Articles
2009 Artists' Picks
Lymbyc Systym

Albums
Cory Allen
aus
The Bird Ensemble
Canaille
Catlin & Machinefabriek
Greg Davis
Loren Dent
Dirac
Drafted By Minotaurs
Flica
Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
Gown
John Hollenbeck
Viviane Houle
I/DEX
Akira Kosemura
Andrew McKenna Lee
Le Lendemain
LRAD
Lymbyc Systym
Melorman
Muskox
The Mercury Program
Nikasaya
Northerner
nörz
Noveller / Aidan Baker
Redshape
Marina Rosenfeld
Stripmall Architecture
Sturqen
Wes Willenbring
The Tony Wilson Sextet
Julia Wolfe
Peter Wright
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Blackoperator
Glimpse Four:Twenty 03
Kod.eX
Portland Stories

EPs
Molnbär Av John
Tommi Bass & B.B.S.C.
Julian Beau
Colours-Volume 5
Dalot
Echologist
Simon James French
Geiom & Shortstuff
General Elektriks
Geskia
Ernest Gonzales
Gradient
Jacksonville
Joker
Ann Laplantine
Loko
Machinefabriek
Stefano Pilia
Damian Valles

Melorman: Out in a Field
Symbolic Interaction

Athens, Greece-based Antonis Haniotakis creates pastoral electronica of an especially picturesque kind under the name Melorman. The ten tracks on his Out in a Field wrap hip-hop-inflected beats in blankets of feathery synths and serenading melodies in a way that can't help but invite comparisons to Boards of Canada. Whatever its derivative character, Melorman's material is nevertheless seductive, especially when guest Helen Day adds wordless gossamer vocals to many of the tracks, albeit more in the way of atmospheric enhancement than conventional lyrics-based singing.

“Apricot Fields” opens the forty-two-minute collection with a luscious and tranquil overture, after which “5 O'clock Spring Time” serves up the first of many doses of sparkling head-nod. “Hold Us” weds a snappy funk pulse to transporting analog melodies, while “Sunlight Noise” offers church-like melancholy of the stately and beatific kind. “Tell Me More Stories” comes closest of all to straight-up instrumental hip-hop of an Inner Current vintage. Best of all is “Silent Breath,” perhaps the album's most seductive piece, where Day's vocals float over downtempo head-nodding rhythms for a thoroughly enchanting four minutes.

January 2010