ARTICLES
Benoît Pioulard's Précis
Label: Dynamophone
Label: Hidden Shoal

ALBUMS
Aemae
A Lily
Arc Lab
Blotnik Brothers
Gui Boratto
Cagesan
Jeremy Caulfield
Loren Dent
Do Make Say Think
Eats Tapes
Enduser
Domink Eulberg
Explosions in the Sky
Michael Fahres
The Field
Frivolous
Maximilian Hecker
Hug
Hush Arbors
Jan-M. Iversen
Espen Jørgensen
Kattoo
O.Lamm
Bruce Levingston
Tobias Lilja
Lusine
Marcia Blaine School
The Missing Ensemble
Nebulo
Ölvis
Charlemagne Palestine
Palomar
Pornopop
The Postmarks
Propergol Y Colargol
The Retail Sectors
R/R Coseboom
Sankt Otten
Scratch Massive
Slow Dancing Society
Stars of the Lid
subtractiveLAD
Sunosis
Aoki Takamasa
Amon Tobin
Tokyo Mask
Kate Wax
Wes Willenbring
Windmill

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Chaos.Lovers
Cryosphere
Hub: 2004-2005
Rufs
Satoshi Tomiie

3" /7" /10"/12"/EPs
Agnes
AM/PM
Arctic Sunrise
Audion
Characterize 1
Dartriix
Death is Nothing To Fear
Don't Be A Stranger
Einóma
Fusiphorm
Heartthrob
Human Nature
Infant Cycle / Antmanuv
Lilienweiss
Luci
Mauve
Paco Osuna
Ben Parris
Carola Pisaturo
Portable
Sutekh
System
Aoki Takamasa
Cortney Tidwell
Andy Vaz

Kattoo: Hang On to a Dream
Hymen

Nebulo: Kolia
Hymen

The term ‘electronic composer' never applied more perfectly than it does to Hymen artists Nebulo (Thomas P.) and Kattoo (Volker Kahl). On their respective releases, the two conjure symphonic soundtracks of kaleidoscopic scope that are best broached as cumulative wholes rather than gatherings of unrelated tracks. Hang On To A Dream and Kolia generally steer clear of pretension, though occasional bombast does seep into Kattoo's work, particularly in those moments when choral voices, strings, and horns merge into a soupy mass. Even so, there's no denying the two composers' meticulously orchestrated material elevates Nebulo and Kattoo above the electronic music-making masses.

In Kahl's disturbing travelogue, strings melodramatically unfurl and pianos elegantly tinkle amidst writhing convulsions of industrial beats and tribal percussive broil. Kattoo's deeply ‘cinematic' music alternates between vivid torture chamber scenes and placid, string-drenched settings graced by delicate melodies; Flaque (Florian Ziller) also contributes a pair of churning tracks to Kahl's fourteen without diluting the pervasive mood of post-apocalyptic dread. Hang On To A Dream is remarkable and stylistically panoramic but ambition can have its price, too: charging horns and strings in “Somber Happening” flirt with banality (thankfully an injection of drum'n'bass deflects the movement), electric guitars give “You Don't Know Me” an alternately raw and bluesy edge that's of questionable taste, and the admirably epic closer “Hang On To A Dream” occasionally teeters on the brink of orchestral excess.

If it's true that one-time visual artist Thomas P. aspires to compose film soundtracks, he should have no trouble realizing that goal if Kolia is indicative of his talent and style. By never allowing his Nebulo material to spin completely out of control, Thomas P. demonstrates laudable refinement and taste. He embeds piano lines within atmospheric constructions coloured by brightly fluttering phasing effects, hiccupping tempos, and marvelous displays of percussive sound design, such as the clanking and rustling noises that become rhythm elements in “Ant.” Like Hang On To A Dream, Kolia balances delicate calm (“Wen”) with blistering industrial roar (“Automnal”) and high-velocity beatsmithing (“Dr-Ill”). “Darkopale” presents a harrowing nightscape of relentlessly flickering swarms and drill'n'bass clatter while cranium-shattering beats violently squeal in “Nebula” and chiming melodies twirl atop grinding noise in “Siapese.” Alix and Ginormous contribute remixes too, of which the latter's delicately modulated “Darkopale” interpretation impresses most. Hymen describes Kattoo's album as “electronic chamber music for the eclectic listener” but the phrase equally applies to Nebulo's too.

April 2007

This review also appears in Grooves.