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(Sonic Arcana/Creative Vibes)
Pensive Platforms is the first release from new Australian specialist electronic music imprint Sonic Arcana, itself a side identity for Sydney ambient / global music label Instinctive Travels. For this inaugural release, Sonic Arcana label head Areti Deligannis has trawled through the backcatalogue of hugely respected and influential Belgian experimental / leftfield label Sub Rosa’s electronic music specialist imprint Quatermass to create a moody and atmospheric compilation containing 12 tracks that range from flirtations with minimalism to lush, folk-tinged structures.
To put things into full perspective, it’s worth remembering at this point that the Sub Rosa label (formed in 1984) celebrates its 20 year anniversary of operation this year, and as a result its backcatalogue and degree of influence on today’s more open-minded electronic producers predates that of present-day names such as Mille Plateaux and Warp. Throughout its operation, the Quatermass imprint has consistently released quality material by a shifting roster of artists that’s included well-known names such as Scanner, Mouse On Mars, Oval and David Shea.
For Pensive Platforms, Deligannis has focussed on compiling a collection of tracks that while being introspective and atmospheric, sidestep the usual approach of being merely ‘background’ or ‘chill out’ music. A quick glance at the tracklisting confirms the presence of several more well-known figures such as UK-based ambient producer / music writer David Toop, the aforementioned Scanner and Labradford member Mark Nelson’s side-project Pan American, along side many lesser known names plucked from the last six years’ worth of Quatermass’ and Sub Rosa’s releases.
Pan American’s ‘The Passage’ opens this compilation and creeps in slowly on sparse, almost subliminal beats with ringing bell tones and calm piano keys laid over an undulating distorted bass line – in many ways, it’s similar in tone to recent micro-house explorations by the likes of Mouse On Mars and glides along with the same sense of melancholy detachment. Texas-based trio Calla fill the epic brush-stroked downtempo drums, garage guitar and bass soundscape of ‘Slum Creeper’ with punishing high end pops and squeals that verge on pure noise at times, before leading into the lush delayed cinematic tones of David Toop’s ‘Black Chamber.’ Located somewhere between Barry Adamson or Angelo Badalamenti film noir territory and Eno-meets Paris, Texas epic ambience, its smooth slide guitar tones slowly drift over a backdrop of lush strings and synth drones, to create one of the most widescreen moments on this disc.
Music AM’s (an indie / electronic ‘supergroup’ of sorts consisting of Mogwai’s Luke Sutherland, Tontalger’s Volker Bertlemann and To Rococo Rot’s Stephan Schnieder) ‘Dynamite’ opens with skittering skeletal clicking beats over a droning backdrop, before warm chiming tones lead into a synthetic nostalgic folk tinged tune sung by Schnieder over a blurred melodic backing that’s very much in the vein of recent releases by Clue To Kalo. In many ways, ‘Dynamite’ captures the central theme that binds Pensive Platforms together – it’s electronic music that avoids the usual directions of ambient or background simply because of the huge emphasis on emotional tone within these tracks.
The second of two David Toop tracks included here, ‘Empty Mall’ reintroduces the plangent slide guitar, but instead this time explores a more abstract instrumental hip hop approach along the lines of DJs Spooky and Olive, being constructed around a solid base of blunted beats and phased slowed down loops, while Fibla vs. Stol’s ’(no title)’ ventures into more ambient glitchy beats and Boards of Canada-esque cycling synth tones. One of the more unexpected inclusions here comes from Angus Maclaise, mystical poet, actor and publisher as well as the Velvet Underground’s first drummer, with ‘Trance #2’, a spoken word and drone piece taken from ‘The Cloud Doctrine’, SubRosa’s recent 2CD reissue of early electronic music and spoken word readings. As the master recording has been rescued from an archival recording, it’s inevitable that the clarity of this track isn’t going to be as crystal as the rest of the much newer digital productions on this disc, but ‘Trance #2’ represents a fascinating and hypnotic artefact that captures an often overlooked figure pioneering early electronic soundscapes and merging gamelan-style Asian percussion structures with collaged string drones.
Scanner’s ‘Airfoil’, taken from his 1998 Quatermass album ‘Sounds for Spaces’ wanders through spacious and apprehensive minimal ambient dub interspersed with barely-audible snatches of backwards manipulated vocals that inject a sense of dread into the flow, and Irish producer Fisherofgold’s ‘Weltschmertz’ layers up loops of droning sounds until they build up with a constantly cycling intensity that threatens to bleed through the speakers.
New York’s Taylor Deupree and Kenneth Kirschner’s ‘02.15.02’ almost sounds as though it could be used to soundtrack a classic vintage horror movie in the vein of Nosferatu or perhaps even the scene in Alien before the crew come out of hypersleep, it’s slowly chiming out of-focus ambient tones and clicks evoking a sense of frozen beauty as much as impending danger. Finally, Japanese producer Yoshihiro Hanno’s ‘Platform Variation II’ (around whose title this compilation’s name is adapted) brings things to a glacial close over its epic 15 minute span, its opening synth drones fading into graceful piano and violins with overlaid spoken loops before spiraling into the distance.
Absorbing and compelling, ‘Pensive Platforms’ is a cohesive and thoughtfully compiled selection of leftfield and more experimental electronic music plucked from the Sub Rosa / Quatermass vaults that highlights exactly why this reknowned and influential Belgian label continues to move from strength to strength with its artist roster. ‘Pensive Platforms’ is definitely not a chill-out album, and anyone who picks it up with that in mind is quite probably going to be surprised by the predominantly introspective, melancholy and sometimes dark vibe of the tracks included here, as well as some of the more avante ventures into confronting noisy and sparse minimal sonics.
For the sonically open-minded with even a passing interest in the sorts of sounds emanating from Quatermass / SubRosa as well as likeminded labels such as Mille Plateaux and ~scape, ‘Pensive Platforms’ is well worth hunting down. An excellent debut release – Sonic Arcana promises to be a local imprint worth watching, and it will be very interesting to see where they go next.
Check out: www.sonicarcana.com and www.instinctive-travels.com
