Articles
Terrence Dixon
Ten Favourite Labels 2012

Albums
1982 + BJ Cole
Oren Ambarchi
Balmorhea
Alexander Berne
Born Gold
Carlyle & Cox
Kate Carr and Gail Priest
Paul Corley
Deison
Roland Etzin
Yuichiro Fujimoto
Glissando
Godspeed You! Bl. Emp.
Ivar Grydeland
Hakimonu
Hammock
Sophie Hutchings
Kane Ikin
Jeanne Jolly
Paul Mac
Michael Mayer
David Michael
Moskus
David Newlyn
No Regular Play
Numina
Oskar Offermann
Olan Mill
Padna
Pelt
Rone
Roomful of Teeth
Bruno Sanfilippo
Valgeir Sigurdsson
The Sleep Of Reason
Jessica Sligter
Slow Dancing Society
Prins Thomas
The Use Of Ashes
Maarten van der Vleuten
Stian Westerhus
Wires Under Tension
Woolfy vs. Projections

Reissue
William Basinski

EPs
Elektro Guzzi
Glacis
Porya Hatami
Maps & Diagrams
Stephan Mathieu
Michael Trommer

Wires Under Tension: Replicant
Western Vinyl

Re-applying Conlon Nancarrow's player piano approach to contemporary electronic music production seems like such a natural and obvious idea, the only surprise is that somebody didn't do it earlier. Leave it to the innovative Christopher Tignor (the leader of Slow Six and currently a software engineer for Google) to re-animate the concept in Replicant, his latest Wires Under Tension collaboration with master percussionist Theo Metz. As those familiar with Nancarrow will recall, the composer turned his attention to the player piano as an instrument able to realize works that challenged or even exceeded the physical capabilities of the human musician—an approach Tignor replicates by using a number of custom-built software instruments, samples, and seven live loopers. Taking its inspiration from Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? and Ridley Scott's film adaptation Blade Runner, Replicant, whose concept clearly draws upon the original materials' pre-occupation with the tension between the human and non-human, blurs the boundaries between programming and live performance to such a degree they become indistinguishable.

Though the album starts on a restrained note when a ruminative intro to “Like Waves We Will Keep Coming On” establishes a melancholy mood, the calm is banished two minutes into the piece when a hyperspeed keyboard figure lunges forth accompanied by Metz's tribal patterns. The music subsequently escalates in volume and mass, with the keyboard and percussion textures thickening and Tignor's signature violin playing amplifying the collective blaze even more. “Shoot Between Heartbeat” dispenses with quietude altogether by bolting from the gate with a full-bore attack, the hammering drumbeat a ground for an impenetrably dense mass of keyboards and percussion. The title cut sees harpsichord-like keyboard figures racing alongside an equally frenetic and punchy, bass-heavy groove. Here and elsewhere, the density level is such that one strains to extricate Tignor's violin from the mix, so swallowed is it by the surround, and consequently those moments where it's most clearly audible (such as during “Crystal Beaches”) often prove to be the album's most satisfying. The connecting tracks “Coded Lanuage For” and “Landscape Architecture” and the closing “Bronx Science” find Tignor and Metz digging into deep funk grooves with all the ferocity the duo brings to the album as a whole. The heaviest moments in these tracks make clear that the word polite isn't a part of Wires Under Tension's dictionary.

November 2012