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Paru le 25 mars 2006
1. Untlat (3:58)
2. Balance (2:16)
3. My Radiat (2:51)
4. Belcrut (3:14)
5. Dékiff (3:43)
6. Pugnt (2:57)
Tous sons et arrangements par Grkzgl (ordinateur, synthétiseurs, basse).
[Note: les synthés sont surtout utilisés en échantillonage. De la basse mutante apparaît sur certains morceaux.]
Percussion métallique sur Pugnt par Kriss & Grkzgl à la brasserie Dow (enregistré par Kriss).
Réalisé entre octobre 2005 et janvier 2006.
Matriçage par Christian Rivard/Kriss
Pochette conçue par Eve Chabot - photographies prises par Grkzgl au Silo à grain #5.
À propos de ce disque:
Pendant plusieurs années, j'ai bâti tout un arsenal de synthétiseurs, d'échantilloneurs et de banques effets, avec lesquels je composais de l'électronica des plus douteux pour ensuite distribuer des démos à des gens comme Angle.Rec. Cependant, ce n'est qu'une fois au Japon, contraint à n'utiliser que l'ordinateur, que mes productions ont enfin pris du caractère. Les autorités de Angle.Rec ayant bien apprécié Déglutations, s'ensuit rapidement une invitation à lancer un mini CD - un format nouveau pour l'étiquette.
De façon un peu ironique, je me suis vite lassé de l'approche numérique et ai gravité dans une toute autre direction.
Critiques :
Touching Extremes
In case you're wondering, the artist's nom d'art is pronounced "Grak-siggle". This is a 3-inch CD, duration about 19 minutes, containing six short tracks for laptop, synthesizers and bass. The average quality is good, also because the composer intelligently chose not to focus on a single idea - which can work at times but more often spells "tons of boredom" - but decided to add a little multidimensional powder to the music, whose various colours and directions make it sound organic and icy in the space of a few minutes. Utilizing the most known techniques of digital distortion, spatialization, virtual ambience and what the press release rightly defines "psychoactive noise", Grkzgl has created a coherent enough composition (the tracks are linked as a whole piece) that carries a decent punch and allows us to count it amidst the "things to consider" in today's laptop field - in the cathegory of junior middleweights, though.
Massimo Ricci
Tokafi
There is something else going on here, something private and individual.
It will remain a point for dispute whether or not the 3’’ mini-CD is the “format of the gods”, as online-editor “moron” (name not changed by the editors) of the influential messageboard industrial.org so eloquently put it (the 7’’ single is pretty neat in my opinion as well). But there can be no doubt whatoever that “esque” was made in heaven.
The six pieces on this disc waste no time, the clock stops at almost exactly 19 minutes and yet they pass by in a hush, without hurry or haste. But then again, one was kind of inclined to expect something special from a musician who titled his project after a name for an imaginary cat, pressed a 7’’ EP in an edition of one copy and his first self-released album in a run of 10. “esque” is by no means a revolutionary work – these structures of crackling, cracking, creaking, clicking, locustive, hissing and snapping sounds, mumbling in riddles, suddenly appearing and disappearing, assemblying into rhythms and clusters of noise, whispering in the background or screaming in the limelight, slowing tonal movement down or pushing it forward, feeling familair and consoling or foreign and claustrophobic are no strangers to anyone with a more or less keen inerest in the clicks and cuts scene or the supposedly intelligent structures of a genre without appropriate title yet obvious heroes (Autechre). And still, there is something else going on here, something private and individual, something making this worthwhile not only as a short moment of pleasure but also of exploration. Grkzgl has no interest in stretching his pieces into aural landscapes or expanding their complexity to test his listeners’ IQ. Rather, these tracks are refined snapshots, detailed sketches and intense semblances, beginning right in the middle of the action and dissolving without long goodbyes. While techno, whether for the brain or the body, is about development, “esque” is about the moment.
The material could easily have been moulded into a full-length but it is extremely applaudable that Grkzgl has resisted the temptation. It is an open invitation for repeated listening and for approaching the music from different angles. At least for the duration of these 19 minutes, you can call a moron a wise man.
