[mi098] : Daily misconceptions - If I hug your sweaters will they get their colour back?

[mi098] : Daily misconceptions - If I hug your sweaters will they get their colour back?
The first impression you receive from daily misconceptions' new EP "if I hug your sweaters will they get their colour back?" is kind of tangible. João Santos was pushed away from a more spatial and ethereal sound. The outcome of this new work is further peaceful and secure. A new adventure and a new approach.

But remaining itself faithful to a episodic musical construction where we move forward among rhythmic and tuneful phrases, that adjust swiftly and grow between themselves to something bigger: each music of this new EP. It seems to be more earth-to-earth, and yet we go round and round in a carousel, among the warm colors that embrace and encourage us. It is also interesting, that once more, all the songs are linked with each other, involving and connecting us all the way through the EP.

"if I hug your sweaters will they get their colour back?" (2008) is far away from the polarities of its first EP "true project" (2002). Polarities that were apparently chaotic or organized, more or less apocalyptic, and most of the times almost cathartic, which made us fall into an insomnia trap until we realize that that was exactly crucial. Another difference between these two EP's is the graphical design of the new edition: out of the illustrated loneliness of the urban landscape, we adjust to more sparkling and cuddling memories, suggested by the hand made element of the new graphical design. daily misconceptions new EP remains nonetheless, an intimate and open dreamlike sensation, and a communicative one too.

It's admirable to know there are still an impulsive and a spontaneous reaction in Portuguese music, and that some artists don't just follow neither standardized currents nor concepts, but merely create music without the fear to risk. Unfortunately, such projects continue without receiving the necessary attention and projection by the music industry and media. Blessings for the changes made by the Internet.

It is worth going to www.dailymisconceptions.net, were you can find the remaining work of daily misconceptions. All available for free download.
Sara Esteves

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album98.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/
http://www.myspace.com/dailymisconceptions

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[mi097] : Lolicom - 2006 1 27

[mi097] : Lolicom - 2006 1 27
In this 38 minute long session, LOLICOM - japanese project directed by Daisuke Miyatani - manages to steal our attention, presenting us an
uncompromising soundwork, something that is rare nowadays.

After the sounds images succeed, for by being uncompromising towards the music, one can freely enjoy it - as a viewer - inside a big japanese house in which the walls are nothing else than paper sheets (fusuma), letting the sounds roam without any filter.

Or, imagine that we are attending to a 38 minutes long electronic music performance, free improv. and fluid one like a wallpaper, sounding like drops of
water that remain after a summer rain.

38 minutes of an ambient mashup that mutates into some kind of poetry.
Justin

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album97.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/
http://www.myspace.com/diskm

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[mi096] : table music meeting - Clockwork Lamp

[mi096] : table music meeting - Clockwork Lamp
It's pretty, it's simple,it's almost minimal, it charms and rocks you. No, it is not a musicbox, but it could almost be one.
It is just "Clockwork Lamp", the japanese project Table Music Meeting's EP.

Four delicious and sometimes child-like tracks which seem, here and there, to be played by toy instruments. Four experiences where folk is the epicentre of emotional and nostalgic journeys to our deepest childhood memories, making us, even if for short while, close our eyes and smile earnestly.
Four sensitive and beautiful tracks which can, once again, testify for what may seem a cliché: less is more!
BrainDance

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album96.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi
http://www.myspace.com/tablemusicmeeting

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[mi095] : Lili Hirakawa - Spectrum

[mi095] : Lili Hirakawa - Spectrum
One of the most fascinating aspects of the netaudio phenomenon is the infinite margin left for experimentation and the breaking of every rule, taboo and format. The possibility of disobedience to the classic song format, not being concerned with the length of a theme, not being forced unto a chorus for immediate consumption, etc, etc, as said before, the infinite possibilities, are up to each producer to decide…

Spectrum is, apparently, a one-track EP. I stress the apparently because in practical terms we can consider a track with several tempos as a story with different chapters, where the perfect assemblage of certain sound elements act as a guiding line, reminding us in each new chapter, the main aspects of the previous ones.

This story, authored by the Japanese producer Lili Harakawa, is joyful, full of movement and filled with somewhat exotic colours, aromas and flavours. It is a dream where the electronics is both bridge and vehicle on a journey between the primordial elements air, fire, water and earth, and we definitely cannot get enough of it …
BrainDance

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album95.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi
http://www.myspace.com/peopleused2

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[mi094] : West Point - Night and the weekend

[mi094] : West Point - Night and the weekend
"Night and the weekend" is, as suggested by its title, an album to be listened to in quiet and comfort. More than the pleasure of listening to it and the aparent simplicity of its tracks, West Point suggests
physical comfort to truly enjoy this "Night and the weekend". The slow and patient way in which the various themes evolve (with emphasis on "Whereabouts" and "Ground") warms those that have cuddled up close to
West Point's fireplace.

The joint venture between a more acustic basis and another with firm roots in electronic music is uncompromising, and perhaps because of just that, it is also balanced and complementary. Piano sounds are constant, at times discretely and at other times in prominence, completing and spicying other instruments, whilst the balanced rythmic component softens the dramatic feeling that might have damaged the final outcome.

