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

Plvs Vltra: Parthenon
Spectrum Spools

Known until now more for its catalogue of heady synthesizer-based recordings (Motion Sickness of Travel's recent self-titled opus a good example), Spectrum Spools challenges listeners' expectations with its latest release, a collection of wild electronic pop by Toko Yasuda under the Plvs Vltra name. If Yasuda's name doesn't immediately ring a bell, chances are you've heard her at one time or another: she's worked for years with acts such as Enon and Blonde Redhead, and currently is handling synthesizer duties as part of St. Vincent's touring outfit. Packing eleven songs into a svelte thirty-six-minute frame, Yasuda's debut album is a well-crafted affair that's at its strongest when it's at its most conventionally song-like and restrained.

The opener “Flowers To Bees” is a case in point. Exploding on the scene with a muscular, bass-powered thunder reminiscent of Remain In Light, the tune quickly settles into an in-the-pocket pop-funk groove with Yasuda's girlish vocalizing leading the charge and electronics flickering within the churning background. With a bit of luck (a risk-taking DJ, perhaps), one could even imagine the song sneaking its way onto a radio format. “Sunkissed” and “Birthday Party” likewise achieve a melodic coherence that renders them more memorable than many of the album's less direct experimental pieces.

Yasuda's no shrinking violet where sonic detail is concerned. Most of the songs are jam-packed with swirling detail, synthetic and otherwise, and the listener often comes away dizzied by the non-stop dazzle of sound. Audible beneath the title track's convulsive clatter is a raw ska jam; even more inexplicable is the mid-song story-time sequence that abruptly appears (backed with an orchestral arrangement yet). “Sweet Tooth” and “Like Spice” are as head-spinning as a prototypical Hyperdub production and do much to show Parthenon as largely genre-defining, no matter the electronic pop label that its concise songs sometimes invite. The overkill of a song like “Yume” can be headache-inducing, however, if one's not in the mood for such density. In that light, the relatively skeletal episode that emerges halfway through “World in Words” is all the more satisfying when so many of the songs' arrangements are awash in excess. In the long run, Parthenon does reward one's time and attention, but this listener would prefer to hear the balance tip more heavily in Yasuda's future output in favour of leaner, song-structured pop (like “Flowers To Bees”) and away from the experimental sound collage-like pieces that inhabit too much space on the current album.

June 2012