five-car pile-up

I came across this review of Open Tuned Occidentals today, and though I wouldn’t mind a score a little closer to 10, it’s one of the more thoughtful reviews I’ve come across. The closing sentence is both hilarious, and accurate.

For all its widespread interests and influences, instrumental hip-hop as a whole has one major rule: there must be beats and a melody. All of the sounds at play in any given track usually exist out of service to either of these two elements. That may not seem like much in the way of a limiting rubric, but just the same, it is easy to notice when someone is breaking the rules. On his new EP, Open Tuned Occidentals, Australia’s Cleptoclectics gleefully plays with hip-hop conventions. His compositions are littered with a kitchen-sink variety of sounds not customarily associated with the genre.

Opener “Move On” appears to be a statement of purpose. The track floats in on a flurry of noise; strings, woodwinds, synths, and drums rattle away seemingly randomly, like a marching band tuning before a performance. A drum beat suddenly rises out of the mire, and the instruments syncopate around it. The track finally begins to make sense rhythmically, and then it suddenly ends. “Golden Fleecing,” a stir-fry of diced samples and synths, follows suit. But just as soon as Open Tuned Occidentals gets the listener settled into a sort of Dadaist groove, quite fittingly, things shift gears. The rest of the EP traffics in a hazy, shambolic boom bap, not that far in scope from the work of auteurs like Prefuse 73 and Flying Lotus.

Judging from the more conventional material, Cleptoclectics could, if he wanted to, turn out more mannered, sonically pleasing compositions. However, it also appears that he’s more interested in the sounds of instruments sometimes than how they fit together in any rhythmic or melodic fashion. Open Tuned Occidentals is by turns an inspired pastiche of shimmering noisy hip-hop and a five-car pile-up of gonzo synths and found sounds.

-Craig Jenkins

Abner Jay, I’m So Depressed

Some of my friends got a little worried when I posted this elsewhere, which was nice of them.  But my main reason for sharing it was that it’s beautiful, rather than any attempt to spread my occasionally fragile state of mind.

First time I listened, I almost shed a tear.

Anonymeye album launch

I’ve organised an album launch for a friend from Brisbane; Andrew Tuttle, aka Anonymeye. It’s happening this Friday @475 King St.

Even though I’m very excited about this event, the main reason I’m posting this here is to show off the amazing work of Pat Armstrong, my poster designing, visual ninja associate; who generously lends his skills to worthy causes.

change of address

Recently, I’ve uprooted myself from the unremarkable inner west semi detached I called home, for close to four years, and moved over to this place. The last few weeks have been draining, but I’m liking it here.

We have just published our callout for the next round of exhibitons/developments/workshops. So if anyone reading is interested and has ideas, feel free to apply.

mess and noise review

Mess and Noise gave my 3″ a positive review, which is nice.  It goes like this:

Cleptoclectics

Open Tuned Occidentals

7 Track, EP, (Hellosquare recordings 2009)

Part hip-hop beatmulching, part experimental electronica and part found-sound collage, Open Tuned Occidentals is the second release from Sydney-based artist Tom Smith (aka Cleptoclectics). This 3” CD-R is a more than worthy follow-up to his contribution to Feral Media’s Powwow series.

Seemingly coming from a similar sonic angle to Anticon alumni Odd Nosdam and Jel, Smith’s busted-up beats and cut/paste aesthetic have a distinctly old-school flavour while still retaining an edge of fierce experimentalism. As he recontextualises a wide array of source material – horns, koto, junk-shop percussion – a new musical landscape emerges, one simultaneously alien and familiar.

Each of the seven pieces here are distinctly rhythmic and infectiously melodic, interweaving fragments of jazz and pure pop within a 21st century boom-bap framework. Despite its avant-garde tendencies, Open Tuned Occidentals remains accessible throughout: the tumbledown drums and sampled woodwinds of ‘Move On’, the oriental vibe of ‘23 is Your Year’, the gently processed percussion of ‘Keys for Open Doors’.

These are the kind of jams that Macromantics or Catcall should be spouting rhymes over: catchy, but constantly on the go; forward-thinking, but respectful of its roots.

by Adam D Mills

http://www.messandnoise.com/releases/2000313

leaving records

This mix was put together by Matthew David for Mary Anne Hobbs’ show on BBC1. It’s the most interesting thing I’ve heard in a while.  I can only describe it as 17 mins of full frequency spectrum psychedelic rhythm textures.  Here.

Open Tuned Occidentals

I’ve been working on this 3″ for Shoeb Ahmad’s label; Hellosquare. After some deliberation, I’m excited to announce it’s finished and available for preorder here.

discontent

Stuart Buchanan has a new show on fbi, called disorient, and he’s been playing some tracks from Poignancy Beats Vol.2, which is nice of him. He’s also started a accompanying blog, called discontent, where my Underlapper remix is currently streaming. Stuart is a web guru of sorts, whose former projects include Fat Planet, which the Guardian named in it’s best music blog list in 2008.

Famicom – Hokkaido Homegrown

I don’t generally spruik things, but I’ve been listening to this so much that, given it’s free, I thought I should. This might be old news to some; but it’s a beat tape, with a Wu-Tang influence all over it. Though there’s not much soul, the beats lope and stagger to the point where they might fall over, and it’s so crunchy and static ridden it almost sounds like he’s used flash compression.

My only criticism is to point out the incongruence of Kung Fu samples packaged with a sort of Nippon fetish, when Kung Fu is very much Chinese… but then, debating the cultural authenticity of this beat tape is kind of silly.

Here.

local fidelity

Lee tran Lam, who’s the brains behind Fbi’s wonderful local fidelity programme, contacted me a while back about doing a Q and A, for the blog of the same name. So here are my answers.