Office Chart: Charting The Murky World Of IDM

The office chart this week embraces the weird and wonderful world of experimental IDM, wrapping our muscled arms around its torso and squeezing until something pops out.

Rumpistol

The first name on the list is Danish producer Jens B. Christiansen, who has been making challenging yet melodic electronic music since 2003 under the moniker Rumpistol. “Rum” is the Danish word for space or room and over the following two tracks you will understand exactly how apt this title is for the music. Spacious…

VUGGELISE

Vuggelise simmers away gently with sporadic hints of a female vocal and subtle melodies creeping in until it bursts alive with stabby ska chords and dub bass lines. A maritime melody wraps itself around the constantly evolving piece before it breaks and slows again only to be engulfed with glitchy breaks and beats, all the while retaining it’s melodic sensibilities and atmosphere. It is certainly a journey worth taking. Just make sure you’re securely strapped in.

SDR FASANVEJ KL. CA 22_00

Metallic percussion, glitchy bleeps and sweeping atmospheric waves introduce us to a composition which bestrides the line between melancholy and joy. An ethereal vocal and arpeggiated synthesised sweet melodies become detuned and retuned to evoke simultaneous feelings of elation and desolation which is no mean feat considering the track clocks in just under 5 minutes.

Amorph

Thomas Fanger and Jan Siebert, hailing from Berlin; have been producing tracks and performing live sets under various guises since 1993. Along with Amorph they have released together under the monikers Bugfix, Die Soundkoenige, E.H.G., Fanger & Siebert, Säurebottich, Synoptic Music Plant and Tiracon.

Siebert has also produced a substantial body of solo work whilst Fanger has also made a foray into solo production with his fantastically titled 2005 album “Parlez-Vous Electronique?”

FAR AWAY

One can’t help but feel instant euphoria with the wispy repetitive melody which opens this pretty little ditty, like the tolling of some fantastical space-bell. A deep low-end throbbing bassline, breakbeats and the title vocal “far away” sampled and broken down to sound like a turntablist skratching on some vinyl make for some easy listening.

TOETS

An epic oscillating deep low-end bass intro migrates into a dubby glitchy broken-beat with a reverse effect to give it that extra bit of dubby goodness. The arpeggiated synth sound rolls and oscillates along the top of the piece throughout, threading it together into a magical mystery tour of celestial proportions.

JET JAGUAR

New Zealander Michael Upton took the moniker Jet Jaguar from a character in a Godzilla movie. He produces a trip-hop sound comprising of funk, hip-hop and dub samples from the past recycled to create a futuristic forward moving sound. In his own way he uses echo and pan to stretch these samples and loops taking the music in a whole new direction.

RED

The first track from Jet Jaguar is a short but sweet affair. The intro reminds us of leaves rustling in the Autumn breeze before a heavy thudded bassline kicks us into the main part of the composition. Distorted keys play a call and response refrain through the middle before a tinkling melody conjures up the image of a glass wind-chime blowing in the breeze which sees us through the outro of the piece.

THINK ABOUT IT LATER

Much more cosmic vibes in the second track from this producer. The heavy thudded bassline appears again but this time to the backdrop of various bleeps, blops; swirls and twisting sonic samples. It sounds like Upton has recorded the noise of some intergalactic highway, gently buzzing along as the universe expands.

CYLOB

Chris Jeffs was a trombone player in his youth who progressed to experimenting with electronic music and recording in his late teens. Inspired by old-school hip-hop, electro and 80’s synth-pop and in particular groups like Art Of Noise, 808 State and LFO, it must have been a dream come true for Jeffs when in 1993 after submitting a demo tape to Aphex Twin at a gig in 1993; he was subsequently signed to his Rephlex label.

PAPER PIANO

Paper Piano to me sounds like various xylophone melodies intertwining with some electro breaks building to a crescendo every few bars. A sinister break in the middle could be the soundtrack to some 80’s horror movie pre-stab-fest scene. It continues in this vein as the beat kicks back in before breaking for a high-end solo; strings build around the whole composition plumping it up before the beats drop and the original melody plays us out to the end.

REWIND

Rewind starts with an intense build-up which sounds like a rapidly accelerating space-ship with sonar bleeps over the top and a side portion of turntable skratches. The electro beat kicks in alongside the skratching fx before the pièce de resistance of this track; imagine Stephen Hawking spitting verses over a funky bassline and sharp electro break-beat. Peace.