94diskont

Oval's 1996 masterpiece, 94diskont, is perhaps the defining album of the glitch subgenre of electronic music. Markus Popp of Oval was one of the founding pioneers of the genre (along with Christian Marclay) and uses the "aesthetic of failure" to create beautiful soundscapes evoking a variety of emotions using source material of beeps, clicks, scratches, and other "bad" sounds. In fact, this album was created mostly through destroying old LP records and splicing their sounds together. Like fellow glitch master Christian Fennesz's Endless Summer, 94diskont could change the way you hear and think about music.The sprawling opening track, "Do While," is a slow exploration of a simple repeated theme that is sure to be ingrained into your head before the 25 minutes are up. Taking hints from minimalist composers such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich, Oval uses repetition to create a subtle but striking build-up that needs every second of the track to truly evolve. "Store Check" continues in the same subtle mannerisms. "Line Extension," the track that drew me to this album in the first place, is just brilliant. At times I don't even know what sounds I'm hearing, but they blend together into such a fluid movement that I find myself getting swept in every time I hear it. "Cross Selling" and "Shop In Store" also develop repetetive themes like in "Do While," though they are a bit more jarring and exciting because of the harsher sounds used. "Do While Apple-X" returns to the same theme as the album's opener, bringing the listener back to the beginning of the journey and completing a truly fantastic album.

Endless Summer; I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling

Prompted by its surprise appearance in a very vivid dream, I gave another listen to Endless Summer by Christian Fennesz, considered one of the masterpieces of the glitch genre. As I usually am when something inexplicable compels me to listen to something, I was blown away. The album is subtle genius: it combines fuzzy glitch electronics with acoustic guitar strumming to create something that is both artificial and yet deeply human. The result is an awe-inspiring soundscape of pure nostalgia, for what I can't quite place. All I know is that this music perfectly expresses the same feeling of bittersweet hopelessness that settles in when something reminds me of times past. I don't know how Fennesz captures the feeling of good things coming to an end (hence the title) so well, but it's really beautiful.

Another intriguing album I revisited toward the end of my winter break was Kelley Polar's I Need You To Hold On When The Sky Is Falling. When I first listened, I was surprised by 1) the fact that Kelley Polar is actually a man named Michael Kelley and 2) the sparseness of what I thought was going to be a lush album of layered electronics. Having been compared to Junior Boys, it deserved another chance to really sink in, so I gave it one to no disappointment. The songs, like those of Fennesz described above, are bittersweet in that they have dance synths and club beats but also evoke melancholic feelings of emptiness and isolation. Despite the colors of the album cover, the album is actually quite dark and a bit disturbing, especially the track "Chrysanthemum." But the music is still really affecting throughout, just not in the way I initially expected.