textura

ALBUMS
Automotive
Benevento/Russo Duo
Benni Hemm Hemm
Caribou
[The] Caseworker
Eric Chenaux
Cineplexx
Claudia
Daedelus
J Dilla
Envy
Fond of Tigers
Formication
Grizzly Bear
Guther
Ike Yard
Kilo Watts
The Knife
Minimum Chips
Miss Violetta Beauregarde
North Valley Sub. Orch.
Quench
Sandoz
Dani Siciliano
Liam Singer
Stop Disco Mafia
Susanna/Magical Orch.
Vorpal
Wisp
Working Nuclear Free City
Peter Wright
Susumu Yokota
Zeebee

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Belladonna Summer
Cut Copy FabricLive
Mark Farina
Magda
Tandem 4
Tiefschwarz Fabric
Total 7
Until Human Voices...

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Allie
Barem
Deathprod
Ensemble
Extrawelt
Marc Houle
Loco Dice
Lost Trax
David Newlyn
Sandro Perri
Porter & Blain
Relay
Sirka Ragnar
SLG
Swat-Squad

VA: The Tandem Series 4
Boltfish

Boltfish Recordings' split series continues with Mise en scene (Shay Nassi from Haifa , Israel) and soundhacker member dooQ, both artists' tracks upholding the label's reputation for well-crafted melodic electronica. Nassi conjoins a commendable predilection for clarity with three-dimensional depth in his five tracks, qualities presumably attributable to some degree to his studies in Practical Sound Engineering at Israel 's Jordan Valley College . He's a man of many moods too, with “Under Stretching Frequencies” sleek, bright, and buoyant while “Yoyo,” by contrast, is ominous and foreboding, an aural soundtrack for a journey through an ancient torture chamber.

Though the dooQ project is characterized as “a feeble excuse to spend even more time in the studio playing with toys, widgets n gizmos,” the four pieces here sound anything but slapdash. Like Mise en scene, dooQ evidences a broad stylistic range in his material but also an occasional hip-hop influence; “Januar,” for instance, offers a superb fusion of bell-like sparkle and downtempo, acoustic bass-led funk rhythms. In addition, the aptly-named “Prowler” slinks surreptitiously through a galaxy of spacey textures and woozy signals, and zither-like tones imbue “Ekaarian” with a vaguely Middle Eastern ambiance despite the presence of snappy breaks.

September 2006