"Night and the weekend" feels like being listened to in that most comfortable place in our lives
Hugo Pedro

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album94.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/
http://www.myspace.com/westpointspace

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[mi093] : Long Desert Cowboy - Handmade Music 1999-2003

[mi093] : Long Desert Cowboy - Handmade Music 1999-2003
Once in a while, there is an album with such rawness that it becomes almost irresistible. This doesn't happen often, but it's certainly what can be found in this "Handmade Music 1999-2003" EP, by Daniel Catarino, in this case under the alias Long Desert Cowboy.

From the raw tape recordings of the opening and closing titles, to the aesthetical beauty of "Sacred Vows of Mother Earth" and the melodic growth of "Poor But Honest", this album, recorded, according to the author, from the age of 16 to his 20th birthday, is not a work of perfection, but it shows an immense creativity and a desire to turn simple melodies into instrumental songs.

Those who are familiar with Long Desert Cowboy's previous works, will certainly notice obvious differences when compared to the "horror-spaghetti" ambience of the debut EP's "Sandshoes" and "Western Spaghetti", since it's more of a rock record than a ambient/field recording exercise. Nonetheless, some of the present characteristics are there, and it cannot be an act of randomness.
It is important that you don't let this album slip through your fingers without listening to it.
Carlos Gonçalves


http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album93.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi
http://www.myspace.com/nervousstillness

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[mi092] : Sparagmos - Visceral

[mi092] : Sparagmos - Visceral
Sparagmos, a listener's journey into dark ambient noise.

Track 1 gives us relentless waves of distorted noise upon waves of distorted for 2'45'', when finally some percussive sounds can be clearly heard. The track then slows down and finishes after almost 5 minutes of dark ambient noise.

Track 2 starts in a quiet manner and track 1 now sounds like a [long] intro to this one. Voices [screams and what might be chants] muffled by noise intertwine with metallic noises for almost 6 minutes. This is, I must say, my personal favourite maybe due to its suggested, implicit grandeur.

Track 3 is the pièce de résistance here. This one is a long ride that starts with a percussive repetitive intro over which layers of both high pitched and low pitched noises are laid. Distortion is everywhere and suddenly the track moves to quiet end after over 10 minutes of oppressive dark ambient.

Track 4 is filled with a distorted voice, whose speech is unintelligible most of the time even though a few words can be understood (or maybe just guessed). Not enough to make anything of it, though. There's talk of unrest (?), action, secret (?) the name of God and…? The track comes to an end with a murmur and some static.

João Gonçalves

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album92.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi
http://www.myspace.com/nervousstillness

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[mi091] : step. - coldfront.1

[mi091] : step. - coldfront.1
Step's Coldfront.1 is a small EP about rhythimic pattern experimentation. Found sounds and field recordings are chopped up, sliced out and stitched again to form six different narratives about everyday life built using dissonant and mechanical soundforms.

Giant printing machines paired with half second guitar samples while a church organ slowly unfolds (cloudy). Heavy rain sounds mixed with even more guitars and keyboards (soft rain).

And then more variations of the same, changing only guitar chords and keyboards samples. Very enjoying and rather hypnotic pieces, althrough shorter. If you're in the mood for loop-based experiment stuff, this is the one to get now.

Pedro Leitão

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album91.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi
http://www.myspace.com/sutep

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[mi090] : Ultra Fuckers - Radio Controlled Scum

[mi090] : Ultra Fuckers - Radio Controlled Scum
Ultra Fuckers are scum.
But if there is a thing that Ultra Fuckers have taught me, it’s that not all scum is bad. It’s actually quite the opposite! This scum, led by Kawai Kazuki Langley, has come out of Osaka to show us their latest work. And they did it in the right time.

The EP starts with the screaming madness of ’mars sky’ (madness seems to be a defining trait of Osakan musicians), that gives place to a minute and eighteen seconds of an ethereal harmonica of ’evening after broke’.
Next up is ’radio controlled scum’, sprayed with a bit of krautrock to achieve a 7/10 on the earworm scale.

The fourth track is ’in the microwave’, which is the result of a risen-from-the-dead Edvard Grieg recomposing his ’In the hall of the mountain king’ with a synthesizer and sitting on a chair spinning in an otherworldly velocity. And finally, you have ’live20060409’ as a bonus, and it’s an extract from their exquisite live performances.
To sum it up: hooray for the scum!

Guilherme Bordeira

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album90.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/
http://www.myspace.com/ultrafuckers

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[mi089] : cancro - cancro EP

[mi089] : cancro - cancro EP
Cancro is isolation, transmutation, the painful invasion of cellular degradation.

The uncertainty and the tension of the maquiavelic and mechanical droning of this EP slowly rots the brain like the unstoppable and violent human demolition that it is.
Close to the musical universe of Steve Roachs The Serpent's Lair second disc (the dark one) minus the percussion, Cancro could be the perfect soundtrack to a John Carpenters movie that does not yet exist, fusing the heavy ambient of "Prince of Darkness" with the dementia of "In the Mouth of Madness".

Divided in 6 pieces with such revealing titles as "One of these days i'll shoot myself in the head and say it's you" (Um dia destes dou um tiro na cabeça e digo que foste tu) or "Dragging a body through the morgue's corridor" (Arrastando um corpo pelo corredor da morgue), Cancro will probably please Sunn o)) fans as well as William Basinski's, particularly the ones who like suffocation and agony soundscapes.
Hugo Filipe Lopes

http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album89.php
http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/
http://www.myspace.com/orcnac

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