Tobias Fischer
Vital Weekly
This release was handed to me when being in a clothing store in Montreal. I never heard of Angle Records/Mondes Elliptiques, nor from the artist, Grkzgl, but who is from Montreal and he worked under various guises before. It should be pronounced as 'grak-siggle'. The cover credits him for laptop, synth and bass whereas he received help on metal percussion on one track, although it sounds more like tin cans (or perhaps they are heavily processed). Grkzgl plays music that is best described as a more chaotic version of Pan Sonic or Goem when it concerns his rhythm stuff. But he expands on this material, by adding laser beam like sounds and a heavy layer of bass sounds. In that sense he merges together the current minimal rhythm boys with some of the more old school industrial lads. Not every track is as convincing I must say: some seem to be a bit too much of a haphazard affair, but it's certainly a nice and somewhat original affair.
Frans De Waard
Heathen Harvest
I initially was going to do a small piece of sexual innuendo to start off this review. Mentioning the 3 inches of this release in comparison to my dick, cock or penis…depending on where you’re from reading this. Then saying some more crass comments about size not mattering and other stuff in very poor taste. A bit like my cock. Oops! One slipped in. Oops! And another. A filthy mind is a bad mind as my mother always said. Usually after she caught me staring at her naked in the shower. And that was when she was 62. I’m weird and twisted that way. Therefore I apologise for this opening paragraph. It won’t happen again. Fingers crossed firmly behind my back.
What I should have done was this. A small opening paragraph explaining all about this release. I wish I could delete that opening gambit. Too late for that. This is the first release from the label in mini cd format. Not a crappy and cheap cdr. A proper 100% genuine cd. I do like the 3 inch recording. Too often I come across releases that would benefit from some trimming of the bush. Keep it short and snappy. That’s the way to hold a listeners attention. And boy does this artist know how to use every available minute at his disposal to reaffirm this belief. Grkzl, pronounced ‘grak-siggle’ of course…unless you’re Scottish like myself in which case it comes out as something completely different…works his peculiar brand of magic on this release using computers and a variety of other instruments…or a very good piece of computer software.
Whatever the case may be what cannot be denied is that here is a Canadian, and to think South Park has the nerve to take the piss out of them, that makes 6 individual micro masterpieces all meld into one complete whole by the end of the recording. These tiny sound sculptures, for that is what they are, shimmer like glacial ice in the Artic in twilight. A noisy and quite alien twilight if I’m being honest with you. Which I am. He utilises all the usual components that one associates with the Experimental electronics / Glitch community…but does so in a rather refined and refreshing manner. The sounds crackle and hum intensely, intricate sonic patterns and rhythms are interlaced throughout, strange noises are introduced when least expected, frequencies of every variety appear and disappear and the adventurous spirit of the avant-garde is alive and well and never far away. What’s not to like?
If this had been a full 70+ minutes of music the review might have panned out differently. To have eked this work out any further would have introduced a viewpoint that erred on the negative side Keeping things short has worked to the artists advantage. The 19+ minutes fly by in a whirl of imaginative and creative sonic manipulation. Its dramatic and sudden conclusion leaving a sense of longing for the music that has just past. Less, in this case in particular, is more. Or short and sweet you could say./
Alan Milne
Black Harvest
I love three inch cd's. especially when they aint of the cdr variety. Excellent. The thing is...these are generally miniature ep's and there isn't a lot you can fit on them, making it hard for the artists to really grab your attention. GRKZGL (lord knows how you pronounce it) are pure experimental glitch. Clean, pulsating rough, harsh and grating all in the same breath. In all fairness I believe this probably does work better in such a small format. I do believe a full album like this could be just over bombing and maybe over indulgence as well. There are a variety of organic sounds on this release obviously and it does achieve what it sets out to do. Interesting in very small doses and this is exactly that.
Tony Young
Elegy Iberica
''grak siggle'' é o modo correcto de pronunciar o nome repleto de consoantes deste projecto de Montreal, que estreia com um mini-cd limitado a 500 copias editado pela canadiana Angle Records. Sao aproximadamente 19 minutos dividos em 6 faixas ininterruptas dentro da musica Noise-Experimental, o que pode parecer uma tortura para alguns e deleite para outros...Este curto e tortuoso percurso expressa os pensamentos ou delirios de Grkzgl, através de um ambiente pulsante, altas-frequências, baixos profundos, infindaveis estalidos, modulaçoes e ruidos apocalipticos...Contudo é preciso destacar que a composiçao e produçao estao muito bem feitas. Ama ou odeia!
