Joshua Manchester - Occident (2004)

Betasound

9.4

/Improvised music, Free Jazz, Chamber music, Musique concrète, Crossover, Spoken word, Avant-garde, Experimentalism, Electro-acoustic/

Comment: Joshua Manchester is a classically trained jazz composer/percussionist closely related to Chicago experimental jazz/improvised music scene. There are represented 10 compositions which used to variegate their shapes, change their patterns and constitute innovative, refreshing modalities. At times it delivers more jazz-centered pieces (especially by exploiting the whiffs of brass-wind instruments), sometimes it gets developed into chamber music/noir progressions, at times it used to be getting close to electro-acoustic/ambient music, sometimes Manchester has managed to showcase his aspirations through avant-garde characterized pitchbent effects and warped voice snippets. On the other side, Psycle Sluts takes on a storytelling endeavour slightly embellished with brassy sounds. The album will be ended up at get serious wrapped up in tight street sounds. Though the issue used to be a complex result, it is coherently composed and thereby vital and galvanic. An eminent outlet which deserves to be remembered.

Big City Orchestra - Submission Trax (2005)

Betasound

9.2

/Avant-garde, Experimentalism, Psych-folk, Weird pop, Poptronica, Experimental electronica, Sound-art, Acousmatics/

Comment: BCO has is a legendary avant-garde/art project from Los Angeles, California which embarked on in 1979. They have publicated about 130 hour-long releases and being an important chain in the cassette culture movement of the previous decades. They jumped out from the same nest as did other famous Californian cutting edge groups such as The Residents, and Negativeland, for instance. Their music has swerved in countless directions, veering from sound art and dada experiments and psycho-acoustic explorations to off-kilter electronica and sophisticated noise and acousmatic "folk" music. This set of handful of tracks (trax) consists of affected vowel experiments and electro-(acoustic) folk a la CocoRosie, loop-dominated deranged ambient music, and bristled conditional psych-folk music.