Articles
Hatchback
Dennis Wilson
Michna Top 10

Albums
Alpha Aesar
The Alps
Anduin
Beaten By Them
Bible & Henry
Bird Show
Bitcrush
The Boats
Boduf Songs
Budd & Wright
Callers
Derek Carr
Matthew Robert Cooper
Cristal
Dreamsploitation
Gore
Hatchback
Inverz
Monika Kruse
Lights Out Asia
Miya Masaoka
Michna
Model 500
Mr Cooper
Near The Parenthesis
Patron and Patron
Procer Veneficus
Raglani
Red Snapper
Max Richter
Roots Manuva
Michael Santos
Sempervirens
Shed
Sleepingdog
Spect. Lore / Underjordiska
Andy Stott
Taub
The Third Man
Uzi & Ari
You May Die / Gifts Enola
Zèbra
Zilverhill

Compilations / Mixes
DJ /Rupture
Diaspora: Cottage Ind. 5
Total 9

EPs
John R Carlson
Intrusion
Keenhouse
Joe Lapaglia
Model 500
Duncan Ó Ceallaigh
Frank Omura
Shigeto
The Sight Below
Steinbrüchel
Van Der Papen
Warez

Bitcrush: Shimmer and Fade
n5MD

Previously issued on n5MD's sub-label en:peg Digital in 2005 as a forty-eight-minute download, Shimmer and Fade returns in re-mastered form containing four extra tracks (one an alternate take of the originally-issued “The Missing”) not found on the original “EP.” Bitcrush may be the solo outlet for n5MD head Mike Cadoo's music-making but it's no exercise in vanity or self-indulgence. Rather Cadoo leaves his original stamp on the experimental field by deftly fusing post-rock, shoegaze, and textural soundscaping into a distinctive blend and by seamlessly integrating conventional instrumentation (vocals, guitar, bass, drums) with electronic elements in wholly convincing manner.

Cuts like “Aventious” and “The Missing” serve up the kind of tranquil and emotive electronica n5MD excels at. In the poppy “No Bridge No Water,” a grungy mix of guitars, bass, and drums meets the kind of ethereal vocalizing and chiming guitar playing one associates with shoegaze, while the blend of slow-motion post-rock and atmospheric electronica in “Every Sunday” is equally affecting. “Waiting For Something” unspools in an impassioned and controlled roar until its final, string-drenched minute, while the original EP closer “And We Fade” kicks into epic shoegaze mode about three minutes into its eight-minute run and pretty much stays there for the duration. There's no discernible lapse in quality in the four newly-added tracks, though Cadoo's singing in “When Swallowing Becomes Difficult” is a bit more ragged (perhaps by design) compared to the multi-tracked vocals appearing elsewhere. All in all, Shimmer and Fade provides a thorough accounting of Cadoo's talents and his Bitcrush persona, even if it's the embryonic one predating the subsequent 2007 and 2008 releases In Distance and Epilogue In Waves.

October 2008