In the 1990s, the world of electronic music was a frontier where the unimaginable often happened. These were the days of early Aphex Twin, Basic Channel, Autechre and many more pushing at the vanguard, challenging what we might even consider to be music. A golden time, Musique Concrète’s underlying principles were reborn for a chemically enhanced generation of clubbers.
Quarter of a century into this millennium, while there are still outliers (such as, say, Oneohtrix Point Never or Simo Cell), the zeitgeist has moved on and, since the advent of dubstep, the sonic frontiers feel well explored. Like our own planet, there are not many places that haven’t been visited and documented.
But, now and then, an album arrives that wanders off into strange undergrowth, tickling the old Spidey senses. Such is the case with this collection by Brit-based Aussie Will Hofbauer and his London pal Jim Bremner, AKA Sandre Voss. The duo have form in exploring the offbeat, as label-owners and producers, notably via their whirm label, after which this album is titled and which, last year, created a set of bronze-filament sculptures containing a microchip that unlocked exclusive music.
Here are some words and phrases I scribbled down while reviewing these 10 tracks of sometimes danceable brain massage and weirdness: subterranean gloops, echoing plunks, liquid clanking, bizarre electro, crackle and burp, detuned radio clicks, the noise a person inadvertently makes upon an unexpected recollection crossed with a bird call. Comparatives, meanwhile, include Matthew Herbert’s collation of organic samples and electronic pulse, the breathy throb of Kraftwerk’s “Tour de France”, Pole’s humming dub-noise and the more esoteric side of Chicago’s footwork genre.
But whirm is its own creature, a set of instrumentals hung on enough percussion to be sometimes DJ-friendly, and which creates the rare thrill of sheer difference from the usual.
Below: Listen to "Jala" by Will Hofbauer & Sangre Voss
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