OPM: Gods of MIDI and Madness

Øy – Live

A truly unique collaboration between a tap dancer and a computer musician to create fascinating soundscapes and abstract electronic improvisations. The dancer’s taps trigger contact microphones, which feed data to the computer to generate sound, as directed by the musician. Oh, and it’s all improvised, live, in front of an audience. This truly one of a kind approach results in some truly surprising musical and sonic results. 

Rhythms come and go, stuttering here and pulsing there. Textures swirl around, melodies start to form then dissolve, harmonic structures shift in and out of being, dissipating like smoke before you can make sense of them. At times it sounds like the abstract side of techno; at other times, like weird, broken beat IDM. But mostly it sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, and isn’t that reason enough to check it out?

(Listened to the entire album)

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Archura – “Peachy Pink Skies”

A smutty, strutting synth pop anthem steeped in electro and queer culture. Lyrics that manage to be both suggestive and explicit are delivered in a breathless, sultry, classic synth-pop near monotone. 

The accompanying music is half raw electro – really raw, reminiscent of “Warm Leatherette” raw– and half pretty, swirling textural soundscape. It makes for a nice fit of the sounds and subject matter. 

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beeswithchainsaws – Brand New Awakening

A charming collection of MIDI Jazz done right, with a few wild and rewarding turns along the way. The core aesthetic embraces the kind of sounds that recall the glory days of FM music and 8-bit sound cards, MOD trackers and .mid files. Those sounds are used to bring some surprisingly funky, jazzy and soulful tunes to life. 

And, when you think you’ve got the idea of where things are going, it takes a hard left turn into irresistible dancefloor electro begging to be remixed into a ten-minute club version before winding up in funky breakbeat…trance? Somehow? A strange trip, but worth taking.

(Listened to the entire album)

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Brandon Invergo – Here, Beneath the Ash-Choked Sky

A gloomy, doomy portrait of humanity’s end painted in ambient, drone, spoken word, and soundscape. With at-times eerie, manipulated spoken word passages discussing dire topics like humanity’s failings and endings this might be a triggering listen for some. For those that like their ambient dark, despairing, and borderline disturbing, this will be a treat. 

And look, it’s not to say this isn’t pretty, even soothing at times – there are some gorgeous moments and it’s easy to forget the underlying message. So hey, embrace the darkness and give it spin.

(Listened to the entire album)

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The Liquid Clear – Appearance

A deep and thorough deconstruction of ambient and industrial elements into a minimal, haunting musical soundscape. Tiny bits of familiar sounds – a distorted guitar here, a little synth bass there – are spread out, splashed around and deployed in unusual and surprising ways. 

Spoken word vocals appear throughout, and bits of singing here and there, in various degrees of manipulation and intelligibility; always adding to the vibe, if not always to a discernible message. It’s a fascinating and exciting take that takes familiar concepts, goes in weird directions with them and gets winning results.

(Listened to the entire EP)

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Need a little more music? I’ve just released my new album, The Mechanics of Mysticism, and I’d appreciate it if you took a minute to check it out! It’s my finest work to date and a true representation of my aesthetics and capabilities as a musician. Plus, it’s real weird, just trippy as hell. I hope you like it.