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Ten Questions: Manual

Albums
Alejandro & Aeron
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Jeremy Bible
F.S. Blumm
Cadence Weapon
Cataclyst
Cepia
Chloé
Cooler
Disinterested
edIT
Erik Enocksson
For Barry Ray
Ernest Gonzales
Grand National
Hakobune
Halou
Frode Haltli
Arve Henriksen
Ielasi & Ratti
Jumpel
Lawrence
Lickets
Manual
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My Fun
Marissa Nadler
Prints
Rekalix
Remote_ vs Ontayso
Will Saul
Sixtoo
Small Sails
Songs Of Green Pheasant
Christian Wallumrød
White Rainbow
Xeltrei
Yndi Halda

Compilations / Mixes
Paolo Mojo
Ewan Pearson
VA: 5 Years Get Physical
VA: Monza Vol. 2
VA: U-cover mix 01 [a]
VA: U-cover mix 02 [d]

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Ateleia
Pier Bucci
Cio D'Or
Cloudland Canyon
Curium
Laurine Frost
Dave Graham
Hakobune
The Infant Cycle
Lerosa
Lullaby Leagure
Mole Harness
Mowbray & Sullivan
Ontayso
School of Seven Bells
Science Teacher
Sleep Robot
Unwed Sailor
VA: Spies & Lies
Rick Wade

Ernest Gonzales: While on Saturn's Rings
Exponential

Exponential, the underground hip-hop/electronic label founded by self-described ‘hyphenated American' Ernest Gonzales, garnered attention last year with its fine Collapsing Culture compilation, and now Gonzales (who also records under the moniker Theory of Everything) steps out with his first official release While on Saturn's Rings. Throughout the sleek forty-minute set, he wears his diverse influences on his sleeve—8-bit electronica, drum'n'bass, New Order, Blondie—and pushes his material in a heavier direction with an emphasis on live guitar playing. Averaging three minutes in length, the collection's fourteen songs (not tracks) are admirably succinct, and show Gonzales bringing together disparate bits, blending them into multi-faceted wholes, and then moving on.

Naturally, Gonzales explores contrasts of mood and style: “Throwed Snow Cones” is melodic electronica of the poppy, candy-coloured type, while “Reminisce” merges breakbeats with ‘60s organ playing lifted from Iron Butterfly or Procol Harum. On the heavier tip, “Summer Story 66” pairs loose rock drumming and raw electric guitar with a “Call Me” rising-and-falling motif and arcade melodies. Despite the songs' contrasts, certain characteristics recur: the bullish roar of Peter Hook-styled bass lines, the exuberant punch of fulminating breakbeats, dreamy guitar atmospherics, and sparkling electronic melodies. Daedelus shows up at album's end for a remix of “While on Saturn's Rings” that's predictably dense and baroque. Though his swirl of breakbeats and film voice samples (a child's singing and whistling) is disruptive with respect to the album's overall flow, it provides a nice contrast to Gonzales' material. While on Saturn's Rings isn't terribly earth-shattering or innovative, but it nonetheless offers a goodly share of sonic and melodic pleasures.

October 2007