Norken – Soul Static Bureau

Soul Static Bureau is an album by Norken that was first released in 1999 on the label Beau Monde, then later re-released in 2001 on the label Hydrogen Dukebox. This album is IDM and deep house.

This is a really amazing album and one of the best house albums ever made. This album has such a great vibe, crisp and clean, robotic yet emotional. The album is full of dope (and very well mixed) sub-bass that really helps deliver the awesome rhythms that are present. There is also some dope IDM and tech-housey shuffling percussion too that helps build up and complicate the rhythm. Its done in such a way that’s its both simple and minimal, but has a complexity to it too. There’s of course obvious heavy house influences in the percussion too. Melodies have lots of slow synths, tons of little blips and bleeps, and some more synths. In a few tracks there’s some cut up acoustic instruments too, which despite the very electronic sound in the rest of the album, this tracks still very much work. The melodies on this are awesome, ranging from very robot sounding stuff, to happier stuff, to more serious stuff. The track “Motor Breeze” is really amazing. Also, I LOVE the album cover, its very aesthetically pleasing but also really goes with the music. Sadly though, the 1999 version has a boring ugly cover.

Listen to this awesome for free and purchase here

https://hydrogendukeboxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/soul-static-bureau-duke083

B. Fleischmann ‎- The Humbucking Coil

The Humbucking Coil is an album by B. Fleischmann ‎that was released in 2006 on the label Morr Music. This album is IDM.

This is a really nice IDM album that utilizes lots of post-rock elements. There’s lots of calm guitar and and acoustic percussion. The melodies are really nice and slowly build up in the songs. The tracks are all really downtempo too. He sings in a few tracks too, which is always a nice addition to IDM. This is a really nice album.

Listen to this awesome album here

Merry Noise

Merry Noise were an electronica duo from the early 80s that consisted of Fumitoshi Ishino and Hidehiko Yoshino. The music they put out consisted of proto-IDM, ambient, experimental, and synth-pop. I don’t know if this stuff was ever officially released, but it has been uploaded by Takkyu Ishino (Fumitoshi Ishino) on YouTube.

The tracks range a bit. There’s some tracks that sound a lot like IDM (but came before IDM got started), these tracks feature drill n bass-style percussion, and IDM melodies and elements, but have that 80s underground Japanese experimental flare to them. There’s also some experimental / experimental ambient tracks. These ones sound darker, and are also pretty cool. There’s also a Depeche Mode cover present in this batch of songs.

Listen to these awesome tracks here

Mu-Ziq ‎- Lunatic Harness

Lunatic Harness is an album by µ-Ziq (sometimes written as Mu-Ziq) ‎that was released on a few different labels jointed together, the main being Virgin, in 1997. µ-Ziq isn’t that obscure (especially considering that he’s done an album with Aphex Twin) and he now runs one of the main IDM labels, Planet Mu. Planet Mu was just a sub-label / category thing of Virgin at the time this album was released, but Mike Paradinas (µ-Ziq’s real name) pushed Planet Mu into an independent label. Despite µ-Ziq not being that obscure, I’m posting this anyways because he’s like my favorite musician, and this is one of the best albums ever created.

This album is IDM and Drill n Bass, with lots of elements of jungle (but zero ragga vocals). µ-Ziq is known for his fun and very unique melodies. His melodies are often untypical of the genre and makes him really stand out. But, in this album (and many other works of his) he perfectly blends his own unique style with more expected melodies and vibes of IDM, creating awesome melodies and an awesome listening experience. One of the things that makes IDM my favorite genre is how artist blend the happy and the melancholic together, perfectly into one awesome experience that is both cheerful and sad. Of course some tracks on this lean more towards happy or more towards brooding, but both sides are awesome.

This leads me to my next point, µ-Ziq does a great job of mixing the aggressive and the beautiful; another thing I love about IDM. Awesome drill n bass and jungle breaks hard beats and fast tempos over really pretty and calm melodies. Its awesome and µ-Ziq does a great job doing it.

Lunatic Harness is an awesome, excellent, and actually perfect, album. µ-Ziq lets his very unique style shine while still delivering excellent and top notch IDM that gives you all the vibes you expect and want, but also so much more, in a really unique package.

Now here’s probably too many YouTube links

Ulrich Schnauss ‎- Far Away Trains Passing By

Far Away Trains Passing By is an album by Ulrich Schnauss ‎that was released in 2001 on the label City Centre Offices. It was later re-released in 2005 on the label Domino USA with a bonus CD that has a full-length of bonus tracks on it. This review is for the 2005 version. This album is IDM.

I’ve been obsessed with this album ever since I heard back in middle school. The compositions on this album are crazy good. Ulrich Schnauss is incredibly good at making happy uplifting IDM melodies. The melodies sound so joyful but don’t over-do it which only deepens their sincerity. The melodies are accompanied by awesome bass that plays along the synths which sounds awesome and helps push the full effect. These tracks sound like the soundtracks for happy days and being outside.

There are also some more serious sounding tracks on this album too. These tracks are also really good and have a different vibe but a very similar sound to the other tracks. There is also some usage of vocals in a few tracks on the bonus disc, but only one track has actual vocals, but even so they’re used more as an accent, another layer of sound in the beautiful harmony.

