Articles
2007 Ten Favourite Labels
Backtracking Greg Davis
Shackleton Interview
Albums
John Luther Adams
Joseph Auer
Commix
Dartriix
Floratone
Furniture
Shuta Hasunuma
Richard Hawley
Hologram
Icarus
Kiln
Kobol
Labradford
Last Days
M83
Mai
Darren McClure
Near the Parenthesis
David Newlyn
Objekt4
OK Ikumi
Ontayso
Wendel Patrick
Phon°noir
Pocahaunted / Robedoor
Poostosh
Prefuse 73
Quosp
Rapoon
The Retail Sectors
Skull Disco
Socos
Supersilent
Tigrics
Trentemøller
Zuydervelt / Baars / Veld.
Compilations/Mixes
Airport Symphony
Devil in the Detail
Dinky
EXPANSION | contraction
Funckarma
Little Darla v. 25
One Five Zero
Playgroup / Alter Ego
Signal Path
Soul Jazz Singles
U-cover Mix 03 [IDM]
Ricardo Villalobos
We Are All Cotton-Hearted
Well Deep
3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Basic Unit
Bodycode
Kit Clayton & Sutekh
Dartriix
Ditch
INKlings
Insanic4
Lackluster
Najem Sworb
Ontayso
Sutekh
The Tamborines
Telafonica
Zainetica
VA: EXPANSION | contraction
Minus
It's not too hard to appreciate why Minus has its detractors. In their eyes, the label's material is so free of grit or rough edges, it sounds antiseptic and sterile. Certainly the skeletal style occasionally heard on the label's latest compilation EXPANSION | contraction will only add more fuel to that particular flame, and an album thematically devoted to exploring “the relationship between Sound and Silence” and “the balance, interaction, and interplay between these two opposing forces” won't win such critics over either.
But for listeners happily acclimatized to Minus's restrained handling of its minimal materials, there's much to celebrate about the new collection. Available as both a double black-and-white vinyl set and CD (only the latter includes Troy Pierce's “Oxytocin”), EXPANSION | contraction opens with a sleek slice of Consumed-styled Plastikman (“Risk Assessment”) before rolling out the funk in Heartthrob's (Jesse Siminski) “Roundabout.” The acidy tune's dirty backbeat swing and chattering handclaps presents a direct challenge to naysayers who contend that Minus's sound is too clean. When not digging feverishly into its tight, locomotive funk pulse, Marc Houle's acid-coiled “Porch” dizzyingly ascends and descends like a roller-coaster, while “Emissions,” the first track to be released on Minus by Dubfire (Ali, ex-Deep Dish), is a brutal stormer. Propelled by a rabidly insistent bass line, the almost eight-minute raver intermittently slows to a crawl before springing back to life with detonating starbursts. Solid too is Pierce's physically imposing, ten-minute “Oxytocin” which seems to sprout ever-more lethal tendrils over its writhing, amoebic swing with each passing moment. With crew members like Heartthrob, Houle, Gaiser, and Pierce aboard, Minus's EXPANSION | contraction sounds anything but clinical.December 2007