ARTICLES
2006 Top 10s and 20s
2006 Artist Picks

ALBUMS
17 Pictures
Angina P
Ateleia
Benni Hemm Hemm
The Boats
Cappablack
Celer
Dead Letters Dead Words
Deceptikon
Deerhunter
Denzel + Huhn
Displayaz
Dollboy
Drone
Eluvium
Emanuele Errante
The Eternals
Fear Falls Burning
Marcus Fjellström
Fonoda
Funkstörung
Goldfrapp
Gyroscope
Robert Henke
James Holden
The Idealist
Anders Ilar
Landing
LCD Soundsystem
Library Tapes
L Pierre
Lullatone
Tor Lundvall
Mad EP
Mahogany
Melodium
Mem1
Daisuke Miyatani
Mole Harness
Momus
Monoceros
Mormo
Mothboy
Original Hamster
Pierson & Horton
Prince Valium
Radical Face
Retail Sectors / Yaporigami
Rylander & Elggren
Scott Solter Plays PIM
Sideshow
Silicone Soul
Skream
Splinters
Mark Templeton
Thread Pulls
T. Raumschmiere
Tycho
Ultre
Virculum
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
AudioArt 03
Cumulous
Dubstep Allstars Vol. 4
Eriksen / Toft / Utarm
Katapult VA Vol. 3
Let's Lazertag Sometime
Mr Geoffrey & JD Franzke
Skagen / Halvorsen / Toft
Tectonic Plates

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Gabriel Ananda
Robert Bardini
DAT Politics
Dead Letters / R. Sundin
Dogmixer
Benjamin Fehr
Fenin
HL
I Make This Sound
Zoë Irvine
Kyriakides and Moor
Lamont & 2tall
Ljud. & Piloten / Kama Aina
Jacob London
Sam Mcqueen
Miskate
Ryo Miyashita & Hiiragi_
[nara]
New Faces
Of / Greg Davis
Charlemagne Palestine
Phon.o vs Litwinenko
Portable
PostPrior
Samarah
Nicholas Sauser & Ditch
Someone Else
Hannes Teichmann
Tractile
Andy Vaz

IMAGES
F.S. Blumm

VA: Audio Art Compilation 03
Gruenrekorder

Gruenrekorder's compilation features soundscapes from India, Australia, Spain, the UK, and primarily Germany. Inhabiting one end of the spectrum are relatively ‘pure' field recordings (Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Lasse-Marc Riek) which build arrangements from ‘real' sounds (water ripples, birds, chanting voices, boat creaks, wind), the extreme case etzin/riek's “under the bonnet,” four minutes of engine car noise recorded at the Autobahnraststätte; at the other end are more conventionally musical pieces which stand out all the more for being fewer in number. The prettiest is music for one's live electric guitar setting, “Beginnings With No Ends,” where simple motifs and swooping arcs turn hypnotic as they grow in number. Compelling too is UK cellist Bela Emerson's “Subaqua” whose loops and effects generate swirling, kinetic rhythms that at times verge on country-techno. Ranging further beyond are Suspicion Breeds Confidence's “Meriten der Begeisterungsresistenz,” a slow-moving exercise in psychedelic post-rock, and Martin Moritz's “Mitsubishi,” an anomalous sampling of bleepy techno sputter. More representative of the collection are pieces that straddle multiple realms: Stefan Funck's eerie, multi-layered dreamscape “NachtLKw,” Brandstifter's “Rauschgiftengelloops,” which drowns blurry choral voices in ambient noise, and “plait” by Australian sound artists Anthea Caddy and Thembi Soddell which layers violent cello scrapes over a nearly inaudible base. AudioArt Compilation 03 offers a good representation, then, of soundscape-related activity dedicated to exploring the ‘musicality of natural sound' though now might be as good a time as any to suggest a moratorium on bird and water sounds.

January 2007