Listen to this awesome album here

魔ゼルな規犬

魔ゼルな規犬 (Mazelnakiken) is a street performer, sound poet, and musician. He’s part of Japan’s currently ongoing performance art scene, which I’ve posted about before. 魔ゼルな規犬 is both the name of the horse headed guy, real name Daisuke Inoue, and his music “group” which consists of himself, a doll, and every now and then his girlfriend.

魔ゼルな規犬 is known for his extremely fast ranting. His distinct voice sounds awesome with how fast he rants at people on street corners, in parks, outside venues, and so on. He does both street and venue performances, and oddly enough his attire usually changes depending on what kind of performance it is. Usually an all black suit with a non-matching tie for venues then much more casual outfits with flip flops of all things for street performances. I feel its important to point out the flip flops, lots of these performers get arrested or violent responses from the forced audience, wearing shoes that aren’t good for running shows how little he cares about being arrested.

His performances usually consist of walking around, standing, pacing, whatever while ranting and yelling very fast, often amplified. Sometimes he uses props like dildos, big notebooks, his girlfriend, and the doll. He seemingly uses the doll for social commentary, performances where its used he has conversations with the doll while turning the camera on people. Also during venue performances he will often randomly play the drums, often moving his head in a way that suggests its beautiful while he taps the cymbals offbeat.

Surprisingly though, unlike the rest of the scene this dude doesn’t really do noise music. Instead he does IDM, ambient, breakcore, and sometimes rather lengthy spoken word pieces. His style is really pretty sounding and he uses samples of speaking in a pretty unique way, hard to explain but you’ll know what I mean when you hear it. He sometimes rants over his music for performances.

His website is extremely hard to navigate since EVERYTHING moves and there’s a million links. Here are links to the pages that have music, just right click the links and click “save as”.

http://www.geocities.jp/mazerunakikennnnn/kyoku-1.html

http://mazelnakiken.cho88.com/kyoku-1.html

http://www.geocities.jp/mazerunakikennnnn/ladio.html

http://mazelnakiken.cho88.com/NDSK-1.html

Also, here’s the homepage in case you want to explore around a bit more: http://sitenn.finito.fc2.com/1.html

Here’s some videos of his performances. Sadly looks like a bunch of videos went down. One of the ones that went down was a street performance with an unknown girl that involved public masturbation, skirt flipping (on minors), and molestation; brilliant~! Really wish it was still on Youtube.

You can also see some folks who I’ll be posting about in time~

Hrvatski – Swarm & Dither

Swarm & Dither is an album by Hrvatski that was released in 2002 on the label Planet Mu. Hrvatski is known for his unique take on breakcore, drill and bass, and IDM.

Hrvatski’s stuff is very spastic, constantly changing and mismatching drums with a multitude of various effects. His music is ever changing yet consistent at the same time. His breaks are awesome and the amount they mix up in the songs leads for an awesome listening experience. He also takes on a very abstract feel, abstract experimental breakcore and IDM, the two genres being perfectly blended together. His melodies are beautiful and use lots of stuff like guitars. The tracks range from fast-paced breakcore, dope IDM, ambient, and his abstract breakcore. His music is very unique, constantly evolving, breaks that constantly fade in and out of intensity and fractured apart experimentalism drowned in effects and tempo changes.

He’s one of my absolute favorite musicians, listen to the full album here (Also, he remixes Kid606):

https://player.spotify.com/album/1BWcr5O78mwjGdqTJlbMrK

[MIDDLE SCHOOL MONDAYS] T.Raumschmiere ‎- Radio Blackout

Radio Blackout is an album by T.Raumschmiere that was released in 2003 on the label NovaMute. The album is mostly techno but also has some IDM stuff and a rap track. This was one of the first albums I bought and I got it for like $2 in a clearance bin.

The techno tracks are fun and some of the melodies and synthesizer choice give it a distinct sound, lots of somewhat dirty bass. They’re usually on a simpler side due to his “electronic punk” aesthetic. The IDM tracks are really good.

Also, this will be the final post of the Middle School Mondays series. I can post a lot more to keep it going but since all the other posts for it were turntablism I’m worried that people who dislike the genre will skip over future posts and miss out on stuff. So I’ll just post other middle school era findings as regular posts~

Listen to the full album here

https://player.spotify.com/album/6GSUR24vKSbLN95T8Uj63P

Quinoline Yellow – Uchel001

Uchel001 is an EP by Quinoline Yellow that was released in 2005 on the label Uchelfa. This EP is IDM.

I love this release~! It has awesome IDM tracks~! Beautiful warm electronic melodies and dope IDM percussion. Some of the tracks have the complex yet “normal” drum patterns that are known for in the genre. The second track “Cawl” sounds like he has heavily mixed in processed found sounds for the percussion and it sounds awesome~! The third track “Cyriack Parasol” is much faster than the rest of the EP and has really good fast IDM beats.

This is a great EP, listen for free and purchase here

https://uchelfa.bandcamp.com/album/uchel001

Bochum Welt – Feelings On A Screen

Feelings On A Screen is an EP by Bochum Welt that was released in 1997 on Rephlex, as both a 12″ and shaped CD. This EP is IDM.

I love Bochum Welt a lot, his melodies are so awesome. He has that 90s somewhat muted sound which creates an awesome and unique vibe compared to other genres/eras. The EP sounds really pretty and I love it~!

Here’s a pic of that shaped CD~

Listen to the EP here