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

Tim Hecker: Harmony in Ultraviolet
kranky

Harmony in Ultraviolet won't disappoint devotees enraptured by Tim Hecker's previous full-lengths. If anything, the latest 15-piece collection finds the Montreal-based artist perfecting his style even more and, if anything, downplaying cranium-shattering extremes for an oft-accessible and noticeably melodic warmth (consider the gentle ebb and flow of “Chimeras” as one example). To his credit, Hecker seems less interested in generating abrasive noise (only “Radio Spiricom” comes close) than in shaping his material into towering yet inviting structures. Like a Black Hole, his music ingests its source material and then regurgitates it into writhing masses. A title like “Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight” certainly suggests what its originating material might be but it's unlikely anyone will identify any component within the violently congealing mass that is the piece's final form. Needless to say, extra-musical descriptors amount to little more than Rorschach-styled projections, though there's no denying Hecker's sheets of static are evocative, no matter how abstract they ultimately remain. The album's most beautiful moments emerge in the two-part “Whitecaps of White Noise,” where magnificent flourishes of organ tones morph into dive-bombing grime in the first part and then slow to an anguished dirge in the even more haunting second, and the galaxial closer “Blood Rainbow.” Harmony in Ultraviolet shows Hecker once again demonstrating a masterful ability to weave abstract sounds into mesmerizing monoliths.

November 2006