textura

Albums
Bass Clef
William Brittelle
Canaille
Calvin Cardioid
Cex
John Daly
Delta Funktionen
DJ W!ld
Drexciya
Petar Dundov
Kyle Bobby Dunn
Glitterbug
Grouper
Hildur Gudnadottir
Gunnelpumpers
Kristian Heikkila
Stephen Hummel
I've Lost
Jamie Jones
Monika Kruse
Deniz Kurtel
Mere
Mohn
Motion Sickness T. Travel
Maayan Nidam
Alex Niggemann
Padang Food Tigers
Panabrite
paniyolo
The Pirate Ship Quintet
Plvs Vltra
Retina.it
Sankt Otten
Simon Scott
Wadada Leo Smith
Susanna
Robert Scott Thompson
Ursprung
Wes Willenbring

Compilations / Mixes
Air Texture II
Nic Fanciulli
GoGo Get Down
Origamibiro

EPs
Borka
FilFla
Gone Beyond / Mumbles
Gulls
Maps and Diagrams
Time Dilation

Motion Sickness Of Time Travel: Traces
A Guide To Saints

A Guide To Saints, a new, tape-oriented imprint from Room40's Lawrence English, is issuing Traces at about the same time as Rachel Evans's self-titled Motion Sickness Of Time Travel collection is being released on Spectrum Spools. As such, it's easy to imagine that the Traces material could just as easily have entered the world as the third(!) album in the Spectrum Spools set, an idea that seems even more logical given how much the two releases share a consistent sound and vision. Regardless, any listener who's taken the Spectrum Spools plunge will most certainly want to do the same with Traces, the first edition from A Guide To Saints, incidentally, and the first in a planned series of so-called ‘Cassette Diaries'— recordings of ‘momentary musics' produced in a short period of time, be it a day, week, or more.

Evans's Motion Sickness Of Time Travel project fits the cassette format wonderfully, especially when her long-form pieces generally allow for a natural album or cassette split. Traces, for example, features two settings, the title cut and “Colour Changing Eyes,” the first twenty minutes and the second sixteen. Both are very much in the Motion Sickness Of Time Travel style heard on the Spectrum Spools outing: heady, uncompromising excursions into universes teeming with synthetic swirl and vocal incantations. In the hypnotic title track, two contrasting zones seem to be perpetually locked in battle: an immense, heaving undertow, on the one hand, and squalls of writhing synthesizer noise and drones on the other. Synth sputter and Evans's haunting vocals feature more prominently in “Colour Changing Eyes,” which rapidly builds to a droning fever pitch of synapse-destroying intensity so potent it could induce psychosis. Evans has the ability to harness cosmic energy and distill it into material form in a way that's often breathtaking, especially when experienced at maximum volume. Her consistently amazing Traces is music one doesn't so much listen to as drown in.

June 2012