Basic Editions is the latest solo album by No Age noise monster Dean Spunt and is centred around his exploration of 64-Voice EM-U modules including the Mo-Phatt he bought, so that he can use sounds rather than make sounds.
The album opens with the first single Gonzo Bop in tribute to our favourite Muppet, but without the crashes and bangs you'd expect, this has a long tonal synth line with an assortment of cackles, bass notes and clanging interjections before it finds a beat and sounds like a Swedish prog soundtrack tune.
Critic In A Coma isn't about my being sent to sleep by this tune, although I can see how that would happen, your hypnotized by some of the sounds and wonder why the backwards whooshing noises are so compelling, it is the Chinese gong sounds that herald a deep sleep, that the rumbling bass noises might inhibit a touch.
European Cardboard is obviously superior to the American variety, made to higher standard, so you can bang and wobble it to make sounds, that can then be fed through the machines to make muzak like this, extrusions of concatenations in hock to the spirit of the Weebles, you imagine it's about to fall down and apart but never totally does.
Boom Time At The Phatt Farm could almost work with the characters behind Baby Boomtime, with a super squelchy bassline that has all the other sounds going above and below it, making this a perfect DJ bed for a creative turntablist to add to and create a dancefloor sensation with.
Apricot Child is sweet and pulpy, yet with an acidic edge, the odd Chinese string sounds impinge on the gently lulling synth part.
Confusion Is SysEx and all the counterintuitive things it does if you're not careful with It, scrolling rewind the selector tape noises and tonal synths battle it out, with other weird glitches to baffle the listener into submission.
Highlighter Bombastic was hanging out with Mr Funktastic and they almost got along well enough for this to be a normal dance tune, you can certainly throw shapes to it, discombobulation dance moves ahoy hoy, all it needs is a DJ freestyling over the top of it.
Fructose is the sound of sampled hydrogenated corn syrup containers being re-formulated onto a splattered glitchcore setting, while a group of sugar addicts lose their minds at the possibilities of a world or life without Fructose.
The Eternal Present is always with us but never lasting longer than this tune does in a very minimal, glossy electronica styling, with whale noises punctuating the sylph like neo classical synth and drum pattern.
The album closes with Find Me In The Forums searching for advice, on how best to use allegedly redundant technology to create modern music, that crackles like old vinyl and torn speaker cones, strings get plucked as if you're going to start declaiming in a Roman Forum on the misuses of a games console as musical instrument again.
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