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The Fun Years
Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia
James Blackshaw
Lullatone

Albums
@c
Antenne
Antripodean Collective
Rudi Arapahoe
Black Gold 360
Brael / Tokyo Bloodworm
Richard Chartier
Jack Dangers
Rae Davis
Depth Affect
Taylor Deupree
Engine7
Emanuele Errante
Force of Nature
Gel-Sol
Glissando
Hardfloor
He Can Jog
Hulk
Adam Hurst
Kenny Larkin
Loco Dice
Mad EP
Maju
Marc + Hillage
Izumi Misawa
Nico Muhly
Toshimaru Nakamura
Organum
Maja S.K. Ratkje
Nicola Ratti
Recue
Renfro
Sawako
Seawalker
Raoul Sinier
Spyweirdos et al.
Svartbag
Tape
John Tejada
Tietchens + Chartier
Transitional

Compilations / Mixes
Ai022LP
Buzzin' Fly 5 Golden Years
Cielo-Cinco
Deconstructive Music
Om: Miami 2008
Sounds of Om Vol. 6
Traum 100
Underscan Now

EPs
Claro Intelecto
Funckarma
Tanaka Hideyuki
Jona
Alton Miller
Move D
saidsound
Sebastian San
Scott vs. Vaz
Philip Sherburne
Vakula

He Can Jog: Middlemarch
Audiobulb

A generally inviting exercise in warm electronic melodicism, MiddleMarch by He Can Jog (yes, the title purposefully references George Eliot's novel and the alias adopted by laptop knob-twiddler and one-time trombonist Erik Schoster is an anagram of John Cage) inverts the usual template by spreading beats more freely over songs anchored by emotive keyboard melodies—but that's just one of the oblique strategies Schoster brings to the table. Accompanied by a handful of guests (who contribute Rhodes, Vibes and guitar samples, field recordings, and vocals), Schoster works a community theme into the album (hence the title choice) as it documents not only the evolution in his working methods—sampling, software programming, and electronic synthesis all figure in—over a four-year span, but also his interpersonal experiences during that time.

Some pieces are experimental and explorative in character: a collage-like scattering of elements constitutes “My (Mother's) Records” (not entirely successfully either, as dropping the line “The songs we're now hearing are ancient tunes” into its middle seems a little too cute), and deeply textured masses of flickering starbursts flow through “Agnes (After Woodland Pattern),” “Pan-Fried Fern,” and “A Small Thing.” More immediately appealing is the material that gravitates towards sparkling electronic pop: “Contractors and Architects,” composed and sung by Nick Sanborn, could pass for a sample track by Morr Music's latest signing, while the keyboard melodies in “Suite Part Three” could single-handedly lull the crankiest infant to sleep. Both tendencies coalesce in the twelve-minute meditation “Suites Part One and Two” whose becalmed arrangement of glistening bells and tonal shimmer closes the album strongly.

July 2008