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CD/Digital releases

  • CD/Digital releases

    A complete counterpoint to untold destruction: Ex Confusion – Too Late, They Are Gone

    by 5:4 March 15, 2011 • 22:35
    March 15, 2011 • 22:35

    Sometimes, timing changes everything. Tomorrow sees the release of a new EP from Japan’s Atsuhito Omori, better known as Ex Confusion, titled Too Late, They Are Gone. That a work of such sublime quietude from a Japanese artist should come at such a desperate time for that country—which has, in …

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    The familiar and the strange playing together as friends: Radiohead – The King of Limbs

    by 5:4 March 6, 2011 • 16:23
    March 6, 2011 • 16:23

    As an occasion, Valentine’s Day is polarising enough, split between they who regard it with importance, and those for whom it’s little more than an overhyped, vacuous sham. But that polarisation was exacerbated further on this particular Valentine’s Day, bringing as it did Radiohead‘s announcement that their eighth album, The …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Aidan Baker – Lost in the Rat Maze

    by 5:4 February 9, 2011 • 21:06
    February 9, 2011 • 21:06

    There will be some who regard Aidan Baker as not just an important part of post-rock, ambient doom music, but as a sine qua non of that scene, perhaps even the benchmark by which its practitioners should be measured and judged. Such is his perceived importance to many, and the …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972

    by 5:4 January 12, 2011 • 21:19
    January 12, 2011 • 21:19

    If there’s one thing that characterises Tim Hecker’s music, it’s a spirit of dichotomy, sitting comfortably betwixt smooth, rounded ambient edges and jagged points of noise. Ravedeath, 1972 continues that dichotomy, and embodies another one, combining the effervescent caprice of live improvisation with the cool consideration subsequently brought to bear …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    United Bible Studies – The Gascoigne Observatory

    by 5:4 December 4, 2010 • 17:48
    December 4, 2010 • 17:48

    A few months ago, United Bible Studies made available in digital form their debut release, Stations of the Sun, Transits of the Moon, which first saw light of day as far back as 2003. Listened to beside the group’s latest album, The Gascoigne Observatory, released last month, makes for a …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Ironomi – Sketch

    by 5:4 November 5, 2010 • 00:32
    November 5, 2010 • 00:32

    While stereotypes abound when discussing music emanating from the east, an acute sensitivity to the machinations and subtleties of nature seems to be an unmistakable, almost ubiquitous characteristic. This, complimented by a profound kind of simplicity, sets such music apart from the preoccupations of the west, which so often gravitate …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Flawless, stratospheric pinnacles: The Birthday Massacre – Pins and Needles

    by 5:4 September 24, 2010 • 21:19
    September 24, 2010 • 21:19

    While the majority of contemporary rock—regardless of what prefix it’s given—tends to pass me by as so much generic, posturing fluff, inject a healthy, industrial-strength jolt of electronics through it, and i’m very much more inclined to sit up and pay attention. Such music’s just as capable of factory-line posing …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Aching with exuberance: of Montreal – False Priest

    by 5:4 September 18, 2010 • 12:18
    September 18, 2010 • 12:18

    My first encounter with of Montreal‘s 2008 album Skeletal Lamping was a bewildering experience. For anyone unfamiliar with it, its apparent 15 tracks are nothing but a ruse; in fact, there are many more than that, the album lurching between portions of song, seeking neither clarity nor indeed coherence. On …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Hypnotising, confounding, beautiful: Chubby Wolf – Ornitheology

    by 5:4 July 25, 2010 • 16:07
    July 25, 2010 • 16:07

    On 8 July – the anniversary of Danielle Baquet-Long‘s death – in a rather lovely coincidence, her first posthumous release, Ornitheology, landed on my doormat. That was the standard edition, released in a typically short run of 125 copies by Digitalis—by now, of course, very sold out. Yesterday, the special …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Dragonette – new single: Our Summer Volcano

    by 5:4 July 20, 2010 • 20:00
    July 20, 2010 • 20:00

    Canada’s most exciting electronic pop outfit Dragonette are putting out their first release of 2010 in a week’s time, a single titled “Our Summer Volcano”. The partial title track, “Our Summer”, is an audaciously addictive anthemic floor stomper, perfect for summer parties where it’s destined to send people out of …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    A ferocious take on dubstep: Hecq – Sura

