ARTICLES
Ten Questions: Fat Jon
MUTEK 2006

ALBUMS
65daysofstatic
A Cloud Mireya
Ambarchi and Ng
Another Elec. Musician
Derek Bailey
Band Ane
Barzin
Black Gold 360
The Blow
Boduf Songs
Childs
Darc Mind
Dosh
Duopandamix
Fat Jon & Styrofoam
Liam Gillick
Shuta Hasunuma
Tim Hecker
Ilkae
Jack's Son
Richard Jäverling
Jazzkammer
Junior Boys
Last Days
Hanno Leichtmann
Luomo
Mandelbrot Set
Mountaineer
N.Phect & Dizplay
Part Timer
Karsten Pflum
Benoît Pioulard
Plus Device
+/- {Plus/Minus}
Relay
Saroos
Seht
Shedding
So Percussion
Sybarite
Trio Vopá
Marshall Watson
Weather Report
Donato Wharton
Christopher Willits
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
ESL Remixed
Four Tet
Garnier & Craig
Ginglik Saturdays
Michael Mayer
Henrik Schwarz

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Colleen
Delano and Xpansul
Detritus
Ed Devane
Eskimo
Feathers
Goldmund
Ezekiel Honig/Graphic
Ezekiel Honig
Eliot Lipp
Robert Lippok
Alejandro Lopez
Evan Marc
Porter & Carr
Sebastian Russell
Somone Else
Spaceships & Pings
SplitEP3
Simon Whetham

Liam Gillick: Los Angeles
Semishigure

Liam Gillick's 26-minute soundtrack to Sarah Morris's film portrays Los Angeles as an innocent, glittering wonderland rather than a sleaze den teeming with corruption and backroom deal-making. Apparently, filmmaker Morris (Gillick's wife) spent the week leading up to the 2004 Academy Awards armed with a 35mm CinemaScope camera and, acting as cultural anthropologist, documented images of cinematic worship, grandiosity, and narcissism. Depicting images of a woman receiving Botox injections, Brad Pitt immersed in stunt rehearsals for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and director Brett Ratner changing clothes in his car while blathering on his cell phone, Morris's film exposes the decadent grime that spreads beneath the premiere's red carpet.

If the listener is supposed to interpret the music's prettiness as ironic, it's a hard call to make minus the visuals. Regardless, Gillick's soundtrack holds up fine no matter the intended meaning: chiming synths dance amidst simple beat patterns, elegant piano themes, handclaps, and strings throughout the single-movement suite (its episodic nature suggests the film might be equally episodic), its sparkling electronic character a natural analogue to the city's blinding surfaces.

November 2006