Artist : Platform
Title : Distanced
Genre : Electronic
Year : 2008
Date : 03/06/2009
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 05
Label : Minimal Resource Manipulation
Source : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 30:19 min
Size : 40,8 MB
Tracklist:
----------
01.In Praise Of Rust 07:26
02.Spectre 03:29
03.The Drained Lake 06:02
04.Brittle Boned 07:26
05.White Space 05:56
-------
30:19 min
Platform delivers another very fine release on his own MRM imprint. Essentially a CDr to keep you going
until the next full length album, this is a focused, varied and engaging series of cuts. Carrying on the
experimental tones of the Platform 2, this has moments that get right into the nitty gritty of sound design
and construction. Tense textures, static sounds and shifting melodic elements give you a sense of space,
whilst during the shorter tracks there's a more abrasive sense of off-kilter percussion. Add to that some
rumbling, dron-esque underlying sounds and you've got yourself a great CD. I'm thinking that fans of
Sebastien Roux and Room40 as well as Raster Noton are going to love this. Props to label and artist for
providing us with more interesting, low-key material. Great stuff.
(Smallfish Records)
I seem to recall writing about a CD by Platform a bit ago and thinking it was pretty cool. Well Matthew
Atkins makes a welcome return with his 5 track CD 'Distanced'. It's kinda weird, mellow electronics with
the emphasis on synth sounds and futuristic ones at that. Lots of tones, hisses, blips and metallic sounds
create a sense of rhythm without percussion. 'Brittle Boned' has some wicked eerie atmospherics,
electronic drips and clicks. I think I've said this before but I can well imagine this guys stuff coming out on
Raster Noton.
(Norman Records)
There's one aspect of electronic music production that has long annoyed me and that is the use of
deliberately painful high pitched sounds for prolonged periods of time. Platform (Matthew Atkins) opens his
album Distanced with 3 minutes of the most alienating high pitch sitting above the background texture. It's
unfortunate because every time I listen to the album it puts me in a negative frame, undermining much of
the excellent sounds that follow. I normally end up fast forwarding through the section and then feel I'm not
being fully immersed in the work.
What follows it is actually quite good. Simple textures and ambient sounds are processed without ending
up sounding overly digitised. As the ear tunes in to the various timbres, very recognisable sounds emerge -
a flittering typewriter, a modem connection, crinkling paper. A nice balance is developed between
expansive backgrounds and intimate foregrounds. As the half hour of music across the disc evolves, a
definite arc can be traced as proceedings become quieter and quieter and the listener is drawn in to a
more active role. Sounds are stripped to bare particles, gently flowing across the stereo spectrum.
I've taken to listening to this disc without its first 3 minutes. While the overall scheme of the recording - a
gradual shift from aggressive alienation to intimate caressing - makes sense of the initial piercing, it's hard
for all the warmth of the latter half of the disc to coax me out of the bad mood that one sound can put me
in. Without it I can enjoy the entire journey much more effectively.
(Cyclic Defrost)
Despite it's lo-fi colour xerox exterior, Platform capably represent a school of thought that perhaps began
with Shuttle 358, deploying an armoury of undisclosed digital techniques, and sampler-play to activate an
abstract field of sound that could never conceivably be termed ômusicö. Platform experiment with a
reduced atmosphere, minimal scenery given dramatic light and shade with various events that range from
the serene, to gristly an dynamic swirls of sound. The work of Richard Devine springs to mind here, or
perhaps early work by Duul_Drv. These 5 pieces, encompass a range of techniques, all predominantly
minimal in feel, with plenty of empty spaces and un-announced silences to reduce the pace. Highlights
perhaps would be Brittle Boned, and finale, White Space, just for their sheer ambition and dynamics , as
well as an oblique choice of sounds. Well worth a listen. BGN
(White Line)
It's nice when the label's name faithfully describes how the music was made, and it's also great to see that
a handmade limited edition hides a talent that deserves acknowledgement, especially in virtue of a well-
visible compositional individuality in a field - that of home-produced electronics - which defining
ôcongestedö is almost pathetic by now, every computer or keyboard owner on the earth waking up one
morning and shouting ôI want to be creativeö at the sky, fists shaken in the air. Moreover, Matt Atkins - deus
ex machina behind the Platform project, this being its third release - wisely keeps things on the short side,the cothfrôSbuunslindiscse http://www.minimalresourcemanipulation.co.uk/ly conceived work.ewhat gratified for having beenorn,