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cdr|m's
.:: a klangwerk release ..................................................::.
artist :: stilluppsteypa
release :: stories part five
year :: 2001
genre :: electronic
label :: mille plateaux
catalogue :: lc 10585
website :: www.fire-inc.demon.nl/stilluppsteypa.html
ripper :: soulfiction
date :: 30-jan-2002
quality :: 192kbps/44,1khz
source :: compact disc
.::.......................................................................::.
01 nice things to file away forever! 9:53
02 which serve the pupose not only 2:41
03 most of the holiday spent in the bathroom 1:34
04 when i was eight years old 3:09
05 guest one and six make me want to sleep 0:44
06 love brother (of the parent's house) 5:17
07 memories of brown bucket 2:53
08 malemachine = slightly drunk (tipsy) 5:08
09 yes sir can i improvise_ 8:17
10 objects with shiny surfaces 1:55
11 all drummers shiver 4:43
12 we sure could do with some help 1:37
playtime :: 00h 47m 51s
.::.......................................................................::.
in 1930 walter benjamin wrote"[w]hat characterizes the
run-of-the-mill reviewing industry is its unrestrained indulgence
in its own reactionsàand its pretense that an aesthetics still
exists, whereas there has long been none. in truth, the starting
point of criticism must be the perception that aesthetic criteria
are in all cases completely devalued."
this is very much the case for contemporary electronic music
reviews, where there are few if any available charted aesthetics
for reference. technical analysis, frequently preferred by the
artists, has little to say to non-initiates. then there is the
rambling, pretentious theory ramblings of mille plateaux owner
achim szepanski and kindred sorts who attempt half-baked syntheses
of digital music criticism with deleuze and guattari, producing
glorious laugh sentences like "clicks and cuts are conjunctions as
permanent ecstasy andàandàandàthey refer to something else. their
medial implication consists of permanent ability to be connected."
this is no more than a provincial and self-marginalizing attempt
to impress with linguistic legerdemain, not one that cares to
speak to folks.
comparison is yet another descriptive mode, but one that in short
order grows very limiting. i might write that in terms of its
relationship to rhythm and drive that this new stilluppsteypa
album, for instance, much more closely resembles an errol garner
side of electronica rather than the hard-blowing dizzy gillespie
end. this is an indicative approach, but it relies overmuch on the
accessibility of its reference and the cultural vocabulary
employed.
comparison here does little. like music that has intrinsic cause
for interest, this album resists adjectival reductions. part of
stilluppsteypa's positive aesthetic virtue lies in thwarting easy
description or categorization. as benjamin observed and the
inapplicability of precedent and comparison emphasize, an
aesthetic no longer exists and must be reinvented. the conceptual
vocabulary that surrounds stilluppsteypa's music is still as much
in development as this musical aesthetic itself.
stilluppsteypa is a group of ex-pat icelandic experimentalists
more interested in exploring their own ideas of quiet composition
than they are interested in excited sonic assaults. they have been
migrating between electronic music studios in northern europe for
years now, working with a lengthy list of fellow experimental
artists like the legendary nurse with wound and the equally
well-regarded hafler trio. since 1992 this three-man group has
produced eighteen releases.stories part five is their second
release on mille plateaux's ritornell imprint, providing much
better music than mille plateaux's recent release of geoff white's
boringly polite questions and comments record.
while the music is neither stiffly cerebral nor aethereal
abstraction, stilluppsteypa's electronic chamber music needs a
couple of meditative listenings to absorb its minimalist effects.
their compositions often approach the status of sound artifacts
more than compositions per se. it is production that contends
against simplified understandings or technique-based reductionism.
the laptop rock generation's methodology of sequencing looped
sound snippets disappears beneath the surface of an accomplished
acoustic mood, a sign of stilluppsteypa's skill. in their best
work, a sound-object emerges into brief existence and then
abruptly ends. sitting in the midst of fixed attention to that
sound-object, there is a pang of abandonment when the composition
finishes and disappears in mid-air.
"objects with shiny surfaces," a rather brief piece late in the
album, exemplifies this determined attempt to capture an
image-idea and bring the exercise to an end once the sound-object
has been defined. in this effort at expressive elaboration, there
is an inherent alienation from music-as-commodity. no one will be
buying a stilluppsteypa album for the bouncy beat and catchy tune.
only one track on stories, "all the drums shiver," even remotely
approaches danceability. where an aesthetic adopts a conscious
distance from the market, that anti-market character pervades the
music. mass commodification is the border that marks out other
musical genres: indefineability means unsaleability.
exemplifying this resistance to commodifiability, a mid-album
track like "guest one and six make me want to sleep" sweeps back
and forth with nothing but scratch noise. such scratchy
backgrounds often feature in stilluppsteypa's compositions, the
aural equivalent of 1960s super-8 scratch films that signified the
emergence of an alternative aesthetic. similarly, indefinite and
searching noise effects here serve as compositional preludes. one
of these works, "malemachine," for instance, achieves a mysterious
evening effect that emerges into a rounded, full-volume scene. a
seeming bell chord tolls in the background as an underwash of
granular sound carries the arrangement to a finish. the
scratchiness smoothes out repeatedly through the album's
compositions, as though to achieve a rich and symphonic note.
this reach towards a certain grandness is especially noticeable in
the "yes sir can i improvise," which concludes with a lengthy
sound wave generation. a track like "memories of brown bucket" is
a persistent wave-sound and artifact of looped composition, one
that by force of repetition draws listeners into its seemingly
hollow minimalist interior architecture to 'listen outwards.'
stilluppsteypa wants much more than to manipulate sound; they
clearly want to arrange a fresh relationship between listeners and
a new architecture of sound.
stories part five is available from ritornell
.::.......................................................................::.
greetings :: sb, qdp, sour, dps, it, rac, dh, sfe, hbz, igr and mgc
.::.......................................................................::.