Audio Recording Reviews for 2020-03-23

I have decided to review albums, EPs, singles, Longform tracks, etc. and tell you my thoughts about them on a weekly basis. Each week I will discuss 5 recently released releases, listing them from newest to oldest, in a brief single paragraph format. I want to tease you about these recordings so that you decide to check them out for yourself and form your own opinions. Here is this week's batch.

• Arek Gulbenkoglu - "The Golden Age" Released: 2020-03-22 Type: Longform Track Label: Erstwhile Records Download / Stream: Bandcamp

  Love it! I am usually not a fan of Arek's work, but I can't stop listening to this recording. The whole thing sounds like a baby electronic device is having a fit in an open room. I'm a big fan of people recording electronics in open rooms, it sounds like you are there watching the event unfold. I'm not sure what Arek is doing on this track but he does say that playback recommended via speakers. I have only listened to it via headphones and I'm enjoying the shit out of it. The track was released as part of Erstwhile Records AMPLIFY 2020: Quarantine which was series of releases issued during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

• Code Orange - "Underneath" Released: 2020-03-13 Type: Album Label: Roadrunner Records Buy / Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube

  Not a fan. Code Orange is a good band, but this a bad record. It sounds like they are trying to do too much, mixing in their influences from industrial, metal, rock, and hardcore genres into a mixture that does not work for me. There may even be a kitchen sink involved. Various bands that have done what they are trying to do but much better and that sound less forced, for example Slipknot. You may have a different opinion.

• Squarepusher - "BE UP A HELLO" Released: 2020-01-31 Type: Album Label: Warp Records Buy / Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube, Warp Records Store

  Love it! It is Squarepusher's most concise, focused, and to the point record yet. Strong melodies, haunting melodies, mesmerizing drums patterns, and bleeps / bloops. The track sequence is great, it directs the listener through a well paced progression. I can't stop listening. Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson) has created an instant classic in the IDM genre despite the fact that his amazing bass playing skills, showcased on earlier works, is not present.

• Beach Slang - "The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City" Released: 2020-01-10 Type: Album Label: Bridge Nine Records Buy / Stream: Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube, Bandcamp

  Not a fan, but I wish I was. I really wanted this record to be amazing but it is not. "Broken Thrills", the combination of their first two EPs, is my favorite album of the last decade so I am always excited for a new Beach Slang album. "The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City" is an album that does not feel finished. It's a bunch of ideas / riffs that are just repeated over and over and do not go anywhere. I do not understand why the last 3 minutes of "Bar No One" are on this record, they do not fit the tone. Oh well, maybe the next record will be my jam.

• Makoto Oshiro / Yan Jun - "A Rose with No Name (Sorry)" Released: 2019-12-29 Type: Album Label: Ftarri Buy / Stream: Bandcamp

  Really like it! Makoto Oshiro and Yan Jun, musician/sound artists in the world of experimental music, have come together and created something that is right up my alley. "A Rose with No Name (Sorry)" is a collections of actions, actions producing clicking sounds and actions producing feedback. The best way to describe this record is a son playing with his toys while their father is in the same room dicking around with his electric guitar feedback. It's a good time in my opinion.