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Blir - Raster Post Edits
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Year :: 2005
Label :: Raster Noton
Cat No :: CDR064
Genre :: Electronic
Tracks :: 01
Size :: 51,9 MB
Source :: CDDA
Bitrate :: VBRKBps
Rel. Date :: 17/06/2005
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ok some tough choices on this one, tag as Blir or
Blir (AKA SND), tag as electronic or techno, single
files or cue. Anyways enjoy this deep minimal
workout, recommended for the headphone peeps..
review bit:
It wasn't long after we opened our shop way back in
1998 that the first inconspicuous, hand-stamped 12"
from .snd appeared as if by magic in one of our
shipments. With only a telephone number discreetly
inked on the back of the sleeve there was really
nothing to suggest that what we had in our hands was
the most precise, sparse and groundbreaking variants
of techno minimalism weÆd come across or would ever
come across again in years to come. As time went by
parts of the puzzle started to fill in - snd (was it
a project name? a label name? a title?) was the work
of Mark Fell and Mat Steel from Sheffield, two
characters with a seemingly incongruous interest in
the academic/arts end of the musical spectrum and the
dark recesses of warehouse party culture at one and
the same time, spurred on by their local scene and
the presence of compatriots like Rob Brown and Sean
Booth from Autechre. Over the next couple of years
two more twelves appeared and then a 7ö on CCO before
Mille Plateaux, in an effort to foist its own generic
categorisation on the world, hosted snd as part of
its fabled clicks and cuts compendiums and series of
album releases. In the midst of all of this, Mark and
Mat (together with Premium Leisure cohorts Jeremy
Porter and Robert Baker) worked on loop-based
material under the loose moniker ôBlirö. Together
with some synth patches from fellow minimalist Frank
Bretschneider, these reduced grooves spawned two 12ös
that have been more or less impossible to track down
ever since. And so, fresh from touring with Autechre,
mat and mark return with this hugely anticipated cd
for Raster Noton, collecting tracks from those lost
EPÆs and some new material, 19 tracks in total that
illustrate in crisp, brilliantly sharp strokes just
how their deconstructed bass, tone and click funk
works when reduced to its barest parts. Some of it
sounds like classic Raster reduction, some of it
sounds like Techno blueprints that the likes of Sleep
Archives have attracted so much attention for
themselves with in recent times. As IÆm listening to
this now there's a faint echo of excitement in the
back of my mind that maybe, if IÆm extremely lucky,
this release will be a precursor to the return of snd
proper. Amen to that. -boomkat
artist info:
most people know mark fell and mat steel under the
name SND. like no other project before scape they
stand for the propagandised clicks and cut sound.
however as label mate terre theamlitz points out,
these "unwilling godmothers of clicks and cuts" are
keen to distance themselves from the genre they are
often thought to have spawned.
mat and mark met at sheffield city polytechnic where
they studied 3d design and video art respectively.
together with jeremy potter (shirt trax) and robert
baker (clock dva/anti group) they formed an artists
collective called non-axiomatic living room (aka
premium leisure), the label on which the blir
recordings were released. this group staged a series
of installations, radio broadcasts and performances.
blir was originally conceived of as a side project to
snd, an open platform offering the two a means of
exploring collaborative works. the first two records
in this series were made with frank bretschnider (aka
komet) and jeremy potter (with whom mark works with
as shirt trax).
the two blir recordings released in 1999 featured
minimal design covers and anonymous layout, revealing
perhaps that blir as well as snd are rather names of
projects than names of a band. indeed, a key theme of
these works was the notion of the anonymous
collective, amongst which the rudimentary elements of
digital working were distributed - synthesizer
patches, notes, softwares and so on.
in 2005 the project continues. probably not as
anonymous as they would like, mat and mark return to
their roots when relocating old session material,
cutting and re-editing it in a new way. by recording
new tracks blir pursues a more radical aesthetic
approach than SND. there is no format of a song, the
arrangement is minimalist, music structures are cut
into short loops, are analyzed and kept - efficiently
and energetically.
recently mark and mat toured with autechre and rob
hall around europe and america, the two are currently
working on new material as well as several art
projects.
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Raster Post Edits
[01] Blir - Track01 [ ]
[02] Blir - Track02 [ ]
[03] Blir - Track03 [ ]
[04] Blir - Track04 [ ]
[05] Blir - Track05 [ ]
[06] Blir - Track06 [ ]
[07] Blir - Track07 [ ]
[08] Blir - Track08 [ ]
[09] Blir - Track09 [ ]
[10] Blir - Track10 [ ]
[11] Blir - Track11 [ ]
[12] Blir - Track12 [ ]
[13] Blir - Track13 [ ]
[14] Blir - Track14 [ ]
[15] Blir - Track15 [ ]
[16] Blir - Track16 [ ]
[17] Blir - Track17 [ ]
[18] Blir - Track18 [ ]
[19] Blir - Track19 [ ]
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UK Independent