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Title:  9-16 Split Series Artist:  Duplo Remote; DAT Politics; Christoph De Babalon; Duplo Remote; Com.A; Kid 606; Process; Fennesz; Ma Label:  Fat Cat Format:  CD Price:  € 15.50   Mp3 samples:   1   2

Title Description:
The second compilation of tracks taken from the great split-12-series on Fat Cat records. You know them, those discs, innocuously packed in completely white sleeves with holes in them to mark the number of split-release (something I only realised after purchasing various instances of the series) and a black and white inner sleeve with all the information. If you saw those EPs but never bought one, because you just didnÕt quite know, then bang yourself in the head. Maybe this compilation right here will help you a little. Because within those anonymous sleeves is always at least two incidents of wonder and excitement, where artists from all sorts of progressive, experimental musical genres Ð from Merzbow to David Grubbs Ð try a little something, they maybe wouldnÕt dare anywhere else. (So they have been featured in here from time to time.) The compilation 9-16 has some tracks or parts from each of the artists featured on the last eight volumes of the series.

It all starts off with some electronic buggery, harsh breakbeats and effects-craziness of Duplo_Remote, Dat Politics, Christoph de Babalon, Com.A and, of course, Kid 606. Dat Politics takes that chapter into a funny and insightful irony of Hip Hop, which he calls Et Hop, fully equipped with straight and bassy dance-beats and scratching, but lets the whole track drop into a hole of synthies and keyboards for some reason. Maybe to make you stop dancing like an idiot. Com.AÕs Raider is a multi-layered bastard of all the ingredients fans of planet-mu and Tigerbeat6 might look for. Which cues Kid 606, who goes straight into glitches or maybe just mixing fast forwarded CD-players with some noises. Is it possible to say that Kid 606 is a little more experimental here than on his regular releases? Maybe. Keeping in mind the erratic and aleatory release-strategy of Kid 606, who dares to say?

Popbeat, a six-minute trip into the almost minimal but not quite area of popcorn-beats and atmospheric keyboards by Process gets us softly into the second and more relaxed part of the compilation. This track is one of my personal highlights, but I am also re-listening to my old Kompakt-records at the moment, so itÕs no wonder. LetÕs rephrase that to more silent and less harsh part of the record. To following artists the main point is not in shocking or producing frequencies far away from what a regularly conditioned hearing would regard as harmonious and beautiful, but rather in the fine and delicate levels between sounds. So we are looking at more intricate, experimental fields. Fennesz for instance comes close to modern jazz-sounds in what seems to be highly estranged guitar-chords. There are more intriguing sounds coming on, like a dreamlike noise-drone by Main or the inane chants-choir of Avey Tare. But I donÕt want to spoil your listening (and reading of this review) by going through all the tracks one by one. Also because each of the tracks would deserve more place and thought than I am able to give here. I never liked reviews that end with the sentence: There is something for everyone on here because that usually means there is a lot not for everyone. So for this time, letÕ suffice it to say that MatmosÕ Freak NÕYou is another highlight for you, mixing the funkiness of Timbaland with the splice-effects of Akufen. Anyone with an interest into this kind of music, should have ears far more open than just to be looking for a single genre or style anyway. I just wanted to get you interested and to assure you, that there is more great stuff and innovative music waiting for you on this compilation b Ultra-Red, Motion, and some others.
Last words: Hands up to Fat Cat records, who have really become one of my favourite labels in the genre of electronic experimental music in the last years. With releases by Sylvain Chauveau (one of my favourite records of last year), Black Dice, Crescent, Mice Parade, Animal Collective, and most lately the japanese weirdo-folk songs of Chib, and many many others, they have proven to have an eye and some ears for outstanding releases and music from all over the place, whether they be purely electronic, almost classical experimental, or artistical efforts at music-making far from any of the regular notions. And the split-series might be their epitomic effort.
(Monochrom)

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