    by 5:4 June 22, 2010 • 15:42
    June 22, 2010 • 15:42

    Despite claiming, a little over a year ago, that “the whole beat-science cant go any further for me”, Hecq has unleashed a new EP, Sura, that is a ferocious take on dubstep. Far from turning his back on beats after Steeltongued, Hecq positively bombards the ears with them, barely held …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    How To Destroy Angels: music on a magic carpet, but not elevating

    by 5:4 June 1, 2010 • 09:21
    June 1, 2010 • 09:21

    Trent Reznor’s side project How To Destroy Angels—formed with Year Zero/Ghosts henchman Atticus Ross, with Reznor’s wife, the impossibly-named Mariqueen Maandig, as vocalist—has released its first EP today. It’s a 6-track self-titled affair, lasting a little under 35 minutes, and it’s tempting to start drawing comparisons with Nine Inch Nails, …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    The tentative return of Dubstar

    by 5:4 April 16, 2010 • 12:10
    April 16, 2010 • 12:10

    Having documented my love of Dubstar‘s music in a fairly exhaustive retrospective of their music a couple of years back, i was excited to hear that—following some rather acrimonious goings-on last year—the group had decided to get together to record a song for the new Amnesty International fundraising compilation, PEACE. …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Melodies from a quixotic ringmaster: Get Well Soon – Vexations

    by 5:4 March 20, 2010 • 11:57
    March 20, 2010 • 11:57

    If you were to combine the chamber pop trappings of Belle and Sebastian, the song-writing inventiveness (but not the sarcasm) of The Divine Comedy and top it off with the vocal stylings of Thom Yorke, the result might start to resemble Get Well Soon. The man behind this quixotic project …

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  • CD/Digital releasesRetrospectives

    Kraftwerk: a remastered retrospective

    by 5:4 November 8, 2009 • 01:40
    November 8, 2009 • 01:40

    Of all words associated with the digital era, there’s one that is ubiquitous like no other: ‘remastered’. It has become tantamount to a religious dogma, that the works we have known and loved from our analogue heritage are holy treasures, deserving nothing less than to be preserved in æternum, and …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Paradise pop: Dragonette – Fixin To Thrill

    by 5:4 October 31, 2009 • 12:33
    October 31, 2009 • 12:33

    Lately it’s music from Canada that’s been interesting me; and most recently, taking their place alongside such disparate luminaries as Aaron Funk, Aidan Baker, Elsiane and Paul Dolden (about whom, in due course, much, much more), have been Dragonette, whose second album Fixin To Thrill came out earlier this month. …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Roads less travelled: Benn Jordan – Louisiana Mourning

    by 5:4 September 4, 2009 • 20:53
    September 4, 2009 • 20:53

    Out this week is the latest release from Benn Jordan, better known as The Flashbulb. It’s high time Jordan’s music was featured on here, as he’s nothing short of a marvel, his music touching on a wide variety of styles, every one of which seems to turn to gold in …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New CD: Triptych, May/July 2009

    by 5:4 August 6, 2009 • 21:52
    August 6, 2009 • 21:52

    Posts have been somewhat less frequent through the last two or three months; but these hands have been far from idle. i’m very happy to announce that my first CD will be released at the end of August, containing a new electronic work, Triptych, May/July 2009. Lasting 25 minutes, the …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Quality control issues: Steven Wilson – NSRGNTS↑RMXS

    by 5:4 June 30, 2009 • 16:32
    June 30, 2009 • 16:32

    Remixes are an entity about which i have long felt deeply ambivalent; experience has taught one to approach them with extreme caution. In musically imaginative hands, they can of course be spectacular, teasing out new aspects of the original, even redefining it, becoming worthy to stand equally beside it, a …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Client is dead; long live Northern Kind!

    by 5:4 May 21, 2009 • 11:07
    May 21, 2009 • 11:07

    Take a large helping of electronica, add more than a hint of retro, a dash of attitude, and then bestow on the combination a northern accent. The result might have been Client, Sarah Blackwood’s project for the last 5 years—were it not for the fact that Client have proved themselves …

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Nils Henrik Asheim: Lydkilder Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices Music Beyond Airports: appraising ambient music Simon Cummings | 間 Studies vol. 6

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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
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    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
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    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
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    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
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