Customer Reviews

Diskont

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

94 Diskont arguably did for music what Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon did for art: contributed to artist evolution using the established traditions of the medium and smashing it all to pieces. In an era when most musicians reach decades back to rummage through the classics vaults for inspiration, 94 Diskont comes off as a refreshingly forward-thinking album that doesn't quite abandon the electronic music of yesteryear, but rather turns it on its head in previously unimaginable ways. Oval's method of making music involves manually marring compact discs (with paint, magic marker, nails...) and piecing the damaged sounds together so that the resultant outcome is a dizzying sonic stew of clicks, scratches, and fragmented melodies. His previous album, Systemisch, was a fine work of electronic minimalism, but on 94 Diskont those shards have coalesced into actual songs with increased depth and complexity.

What's so remarkable about 94 Diskont is that pure technical and theoretical innovation is here used to create something that's both intriguing and beautiful (as opposed to the pop culture-driven skipping frenzies of John Oswald). "Do While" is the album's centerpiece track: a thick, meditative piece that doesn't grow weary over its ambitious 24 minutes. Shimmering bells crackle over a hazy, four-note organ drone-the musical equivalent of sleepless exhaustion or swimming through tranquil water. Other standout tracks include the bottom-heavy, menacing "Commerce Server" and "Shop in Store," whose manic, stuttering wails bring to mind a warped superhero theme.

Uncompromising though it may be, 94 Diskont reveals itself to be more accessible with subsequent listens; the warm, gooey textures of "Do While" and "Cross Selling" effortlessly pull the listener in, and even the colder songs are stunningly provocative. If the album is difficult in its scope and methodology, it's also one that reveals no influences and takes many risks, augmented by a keen sense of melody and songcraft. If ever a case had to be made that an odd musical approach can be aesthetically enjoyable, or that an album can transform into something far greater than the sum of its parts, 94 Diskont may be all the proof you need.

Oval's music is often the result of extreme deconstruction of other musical works. And on this release, the 24-minute showpiece "Do While" is no exception, taking a snippet of Steve Reich's "The Four Sections" and subjecting it to a bewildering computer/sampler-based de-and-reconstructive effort which renders the original source into a swirling, almost Balinese tapestry of bell fragments. This one track is definitely the draw here, but the shorter tracks also offer a good view into Oval's herky-jerky 'damaged CD' sound, with frequent dissonances in evidence. This is probably the best introduction to Oval for the casual listener, and it's an amazing straddling act, balanced on the corner of three fences between ambient, techno, and New Music. Strongly recommended for anyone who likes any of those styles, and especially for someone who can wrap their head around two or all three.

When I heard the track "commerce server" on KCMU, I knew I had to own it. Diskont reminds me of Eno's ambient works, updated to 90s electronica, after a quad espresso, made of metal. Part Cage, part Reich. Ive come to expect that only 1 in 5 CDs I buy will be truly interesting and wonderful. For me, this is that 5th CD. It resonates in my head well after I take the headphones off.

This is a good Oval album. For those that are new to Oval it is a good introduction and preview to his later works. The main track and A side on the record is a very long, very repetitive track with clicks and atmospheric synth sounds entitled "do while". Its enjoyable. This music calls to mind post modern nights in some international club. As the track suggests, you should do something while listening to this, as it is heavy on atmospherics, the perfect background for a mellow Saturday evening or music to listen to while surfing the web. Though I am not sure about the cd, the record version contains 4 remixes by excellent artists: Scanner, Christian Vogel, Jim O'Rourke, Mouse on Mars. Buy this record if you are looking to get into Oval, or, if you have already, buy it to round out your collection.

How can something so fractured and disjointed be so darned mesmerising? This is music to really listen to and immerse yourself in. Sounds wonderful with headphones - real sound painting experience for the head!

"Do While" just keeps on at you, for 24 minutes, seemingly monotonous, but sneakily interlacing irregular beats with insinuatingly jangly bits and pieces of distorted sound-world-spaces. Almost teasing, with its determination to suck you into its warped world view. Gimme more!

A month on, this CD is still getting a lot of airtime. It never ceases to amaze me how "Do While" does not waste one second of its 24-odd minutes and the follow-up tracks are strong enough to hold interest through the other 27 minutes of this fabulous glitch-journey.

The other stand-out track, and by far the edgiest is "Shop In Store" and it is a great lead-in to the 4m 50s of the "Do While" reprise that brings this amazing album to a close, which elicits a sense of diappointment the journey is over!

If you like quirky electronica, this is a CD for your collection.

While Oval's philiosphical stance of "spatial disorientation" and "interface noise" may scare off pedestrians, "Diskont94" is perhaps their most public-friendly offering to date.

The tones and sound-waves move like amniotic fluid, running through an ear-baffling, Escher structure. Digital errors are present to convey the reality that the music is all artifical. Overall, "Diskont94" exhibits images of a night-fallen 22st century city, as generated by a computer that's overloaded and choking on excess data.

I recommend the vinyl version, which contains some fantastic remixes by Jim O'Roarke, Christain Vogel and Mouse on Mars.

I wanted to describe this as "lounge noise," but that is too ambiguous. I don't mean background sounds from a swanky bar, but the kind of just-beyond-musical noise that might actually be played in such a club these days. Not jarring at all, very light and even respectful, these tracks have been put together with care to keep them subdued when in the background yet interesting when in the foreground. Electronic music with no constraints.

Fragmented mechanical order prevails as this experiment in noise surpasses much of what was to come afterwards. Splicing somewhere in between the warmth and rhythmic propulsion of Four Tet and the cold, robotic introspection of Fennesz, Oval's 94 Diskont has a sound all it's own that still holds up despite the deluge of imitators because of the sheer experimental fragmentation of all it's admirable production. Perfectly contrasted epic beginning (and ending) ambient exercise centered around chopped audio wonderdust ensures a welcome invitation to the genre.

While I must admit that the most recent Oval albums, "Dok" and "Szenariodisk" have failed to inspire me, 94Diskont is an album I never get tired of. Half of the CD is taken up by 'Do While,' the first track, and it reprises at the end of the CD as well. If 'Do While,' a repeating and slightly changing loops of tinkling bells and other sounds, is at all indicitive of the future of music, then I can sleep well from now on. It is, quite honestly, one of the most soothing pieces of music I own: 20 minutes of bliss.

Though the album is worth it for that track alone, many of the shorter tracks on the latter half of the album are excellent examples of Oval's computer-manipulated music, particularly "Shop in Store," which sounds as if constructed from an orchestral work, and "Commerce Server." Though I've heard people complain that Oval sounds like someone holding down the fast-forward button on the CD player, regardless it still sounds quite unique and very interesting.

Listening Oval is a romantic version of noise; neatly placed together into a smooth textured. A great but.