Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    Various Artists – Singles and EPs

    Twelve minutes is a respectable length for an EP, but with eight tunes on this disc they’re still pretty much crammed in, none of them clocking in closer to two minutes than one-and-a-half. If you think that makes this sound like a sampler, you’d be very wrong: although these bands clearly have much more to… Read more

  • Mechanimal – Mechanimal (electronic rock)

    Mechanimal – Mechanimal (electronic rock)

    Produced amidst the collapse of Greek civil society and the evaporation of its economic certainties, Mechanimal looks outwards, fixing its gaze in particular on America and Germany as the source of its musical materials, and by implication (not to mention common consent) significant contributors to the social ills afflicting Mechanimal’s native shores. ‘America, America/ I’ve… Read more

  • Skåglörds – Korea (doom/ electronica)

    Skåglörds – Korea (doom/ electronica)

    I don’t know what this has to do with Korea; no more do I know why doom metal (or sabbathcore as it was amusingly described by the label when Korea was submitted for review) represents the north, and electronica the south. I like some enigma in my music, so it’s not keeping me awake at… Read more

  • Various Artists – Album Roundup

    Various Artists – Album Roundup

    This entire album is performed straight to tape (or whatever recording medium was used) on a Roland MC-505 groovebox; Cory Peak chose to use a particular set of simple, rounded timbres that gives it a distinct 8-bit vibe, although the machine is considerably more sophisticated, and a much more powerful synthesiser, than the devices that… Read more

  • The Stargazer’s Assistant – Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids (dark ambient)

    The Stargazer’s Assistant – Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids (dark ambient)

    There’s no easy categorisation for this music, no recognisable stylistic tag that readily contains it, but it evinces a coherent, clearly-stated set of aesthetic and creative values, an imagistic approach to the making of musical statements, that produces much the same clarity and precision of expression that can be found by working inside an established… Read more

  • Tom DePlonty – Music for Michael Skrtic (experimental)

    Tom DePlonty – Music for Michael Skrtic (experimental)

    The artist Michael Skrtic is not someone I know anything about, but his cover for this album of music dedicated to him is certainly an extraordinary piece of work. References to the man are few in cyberspace, but he is the co-author of a book entitled Selections from the Dream Manual: An Aesthetic Grimoire and… Read more