Since the downfall of the whole bedroom electronica scene we have witnessed over the last couple of years, experimental music has somewhat exploded, with cdrs, tapes, mp3s and limited vinyl leaking out of small crevices the world over. Noise, avant-jazz, bubbling ambience, drone, metal – these disparate genres have been embraced by the world’s eager musical fraternity and thanks to the wonders of modern technology (read : the internet) sounds that were previously restricted to the learned few have suddenly become available to the many. It is inevitable then that these sprawling styles will begin to blend and glorious hybrids will eventually emerge – recently we saw Svarte Greiner lay claim to ‘acoustic doom’ (a peculiar blend of modern classical and black metal) and Panda Bear is set to stun us with ‘Person Pitch’; his take on modern pop music as filtered through so many genres it’s hard to even give it a name. Australian born Iceland-resident Ben Frost isn’t new to music, his debut full-length ‘Steel Wound’ (on the Room40 label) was a revelation to the few that heard it, and led to him securing a remix for none other than Iceland’s premier genre-bender herself Bjork, however ‘Theory of Machines’ is the album which is to cement his name as one of the most interesting and in that, groundbreaking producers in the world today. Blending the current trend for all things noisy with something altogether more ‘composed’ we end up with a curious concoction of Cliff Martinez and Wolf Eyes, stopping at planet Badalamenti for a strong cup of Joe (“black like midnight on a moonless night”). It should come as no surprise then that Frost’s primary influence (and sound source…) for the album was Michael Gira’s seminal noise-rock band Swans, an influence which bubbles majestically surface on the album’s central piece, cunningly titled ‘We Love You Michael Gira’. The track starts simply enough; shifting, moody synthesized tones sitting eerily next to shivering waves of guitar noise before both give way to the sort of glacial blip-work that would make Mika Vainio jealous, and then it hits you; chunks of percussive noise that enter the sound-field like a serial killer bursting into the family home, gritty and abrasive, raw and untamed. The Swans factor isn’t lost in this track, it’s something that needs to be played so loud that it almost hurts the eardrums for full, visceral effect and proves as if proof be needed that Ben Frost is a rare producer who really knows how to use the loud as it should be used. This isn’t music that is compressed into bland nothingness, this has dynamic, when the loud parts hit you, they really hit you – and strangely enough this gives the quieter sections even more resonance. When the album’s gorgeous opening track ‘Theory of Machines’ builds finally into a short, fuzz-ridden climax you truly feel it in full spine-tingling glory, it becomes one of those tracks you just have to play again and again to re-capture the feeling. The album closes its pneumatic doors with the eleven-minute epic ‘Forgetting you is Like Breathing Water’, which is as majestic and soulful a piece of electronic music as you could possibly hear. In synthesized tones Frost creates a blissful symphony of machines, a piece of music closer to Michael Nyman or Max Richter than to Autechre of Aphex Twin showing that finally we really have moved on. Without a doubt one of the most essential albums you will hear this year – ‘Theory of Machines’ is the future of electronic music.www.boomkat.com
http://www.ethermachines.com/
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