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

Drone: Colourformoney
My Kung Fu

The type of album where percussion sounds originate from household surfaces and melodies from doctored voice noises, colourformoney is an hour-long debut collection of oft-pastoral electronic sculpting by Drone (Cassidy Phillips). Phillips counts an ancient piece of sound tracking software (Madtracker) as the key component in his minimal setup, but that doesn't stop him from getting the maximum mileage from his gear, no matter how lo-fi it may be. “Waterlillies” is a convincing foray into folktronic placidity, “Hopscotch” tackles melancholic IDM with assurance, and the insistent beat clatter of “Vintage Ptii” hints at a promising dance direction.

There's no doubt Phillips, a self-described “collector and mangler of sounds,” treats the material seriously but there's also a spirited playfulness that the songs can't quite suppress; imagine The Orb as a bedroom project dedicated to crafting miniatures filled with plinkety-plunk melodies (“Ninny”) and rambunctious breakcore (“Bellydance”). Still, one longs, at times, for a little less eccentricity: Phillips' fragile vocalizing in the lightly swinging “Telephone” is obscured by the elastic lashes of electric wires, and the faux-autobiographical voiceover (the last line is “To hell with it: none of this really happened”) in “Etherheart” could be omitted, considering that the song's silken string washes and tinkling melodies would hold up just as well on their own. Much more satisfying is “Cutting Teeth” where a lovely cello-like melody, sometimes doubled by the whispered vocal, floats through the song, proving that sometimes the simplest approach is the best. Give Phillips credit, though, for boldly closing the disc with a 16-minute suite (“Plink Plink Plink”) that nicely balances pretty melodies and understated experimentalism.

January 2007