Articles
Robert Henke
Deepchord and Soultek

Albums
Amoebazoid
Boy Is Fiction
BTB
Calika
Vic Chesnutt
Enrico Coniglio
Eric Copeland
Deadbeat
Deepchord : Echospace
Ditch
Terrence Dixon
Brian Ellis
Reinhold Friedl
The Green Kingdom
Marc Hannaford
Hrsta
K. Leimer
Lights Out Asia
Nebula 3
Netherworld
Le Peuplier de Simon
Po
Portable
Lou Reed
Jeffrey Roden
Skallander
Swod
Gregory Taylor
Telephone Jim Jesus
Pau Torres
Tunng
Rolan Vega
Robert Vincs
Warmth
Otomo Yoshihide

Compilations / Mixes
Sander Kleinenberg
One Point Two
Total 8

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Adultnapper
Arrow!!!
Ascoltare
Beneva vs. Clark Nova
Cinematic Orchestra
Deepchord : Echospace
Easy Changes
Fink
Peter Grummich
The Heavy
Isomer Transition
Laptik
Larytta
Nadja
Pendle Coven
Polvere
Redhooker
Spied
Andy Stott
Torrance & Hochstrate
Andy Vaz

Rolan Vega: Documentary
Community Library

First things first: Documentary isn't the latest solo release by a Suicide member (that's Alan, not Rolan Vega). Secondly, while it is a synthesizer-based collection, there are no vocals (and, for the record, Suicide pairs Alan Vega's singing with Martin Rev's synth work). What it is is a beguiling, fifteen-track debut collection of home-recorded synthesizer vignettes that the Chicago producer (who also issues electro-pop under the Ariisk name) created over a multi-year span. The title's not arbitrarily chosen: many of Documentary's pieces were composed as live scores for short films, while others reflect Vega's love for anonymous, public-domain ‘library music.'

Stylistically, the album runs the gamut, extending all the way from pulsating sci-fi settings (“Painted by Children,” “Something Wrong with Today”) and iridescent dreamscaping (“Motion Crisiis,” “Documentary”) to textural explorations (“Skypoint Fall,” “Surface Cleanser”) and smeary dub-techno (“Playlite”). Operating as relentlessly as a well-oiled Berlin factory machine, “4 Autiim” offers a beautiful, Fluxion-styled example of propulsive Chain Reaction techno, while “Surface Cleanse” presents a vaguely industrial-sounding churn of smears and static. In addition, the ‘beautiful noise' Vega sculpts in “Nether” and “Morning Call” pulls Vega's material into Tim Hecker's orbit. The elegiac tones in “Viva Myria” establish a retro-future ambiance that suggests Vega could compose the perfect soundtrack for La Jetée. One of the most appealing things about Documentary is its economy of presentation: fifteen songs in forty minutes, with a number of one-minute vignettes scattered amongst slightly longer pieces, with the longest five minutes only. The rapid shift from one piece to the next creates a kaleidoscopic effect that captivates throughout.

September 2007