characterisation! The music is experimental from start to finish, but it is the product of a process addressed directly to the business of music-making, in… Read more

  • Blank Pages – Blank Pages (punk)

    Blank Pages – Blank Pages (punk)

    LPs look and feel superb. I don’t know if they looked and felt so great when they were the standard format for album length releases; I mean I remember loving them, for their artwork, the music they contained, the convenience of their spliff-making surfaces, but given that they were all there was (other than the… Read more

  • Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    A combination of electro-acoustic and programmed sounds are used here to create a sound that pays clear homage to African polyrhythmic percussion music, unpitched attacks mingling with sounds similar to idiophones or lamellophones, although they might come from almost any source. Then there are the synths, guitars and lo-fi samples… No Security Through Numbers is… Read more