TranscendNoise

30. Kali Malone – Living Torch More than just an addendum to 2019’s The Sacrificial Code , Living Torch sees Kali Malone completely eschew her trademark instrument for bass clarinet, trombone, and a huge array of electroacoustic instruments. The two tracks express a mindset of composition that channels music concrete with a refreshing neoclassical approach, something Kali Malone and her contemporaries of labels such as Ideologic Organ, XKatedral and here Portraits GRM herald throughout their work. Without the organ at the center, much like Malone’s first album, the soundscapes created exist in interrupted timespace. These drawn out and ever-evolving pieces feel decidedly different from what similar artist like Tim Hecker or Ben Frost would achieve. Other than externalities dictating the course and meaning of sound, Malone is a master of a singularly aural perspective, stacking drones and buzzes of synths for the sheer experience of the body in sound. Having had the opportunity to se...

10. Kelman Duran – 13th Month Actually released in 2018, 13th Month saw a first vinyl release in 2019. From those producers and electronic minds working on pushing the dancefloor to resemble an art space, or rather breaking the idea of spaces of art being secluded from real experience, music, and places of dance, Kelman Duran´s second record feels like an archeologist, anthropologist and DJ engaging in research of global sounds, local sentiments and the politics of oppression at once. Initiated by a stay a the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and a film documenting the living conditions of the Native Americans amidst social depravity and political troubles of the prominent pipeline, Duran chose his mode of beat making and clashing dembow riddims, reggeaton, dancehall, hip hop, and even some batida among other influences to a introspective collage of subversion. Powerful statements and lyrics become slowed down, stripped of their original background and music to reoc...

60. James Ginzburg – Above Water, Inside (Six Correlations) As on half of emptyset, the modus operandi of Ginzburg on Six Correlations might sound familiar if you listened to their last album Borders in 2017. Here Ginzburg tones down the distortion and emphasis on colliding organic and synthetic for a different relation of these two parts. There is no dichotomy between them, yet Six Correlations was born as part of a performance that deals with the disappearance of an analog and natural world in favor of the digital and networked. Maybe it is the intrinsic failure of this theme that sets "Above Water, Inside" and Six Correlations in motion in the first place. Build from a simple drum pattern, clear drone, and white noise weave and breathe around to convey an effect of overtaking the organic sounds. Still, as in Borders and Ginzburg and Paurgas concept of overriding electronic sound made through acoustic means of triggering sounds, there is no part overtaking the other,...