Luiz Soncini
Vital Weekly
'Esque' is the first 3" mini-cd ep release on Angle Records. To create the music Grkzgl uses laptop, synths and bass, plus there is metal percussion on the last 6th track, which is the most noisy of all. Otherwise, the sound is in the atmospheric glitchy areas, loosely improvised but with a clear direction of where it's going, sometimes even a rhythmic patterns appear. Grkzgl is obviously inspired and influenced by the post-industrial ambience, not being too minimal or too harsh, but still merging all those styles into one whole piece, divided in 6 tracks which are mixed into each other. Very nice ep for this artist and hopefully more releases in the same format to come on the label.
Boban Ristevski
Bande à part
Quoi?
Une première parution sous format mini-CD 3 pouces, du label ANGLE Rec qui souhaite se consacrer à la musique qui se cache dans les coins ou dans les apparents « angles morts, ces zones grises inaccessibles de prime abord aux sens en général, mais néanmoins animées, vibrantes et porteuses de mystères si nos sens s'y attardent un tant soit peu ». C'est dire que rien ne sera acquis.
Où?
Dans le territoire de l'exploration non instrumentale. Musique électronique minimale quoique bruitiste, noise quoique ambient, dans le sens large, à l'occasion. Territoire d'angles vifs et d'arrachés au vol. Territoire d'angles morts aussi, puisqu'il n'y a pas de place pour une catégorisation toute faite, hop là.
Qui?
Qui est celui qui signe GRKZGL (dire « grak-siggel »)? On ne sait pas car on ne dit pas. Peu importe. Les six pièces du mini-CD portent toutes la trace d'un artiste sonore habile qui ne vit pas dans l'ombre.
Comment?
C'est articulé comme une suite, les six pièces s'enchaînant naturellement les unes dans les autres,une pratique courante en musique électronique. Les plages ne signifient pas une rupture mais agissent comme une borne. Il peut y avoir une cassure, une interruption brutale entre deux plages, mais plus souvent le flux sonore se poursuit de l'une à l'autre. Tout est dans tout comme chacun sait! Ainsi, on a le sentiment qu'un projet se développe et qu'il ne s'agit pas que d'une succession de pièces indépendantes les unes des autres. GRKZGL fouille la peau et les os de divers circuits électroniques, il manipule, transforme, triture et mixe les fragments de matière obtenus. Le temps s'échappe, s'agglutine, s'éclate dans les flambées et les flammèches. Même les titres s'en ressentent : untlat, belcrut, pugnt...
Le format?
Le format du mini-CD à moins de 20 minutes invite très aisément à une exploration sonore. Sans surcharge audio ou visuelle. Le petit CD se manipule bien et se porte comme une lampe frontale, comme un écouteur léger, comme une machine à prospecter le champ sonore.
Pour qui?
Pour tout mélomane majeur et consentant à faire une activité solitaire légale et moins répandue qu'il n'y paraît : écouter.
Et mon argent?
Ne vous sera pas remis. Puisque c'est petit, pas cher et qu'on en redemandera.
Une écoute maximale d'Hélène Prévost
Witte Ruis
Glitch. For some an ordeal to sit through, for others an absolute festivity for the ear. And depending on in which category you belong, you will either love this to death or hate it. But !!! Earlier this year I had the pleasure of seeing grkzgl live at the COMA festival in Montreal and they were definitly impressive. I remember one of the visitors coming to me stating "This my friend, this was absolute brillliant!". And that visitor was none other the Cordell Klier, who himself is definitly also capable of doing nice glitchy stuff.
So when I had the chance to review this 3" CD (6 tracks, 19 minutes) I right away said yes. Do I regret being that eager? No, definitly not.
grkzgl, which should be pronounced as 'grak-siggle', made a CD which is a true work of art. The layering is close to perfect, as is the production. Deep basses and rattling high frequencies form the base of structures which could be rhythms. Music to guide your thinking process.
At some points it reminds you of the tweaking sounds which you can find in tracks by Vromb, or 33mHz. At other points it's close to the Ultraphonist release on Foton records.
Easy? No, but it is beautiful, very beautiful.
Bauke Van Der Wal
