Author: dave

“Dimitar Dodovski approaches his craft of granular synthesis from a melodic perspective at most definitely the warmer end of the drone spectrum. Opening track ‘I’ introduces, of all things, mallet-struck chimes amongst the digital layers. The mallets recur on the following track (‘II’), but only when you least expect them. Staccato synth rises from a mist-draped lake of sound, each milky chord change rung by a bell. Pixelated textures drop in, then out, then back into focus again as Dodovski deftly carries us along on his smooth, humid, watery journey. It’s a gradually, dreamily dissolving picture of serenity. Sounds to submerge yourself in. By track 4, handily entitled ‘IV (Soul)’ I am spellbound by such moments of beauty that I have stopped typing and words have totally evaded me. For several minutes. That’s really not a good thing for a reviewer — but it *is* a recommendation. So. There. Especially if you enjoyed Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani’s latest joint opus. The rest of the album is equally lush. Even the choral pads and New Age-isms of some of the sounds can’t detract from that. It’s so very tropical sounding, unhurried; I can imagine stop-motion photography of an orchid blooming afresh to each struck note. David Attenborough’s voice optional but not entirely unnecessary.” –Norman Records

40 microns thick. Japanese writing on peel-off strip.
330mm wide. 315mm to the top of sleeve, with 50mm flap (365mm overall length, top to bottom, without flap folded over). Gummy strip is 295mm from the bottom.

Resealable sleeves that fit over the usual jewel case. Protects and seals CD and seals on the top or long side of the jewel case. Has a peel off strip on the body of the bag which the flap sticks to. Can be opened and closed a number of times.Japanese writing on the peel-off strip.

Shawn Locus is a new addition to the Carpe Sonum roster, but his obvious alacrity with all things softly synthetic and sequenced heralds a brash new talent. At first glance, track titles don’t belie tangerine dreams as much as something wicked this way comes: “Tormented By A Living Paradise” and “Digesting the Corpse of All Existence” suggests that Locus is hardly interested in whiling away his days staring at little fluffy clouds. Titular imagery aside, there is something of a slight edge drawn about these engaging digital paradoodles, but the artist appears wholly infatuated with what his analog and digital tools can illustrate rather than getting lost in atmospheric reverie. Bleeps, bloops, and reverberations abound, punching through the air like materializing UFOs; microscopic sounds bray and billow as they’re coaxed from candy-colored filters and sentient plug-ins; pulsations mimic the silky hues of marimbas and vibraphones as they cluster about environments originated out of furry modules and gently sculpted plasma. In short, the burbles, bangles, and beads that render so much electronica endlessly magnetic and attractive are in full display here, ripe for the picking and ready for immersion. Is there in truth no beauty?

The music on this disc is the result of a strange and ridiculous ritual on a boat in the San Francisco Bay. People gathered in costume to dance and celebrate Halloween. Jonah Sharp aka Spacetime Continuum and Tasho Nicolopulos aka Its Own Infinite Flower improvised electronic soundscapes as the boat sailed among the bridges and islands, under the moon and fog. These recordings were captured in 2017 and 2018 at the annual Sunset Sound System Halloween cruise, originally issued on Reflective Records.

Special thanks to Galen, Solar, the extended Sunset Family, Pascal,
and Know:Audio.

Composed and performed by Jonah Sharp and Tasho Nicolopolus
Mastered by Mark Pistel

Tracks

San Pablo Bay 15:05
Empress Ice 17:17
Apparition 04:56
Angel Island 06:22
Seance 09:45
Rat Rock Island 19:54

The alias “Initial Programs” is a Mick Chillage project and was born in late 2016 after creating a track where all the sounds were created from scratch, basically from the default Initialised program setting of my Mopho X4 synth along with my MS20 mini etc.

The track I created appeared to have a lot of my electronic music genre influences, Techno, Electro, touches of the IDM movement, Ambient, Acid, so I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be an interesting project to create a release that brings together as many of my influences as possible by merging them into each track.

In 2017 I had finished the first EP and this was released through First Cut on 12″ vinyl in early 2018 and was very well received from many well known Techno & Electro DJ’s and producers. This kept the momentum going to hopefully create an albums worth of material.

So over the last few years I continued randomly producing works with this alias in mind with the hope of producing a full length album and by early 2022 I began selecting tracks to make a coherent album.

August 2023 finally sees the release “Are We Programmed” a twelve track album that features the three tracks from the EP for First time on CD and nine new previously unreleased works.

Multicast is back! Remember the heyday of IDM, circa 1995-2005? Well, here at Carpe Sonum we sure do, and we fairly revel in the kind of busybody squelch and phosphorescent electro Multicast has always dabbled in. Collecting choice tracks from across the pre- and post-millennial tensions dogging the edgy aughts, Travelogue is indeed the real deal, both a nifty summation of where Multicast is, was, and where they’re headed. Sounding contemporary as all get-out, the beatmusik on display here still astonishes after all these years, every bit as viral, vital, and vivacious as primo Anthony Rother, CiM, Bigeneric, or other similarly coiffed patternistas.

“Hall of the Inverted Mushrooms” works its slo-mo, psilocybin rollercoaster to the max, methodically waxing all kaleidoscopic along its thickening, soupy rhythm, synths simply candy-coated fairydust to be liberally sprinkled about the alienscape. The spit and splatter of “Foehn” is an instant reminder of how important Bob Moog was to electronica inventors worldwide, ‘cuz the razzle-dazzle of those sounds never grow old, bugs forever banging around their bassbins. “La Honda” was recorded live, its boots-stomping-in-the-mud beats and undergrowth crunch undoubtedly holding its enraptured audience completely under its spell. And a track such as “Green Sequence” is a reminder that Multicast knows how to get their chill freak flag on, a drunken swagger across verdant fractals where the fronds of 3D palm trees keep perfect time to the beat. You’re left hypnotized, sated, and satisfied. Boffo!