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█ █ P U B L I C . S O U N D
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█ █ presenting our latest release
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r e l e a s e . i n f o
Artist.....: Half Makeshift
Title......: Apothic Leech
Rip Date...: Apr-11-2007 Cat.No.....: URCD005
Style......: Industrial Label......: Utech Records
Quality....: VBRkbps Type.......: Album
Size.......: 47,1 MB Source.....: CDDA
r e l e a s e . n o t e s
Aphotic Leech is the first movement in a series of ever changing
modes which make up what Half Makeshift has slowly become. A bath
of heavy drone and bitter piano chords strewn over top of subtle
glitch work and manipulated percussion, Aphotic Leech trades
malice for despair and shuns any probable hope. Created in
November of 2006 from austere piano pieces, string fragments, a
live percussion specimen and other various arrangements, this
piece grew to be much larger than originally intended through a
series of long manipulation and thought processes. It engulfs the
body in a thick black sludge only to dissipate at once, become a
reborn substance and finally drain itself leaving a small fragment
lingering after it expires.
"Nathan Michaels' music could be nothing short of massive. Aphotic
Leech is no happy experience, but it is a commanding piece of
music with no shortage of powerful moments.
The delicate piano performances transform into ominous war drums
with time, the guitar sounds like the sick wheezing of some
mutated monster rotting away in a subterranean prison, and
whatever other manipulated instruments Nathan Michaels employs are
dim, wrecked shadows of their former glory.
"Aphotic" is an adjective meaning "having no light." It can also
describe any part of the ocean where light from the sun cannot
reach. It's useful to think about the types of creatures that live
in that part of the ocean for the purposes of imagining what
portions of this record sound like. Though it begins with the
seemingly innocent striking of rather unaltered piano melodies,
the album quickly dissolves into a murky wash of thickly distorted
guitar and other resonant, full sounds. The image of a leviathan
swallowing up the ocean floor isn't an inappropriate one as the
music seems to rumble by; the music doesn't simply emerge from the
speakers and pass into the air, it exerts a physical presence on
my ears and presses the warmth right out of the room.
Amid all the darkness, however, are some finer, brighter moments
where Michaels' talent for powerful arrangements really stands
out. The beginning of the record is fantastic, the music emerging
from a hail of static and sizzling electronics. It sounds as if
the album will be meditatively dismal for some time, the fuzz
sounding like nothing more than a minor detail. A xylophone or
some kind of hammered instrument makes a brief appearance,
bringing to mind the work of Bohren und der Club of Gore. The
careful introduction of added noise and the piano's slow decay
flesh the album out perfectly, juxtaposing two extremes tastefully
while holding two rather disparate elements of the album together.
Michaels' moves quickly: in the first six minutes of the piece he
has already developed a natural crescendo and plunged the album
into a quiet, brooding place. By the time the guitar erupts, it
feels natural, an explosion resulting from a natural increase in
pressure.
That sense of a natural progression, which permeates the entire
album, emphasizes just how subtle and powerful Michaels' is as a
composer. By staying within the parameters of a few effective and
complimentary instruments, he manages to craft an entire world of
sound with viscerally effective moments. Half Makeshift is a name
I'll be looking out for in the future and, with any luck, James
Plotkin will be on board again to handle the mastering job: the
clarity and immediacy of the sounds on Aphotic Leech stand out in
my mind. Despite many of them being heavily processed, they sound
full and vibrant on the record, adding an extra punch to an
already impressive record."
http://brainwashed.com
"Deep rumblings open Aphotic Leech, Nathan Michael's debut cd.
It's a preparation for a trip through dark spaces.
Half Makeshift offers us a suite for soft but sonorous pianochords
slowly evolving into thundering drones. The process to come to the
result may be different, but the processed piano sounds bring to
mind William Basinski's recordings of decay. Here this melancholic
feeling is countered by soft noises that, over the course of the
piece, grow into thundering riffs that would do Sunn0))) proud.
There's a keen ear for detail, with sounds from various sources
being processed into sounds of a more textural nature. All in
service of the great atmosphere that is being laid out during the
36 minutes of the piece.
The interplay between disturbing dissonance of the huge drones,
and more delicate screechings and the harmonious piano and ambient
elements make Half Makeshift's strong debut is a dark trip, but at
the same time manages to offer a lot of variation. That makes this
a very listenable drone-album that you don't necessarily have to
feel like some other projects in this area of music."
www.musiquemachine.com
www.myspace.com/halfmakeshift
p l a y l i s t
01 Apothic Leech 35:22
35:22 min
g r e e t i n g s
agw - amok - bass - bcc - bex - boss - cmg - cmc - cms - d2h
def - dh - disc0 - drum - emp - ftd - fwyh - gem - i8 - ipc
jce - jfk - jrp - just - khz - kinky - kw - lame - maem - mbs
mgc - psycz - r2r - rac - radial - rapid - rks - rtb - sb
sever - sfe - soup - sour - sq - tr - trt - ube - uc - upe
uki - xtc - yard - zi
respect to music lovers worldwide
never forget : go to the show. buy the t-shirt. order the vinyl