Musique Machine Reviews

From Musique Machine:

Roberto Juan Rodriguez – The First Basket
The First Basket is a rewarding and genre varied soundtrack for a documentary about the history and trails and tribulations of Jewish American basketball players that goes from them playing with trash cans placed on the stoops of brownstones to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.

Navicon Torture Technologies – The Gospels of the Gash
The Gospels of the Gash is the final release from the apocalyptic and sleazy meeting of power electronics, sick brooding ambience and grim industrial clunking ‘n’ bleak drift that is Navicon Torture Technologies.

Istituzioni Ambienti Naturalismo – Luminamenti
Luminamenti is a wonderful collusion & brain melting sonic stew of musical elements, noise matter and jagged electro-acoustic elements. Through-out the album switchers rather nicely from searing yet playful noise battering down to damaged harmonic wonderings, and everywhere else in-between.

Fennesz – Black Sea
Black Sea finds Fennesz in a contemplative, somewhat more experimental mood than his last two studio albums. His last album, Venice, took the melodic approach of his ground-breaking 2001 album Endless Summer down a notch, while evoking the mystery revolving around the city for which it was named. Despite the fact that many may consider Black Sea a departure for Christian Fennesz because of his choice to employ a less song oriented approach, it still bears his unmistakable hand print. If you listen carefully, and peer into the murky drones, there’s actually a great degree of structure and musicianship hidden within much of the album. As always, his penchant for artful detail and masterful pacing is evident, even more so with repeated exposure.

Themselves – The FREEhoudini deluxe
The FREEhoudini deluxe is the first Themselves full length album since their 02’s The No Music & its surrealistic and dense reinventing of rap & Hip- Hop genre. But instead of pushing the envelope further FREEhoudini sees the collective returning to theirs & Anticon’s roots to make a more straight-up Rap & Hip-hop record; though it still has more than a few creative and classic Anticon twists.