Saturday, 9 August 2008Magic Arm on Switchflicker records Artist: Magic Arm Title: Widths and heights / Ballad of Melody Nelson Label: Switchflicker Country of Origin: United Kingdom (UK) Quantity Pressed: 500 Release Date: 14th Jul 2008 Mechanical Arm is Marc Rigelsford, hailed as 'Master of the loop pedal' is taking a variety of influences and sounds and creating masterful pop experiments along the lines of Beck's Odelay. What is it about being able to put all these varied influences together? Is that where this music is headed? This appropriation of influences... well it's actually already there the initial novelty is long gone. Mechanical Arm is making the case for where it will go. What is it about a blip or snare sound that is so much better than another? That's where the DJ/Engineer can be invaluable, to sort through the mountainous material that's been created up until this point. Girl Talk's Greg Gillis distilled the last decade into a bite size piece on Night Ripper for the short attention span set. The greatest moments of a dance/hip hop culture held together by a common BPM and pitch controlled all together. Mechanical Arm is doing what Beck started with Odelay and Paul's Boutique before it. Bring the sample to rock music, using existing elements of prerecorded material to move forward. It's gone from a substitute for a sound to becoming it's own tool. Something with it's own right with it's own inherent set of rules. The difference between Mechanical Arm and anyone with a laptop and garageband is the impeccable production and the crystal separation of sound. It's clear he knows exactly what he's setting to hard drive. You can hear the deliberation, the care in every sound. They are manipulated to the edge of recognizability and organized to surprise with headphones. There's nothing muddy or haphazard in any measure. It sounds like it took months, which it did, after his successful EP, Marc Rigelsford, spent 10 months locked away in various studios finalizing these rest of these tracks, and it shows. Mechanical arm demands attention to the ornate details. Meanwhile there is a sing-a-long deliberate pop song working on top of this reduction with a verse and chorus of substance. It's one of those great new worlds still being charted, the combination of created and found sounds in cleanly exciting pop. Widths and Heights takes you everywhere from industrial rave to folky twee, surrounded by a web of electronic instrumentation and layered vocals. from his myspace: The b-side to ‘Widths and Heights’, ‘Ballad of Melody Nelson’, is a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg classic which has now become a regular in his live show. Marc was invited to perform a song at an evening celebrating the French singer, and he proceeded to leave his unmistakeable stamp all over the classic, to a fantastic response. Jason Dean Labels: magic arm, switchflicker records
posted by Jason @ 10:28
|
All the latest news on 7inch Vinyl record releases Previous Posts
Subscribe to |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home