#vs o.t.O.g.l

[fluidsf]

Sonic Picks 19 woopheadclrms: vs o.t.O.g.l (2018) Reviewed format: Digital Album on Genot Centre Yes, I'm back already with a new review from a release on Genot Centre in my Sonic Picks review series. Included in the package of the review copy of the cassette tape I reviewed yesterday were again 5 download codes for other releases on the label so I'm obviously checking all these out and giving them a review too. Today's release is this great album by Japanese artist woopheadclrms, titled vs o.t.O.g.l, released in 2018 on Genot Centre. The version I'm reviewing here is the Digital download which features the album cover in good resolution as well as the 15 album tracks in 24-bit/48kHz high resolution files. Indeed at 37 minutes long, the album's music is spread over many short pieces like that but they work rather well playing one after another so the album is a good continous listen. vs o.t.O.g.l is like many contemporary post-digital, online samples inspired Sound Collage / Plunderphonics albums quite an odd, maybe at times "alien" listen. But that is actually exactly the aspect I like so much about this kind of experimental music nowadays. At times it's hard to follow if there is much "rational logic" at all in the music, but this makes it all the more free and associative in nature. With the collages and manipulations of field recordings, voice samples, music element samples and samples of full tracks creating atmospheres and experiences rather than traditionally composed or produced music. The album kicks off with short interlude track I'm which features a Japanese female singer, singing acapella, pretty nice. This flows into Empire of Shopping mall, a track that features hilarious contrasts in dynamics and a quirky and hilarious combination of samples, including Trump randomly. Most shocking for most people who listen to this for the first time will be the sudden screams after the peacefull intro. The piece is filled with cool details, in the stereo panning, peaceful New Age vibes, synth quirks floating all around. Indeed it's really impossible to name all details per track, so I'll showcase some impressions in the way. Fun piece. Then we have Blindness?? which is especially nice for its diffuse sound signature with many mechanical sounds and field recordings as well as constantly warbling synths, and sudden tension at the end. The harpsichord intro is also a great wacky part to start with, as a fever dream the music on this album keeps messing with my mind with all its strange juxtapositions of sound and music but also all the details I can actually distinguish in woopheadclrms' music, it is definitely pleasant music tho, very peaceful in a way. Hane then is a short piece of high pitched tinkling, stuttering and stuttering synths, harp and cymbals, mysterious. Meaning is filled with interesting dissonances, sawtooth synth warbles, ethereal synths, tinkling pianos and crackling sounds. Feels quite like a peaceful place yet there's some kind of strange steile vibe about this place you can't quite place, again, mystery. The "ready or not" sample at the ending is also quite hilarious. Indie juxtaposes mangled drums and electric guitar with samples from a heart monitor in a hospital and wacky synth effects, strange kind of vibe of sonic creatures moving around the space. Then on Killer F we have what sounds like a psychedelic piece of abstract music based around the "cool factor" of some online radio station. Again, the samples "the coolest station online" add quite a comic effect to the whole and with nicely weird pitched vocals the track is quite surreal sounding. Then we have Open it, close it, break it, cry which opens with a primary school alphabet lesson and then moves into quite peaceful Japanese sounding ambient music with traditional instruments, very relaxing and soundtrack like piece, life is good vibes. While we're onto the relaxing vibes, the only slightly weak point of this album is that the tracklist features quite a lot of relaxed pieces and there's few tracks with more extreme dynamics and climaxes. This makes the overall dynamics and progression of the albun feel more like constant ambience, which is definitely pleasant to listen to and all the tracks are great music but it makes the album feel a bit less coherent with the jumps into sudden intensity in some pieces. It's more like a collection of seperate pieces in this way. Fill then, is a musical abstraction of flowing water with jolly synth but also plenty of cool filtered low kick effects, good stuff. The sky is a mirror of endless mind features a lot of high pitches stuttered sounds and squelchy manipulation, quite tense sounding too, the music sounds like futuristic odd industrial processes in action, curious stuff. School is another track being so densely packed with sounds and details I'd say that as an impression it felt as a both comic as well as tense experience with the rising synth tone siren appearing ocassionally but also hinting at the sonic bombardment and chaos that'd happen if all advertisements, stores and anything else in a city would actually make sound. The blend of commercial messages and human sounds often makes our own life sound like semi-artificial already, even if there's still plenty of "real things" in our life that aren't purely there because of good marketing. Calculation & Taste is a more classic styled Sound Collage piece with plenty of looping in the voice samples, creating rhythms out of a woman's and boys voice. Only you brings us to a magical world of safe and carefree life as filtered through the abstracted lens of a Japanese cheesy TV serial drama full of glassy pad sounds, flutes, quite but also dissonant tones and mangled field recordings, sounds good. Selfie is a bit like lo-fi office muzak samples mixed with field recordings of a nice meeting of friends or colleagues, leaning a bit towards Vaporwave aesthetics but more cinematic sounding. Weather channel imagines a world in which the Weather channel is the only TV channel available. It's all you need in fine TV enter and infotainment enjoyment, bringing you metereological goodness 24/7 as well as original weather based dramas full of mood swings due to occasional rain and a kids TV section with the finest jungle exploration TV shows all without ever actually having to face the weather outside. Great ending of this album too. vs o.t.O.g.l. by woopheadclrms is a nicely relaxing album of post-digital Sound Collage / Plunderphonics goodness. While the dynamics / progression in the listening experience by the tracklist might be a bit spotty the music itself is great. I particularly recommend this to listeners interested in both ambient and experimental sound collage music as it's both atmospheric and experimental without being purely abstract. This is also a rather original sounding album in the contemporary digital experimental aesthetics with its many clearly distinguishable details and less club based sound. So a great album to check out definitely. Digital Album is available from the Genot Centre Bandcamp page here: https://genot.bandcamp.com/album/vs-o-t-o-g-i

[tinymixtapes]

Japanese sound artist Woopheadclrms premieres new single “Empire of Shopping Mall,” announces upcoming album, vs o.t.O.g.l,

If you aren’t familiar with woopheadclrms, it’s time to chuck your spellcheckers and Grammarly apps and get acclimated. Woop’s attention to the most minuscule of details separates him from the hordes of artists residing under the “plunderphonics” tag on Bandcamp and Soundcloud. The Japanese sound artist’s last release, Meeting Room + Rare Plants, stole the hearts of the hearts of TMTers everywhere with its mesmerizing collages and breakneck turns, landing it the prestigious title of Tiny Mix Tapes’ 35 favorite album of 2017 (the ONLY album EVER to hold have that title). In order to condition audiences for the neuron-shredding sounds of his latest album vs o.t.O.g.l, —due out on June 14 on the Prague-based Genot Centre label — Woophead has graciously decided to premiere “Empire of Shopping Mall,” a sonic painting of contrasting extremes. Both brooding, and hyperactive, it lands somewhere between Noah Creshevsky’s maximalism and the fourth-world elements of Fairlights, Mallets and Bamboo. Listen closely. Watch the digital clouds roll by, but by all means, don’t let your guard down. Storms roll in quickly in this world. Stream “Empire of Shopping Mall” below and make sure to pre-order vs o.t.O.g.l, on cassette or digital at Genot Centre’s Bandcamp as soon as it’s available. vs o.t.O.g.l, tracklisting: 01. I’m 02. Empire of Shopping mall 03. Blindness?? 04. Hane 05. Meaning 06. Indie 07. Killer F 08. Open it, close it, break it, cry 09. Fill 10. The sky is a mirror of endless mind 11. School 12. Calculation & Taste 13. Only you 14. Selfie 15. Weather channel http://j.mp/2JzrIT0