Radian
(Thrill Jockey)
The fourth album from long-running Viennese experimenters Martin Brandlmayr, Stefan Nemeth and John Norman plays with the boundaries between rock and minimalist electronics. Two shorter pieces near the front- "Git Cut Noise" and "Git Cut Derivat" - arrange and rearrange small amounts of prickly sound elements, crashes, beeps and feedback-bent guitars, into austere, tightly restrained patterns. These two cuts require the most of the listener, offering more to think about than pure enjoyment.
As the album progresses, however, looser, more rhythmic and accessible compositions prevail, built on identifiable elements of guitar, bass, synthesizer and drums. "Chimera," at the midpoint, stirs slowly to life out of mysterious textures of cymbal and synthesizer, its organic tones glitching into a half live, half manipulated beast. "Kinetakt" is even more impressive, building out of taut, tense minimalism into dense, dissonant full-ness, driven by multiple, sometimes conflicting rhythms. But "Subcolors," ending the disc, is unequivocally its peak, lucid, calm and radiant, as it layers bell-like washes of clarity over twitchy, subtly agitated beats.
Standout Tracks: "Subcolors", "Kinetakt" JENNIFER KELLY
