a r t i s t : VA
t i t l e : Ian Hawgood / Les Mepris / Ryu Furusawa Split
d a t e : 2009
l a b e l : Mobeer
c a t : mobeer007
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Electronic/Ambient/Experimental
r l s. d a t e : May/2009
t r a c k s : 12
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 88,10 MB
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boomy:
*STRICTLY LIMITED HAND-PACKAGED TRIPLE 3" CD FROM MOBEER - 300
COPIES ONLY FOR THE WORLD HOUSED WITH A PRINTED MOTEER
BEERMAT, EACH COPY INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED AND ASSEMBLED *
Mobeer return with another gorgeous collection of homespun
electronics and ambrosian ambience spread across three cd's in
one sublime handmade package. Kicking off the hand-wrapped
party is Home Normal's Ian Hawgood who gently coaxes us into
the collection with a masterclass in long-form ambience. Like
a more organic variant of Machinefabriek, this is a deft
spread of tracks - textured and frayed, blessed with the most
well-tamed of field recording and crackling drones to lull you
deep into the comfort of blissed out ambience. Next up we're
introduced to the sweet tinkling of a toy piano charmed by Les
Mepris, apparently a young Japanese starlet with a sublime
line in post-Goldmund meditations that are all the more
beautiful for the hint of mystery surrounding the recordings.
Rounding up the triptych comes possibly the oddest addition -
genuine Japanese feller Ryu Furusawa who convinces us that
J-Pop and Aphex-era electronica are a match made in Valhalla.
With twinkling music-boxes and padded beats this is the
perfect end to a really rather special package - and as usual
these never ever last very long so don't sleep! Lovely.
fishy:
From the opening moments of Ian Hawgood's Ro Soku Water right
through to the final seconds of Ryu Furusawa's Nobody Knows,
this is a release of such wonderful quality and beauty that
I'm already struggling to find the words to do it justice.
Balancing electronic tones and textures with organic sounds,
each artist delivers a perfectly lovely 4 tracks that should
leave you, good listener, with an immense sense of warmth and
happiness. Hawgood's tracks are deep, dense, yet light and
airy and have a musicality that really shines through. Owing
as much to shoegaze (in style, if not sound) as to
contemporary electronica, these pieces are truly lush. Le
Mepris' opening piano piece is gorgeous. Refined and paced
just right it works to create a splendidly deep atmosphere.
From there the pieces gradually add in layers of sound and
texture with a grainy feel, yet never lose sight of the
majesty of the original piano lick. Ryu Furusawa's tracks
really are a revelation. From playful ambience, music box
tones and melody mixed with soaring strings through to a more
rhythmic - I'm almost tempted to say techno, but that wouldn't
be quite right - and syncopated sound there's enough here to
make you feel you're listening to an entire album rather than
an EP. And I must confess I'm rather looking forward to
hearing more from all of these artists. All in all you simply
can't go wrong at all. Another first class release from Mobeer
and, as usual, you'll want to get in quick because these will
fly! Highly recommended. Oh, and a special mention must go to
Furusawa's A Starlit Night which is so perfectly spangly,
pretty and generally lovely that I was reminded of the snow
level from Sega's incredible Nights Into Dreams.
normy:
Mobeer, mo' problems.. I think I've used that before. Number
007 in the beermat-mounted series features three whole 3" CDs
for you likely lads and lasses (well, maybe not lasses) to
wrap your Prince Charles' around. The first has Ian Hawgood
(oh good), who runs the fine Home Normal label, contributing
some lovely minimal droney bits for you to float off to. The
second has Le Mepris which I think is French for something in
the region of 'contempt' because I'm well cultured and watch
French films. This disc's probably my favourite of the three,
pairing up sinister-ised static-y broken radio sounds to bassy
melodies made on something which sounds oddly slap bang
inbetween an acoustic piano and an electric facsimile. Ryu
Furusawa completes the set with some swooningly pretty string
efforts, conjuring up an experimental chamber music feel
apparently all on his tod before branching out into bubbling
electronica. A pleasantly varied and excellent release as
usual and sure to sell out in about three minutes..
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CD1
01-Ian Hawgood - Ro-Soku Water [01:53]
02-Ian Hawgood - Tepu [05:51]
03-Ian Hawgood - Haika [08:27]
04-Ian Hawgood - Map Rusu [05:38]
CD2
01-Les Mepris - Nakano [04:00]
02-Les Mepris - Uso [04:50]
03-Les Mepris - Sagi-Shi [06:25]
04-Les Mepris - Arashi [05:37]
CD3
01-Ryu Furusawa - Oneday [05:36]
02-Ryu Furusawa - A Starlit Night [04:12]
03-Ryu Furusawa - Milly [02:40]
04-Ryu Furusawa - Nobody Knows [09:27]
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64:36 min