»first« by Various Artists

the first release by -n has a sense of cohesiveness and maturity that many long-running labels never attain. the cohesiveness is provided by the constant of noise; the music is more brightly colored than the typical browns, blacks and greys than the notion of noise typically suggests. the use of noise as music is about breaking conceptions. a ghost of an echo can become musical and arrest us in a way a note from a guitar cannot. we cannot listen expecting the sounds we have grown used to - we listen as if hearing music for the first time. we listen to the sounds we have been taught to ignore all our lives. we become aware of these sounds, these aural shapes, timbres and shadows. may we never walk through an empty hall, a quiet garden or a busy street the same way again.

andrey kiritchenko kicks it off with some itchy goodness in the form of ‘spreading comets.’ brooding melodic suggestions create a mood, a sense of space that begins the journey. c6 starts your head nodding with ‘dusty link,’ proving along the way that noise and melody are not mutually exclusive. following is a fine minimal dance choon by klitekture records’ lod. ‘esponja 5’ is minimal at its glitchy best, a track perfectly at home on the dancefloor and on headphones.

the dictionary describes coeval as ‘contemporary,’ but we think their music is the sound of tomorrow. think of the movie bladerunner sounding as gritty as it looked and you have coeval’s ‘fluido y neutro,’ a track that is as much a vision as it is a song. muffrare continues that vibe with strong percussive workout in ‘itt.’ fracture noise pulls us firmly back onto the dancefloor with ‘esc,’ a track that is pure evocation. it is rife with suggestions of memories, spectres of feelings.

by the time g_n44f’s ‘conjunction’ is playing, you are firmly within the realm of noise, listening not only to a vision, but listening to something near you that you can’t quite define. irish pulls the tempo back down with ‘mic check,’ a steady and relaxing track that lulls you while the voice keeps your ears perked. shalma- edges into deep house territory with ‘foppish-foppish’. don’t get too comfortable, tho - shalma- throws a curve before the end. the release closes with masaya sasaki’s ‘major7,’ a meditation on music and noise that provides closure to this journey while leaving the door ajar for what may lie ahead. - by arp laszlo