Albums
Atmogat
Autechre
Autistici
Bitcrush
Black Gold 360
Sylvain Chauveau
Cut Iowa Network
Delicate Noise
Dof
The Element Choir
FNS
Four Tet
Gutta Percha
Greg Haines
Chihei Hatakeyama
Ian Hawgood
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Kahn and Mueller
Konntinent
L/M/R/W
Francisco López
Aaron Martin
Musette
Near The Parenthesis
Offthesky
Dustin O'Halloran
Redhooker
Relmic Statute
Ruxpin
Sintetic-Collage
Sister Overdrive
Starkey
Tokyo Mask
Youth Pictures of F. Hend.
Compilations / Mixes
Agoria
Advent
My Private Space
Peeling
Untitled 10
EPs
Amman.Josh
A Wake A Week
Tolga Baklacioglu
Boxharp
Cursor Miner
Abe Duque
EPROM / Eskmo
Funckarma
Florent Ghys
LJ Kruzer
Lobisomem
Maps and Diagrams
Moving Dawn Orchestra
Marcello Napoletano
Alexandre Navarro
Obsidian
Glen Porter
Nigel Samways
The Soul's Release
Sparkhouse / Jacksonville
Subeena
Talvihorros
Dof:
Suddenly Shifting Against The Sky
p*dis
DoF's sixth album, Suddenly Shifting Against The Sky, finds Brian Hulick still tilling the kind of folktronic ground that other producers abandoned long ago (after seeing the label affixed so relentlessly to Rounds, Keiran Hebden seemingly couldn't distance himself from the genre quickly enough). Not that Hulick cares: the one-man music-making machine is too busy cranking out new tracks to spend time worrying about what's fashionable and what's not.
You'll find no whiff of cynicism or insincerity here; the recording's twelve tracks ooze joyfulness in their breezy blend of acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins, keyboards, glockenspiels, harmonicas, and beats (programmed and live) that are equally crunchy and rambunctious. Anything but dour, the material's summery in the extreme, and impeccably constructed to boot. That it's also almost entirely instrumental signifies a welcome return to the style of the previous DoF full-length (issued in 2006) as opposed to the two EPs released after, both of which featured vocal-oriented material. Not that Hulick's singing is unappealing, as the modest parade of hushed vocals included in “Strong, Thick Wings” attests; it's simply that it's in the instrumental department that his talents most shine. To his credit, he gets to the point with dispatch, with every track save one clocking in at about four minutes.
If there's anything wanting about the recording, it's that it could do with more contrast. With pretty much every track being effervescent and upbeat, the album could do with a track or two of relative calm to break up the headlong rush and allow one a moment or two to catch one's breath. Eleven songs in, “The Quiet of Their Shadows” briefly rectifies that imbalance during its restrained opening and in the song's middle section but otherwise reverts to form in the other parts. The snakebite electric guitar that intrudes upon “To The Stake” also becomes doubly arresting for being so different from the album's overall sound.
April 2010