Category Archives: Music Reviews

Circuit Bending General, Free Music Fridays, Music Reviews

IGLOO MARTIAN – The Mechanical Saviour … Free Music Friday

Igloo Martian Mechanical Saviour Circuit Bending album

by: Rodney Clark

Here is a double disc release from Igloo Martian that came out very late in 2008. It’s being rumored if there was an experimental category in the Grammy Music Awards, this would have taken “Circuit Bent Album of the Year”. There seems almost two sides of Igloo Martian, the sounds from the studio and the live improve sets he’s known for, where he annihilated your eardrums with hardcore noise blast of experimentation. Igloo Martian hails from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where he’s played in a hardcore punk band, dishing out grind vocals for INVID with younger brother (life as number five.) on dueling vocals, and a one time front-man for a Madison, Wisconsin band called Master Killer, which was crusty all over, back in the mid 90’s as a young teen. I guess that is where he gets his live stage show state of mind. I guess I would have to tag what he gives us as “circuit bent, electronic, experimental fused punk, with a hint of genius. You’ll find this album a more relaxed, beat driven release, much like his second recording “Hard Work is Tedious”. This new album also features a track with Igor Amokian. Igor is a familiar collaboration partner of Igloo Martian…you might recall a couple of years ago they released a split CD together on Tiger Claw Records. Overall…I love this album and recommend the download, which includes a cut-out CD sleeve with track titles, and cover art! So sit back relax and get lost inside the Self Released recording with twisting sounds that tale of “The Mechanical Saviour“.

Album Download WMA – Zip

Album Download Mp3 – Zip

But thats not all…

Also feel free to check out ::vtol::‘s debut release Static. ::vtol:: is a Russian circuit bending artist and his bent and DIY instruments can be further explored on his website. Great work. More information here.

vtol static

Download Here.

Circuit Bending General, Events, Live Sets, Music Reviews

Circuit Bending in Riverside, California!

Event Review by : Chris Wild

I recently saw a show at the PHAROAH’s Den, Dec. 27th in Riverside (About an hour drive out of Los Angeles).
The night was jammed packed with BENT sounds & noise!
A wide selection of musical styles from ethnic world instruments to homemade circuit bent devices and ???

Phog Masheen had a nice set mixing strange & unique sounds from various world instruments w/ contact mics sending the sounds through various effects and even using a muffler from an 80’s motorcycle.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO-g1VNUbC0[/youtube]

He was followed by a special trio featuring: DOG, a member of Caveat Emptor and Phog Masheen got to stay on stage.
I missed most of the this set due a LONG coffee line..crap!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tK527Ke1y8[/youtube]

Following them was an awesome set of circuit bentness from
Skin Sink….with a table full of goodies and strobe light visuals…great effects & fantastic sounds too!!!!!!!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrPkQxs1uus[/youtube]

Then the building was BLASTED BY ENDOMETRIUM!!! WHOA!!!
Intense barrage of sounds, noise, audio spoken samples, the house system went out 2 times but he kept on going like nothing ever happened….you could hear his bent gizmos from his table when the sound went out. He got to finish his set with the sound system working fine. You could see him just behind a row of folks with camera phones and portable cameras flashing and filming. Cool meeting him in person, we have been emailing for some time now. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4en2x8pALl8[/youtube]

Quickly following after that was Igor Amokian w/ guest Karen Holland (Wirehere). The set started off with the Tutankhamun theme from rare Egyptian LP (Pharoah’s Den right?) blending various percussion & drum sounds from vintage drum machines accompanied by clarinet riffs though heavy fx gave the the set a middle eastern feel. This slowly mixed into 8bit circuit bent gabber session w/ a mutated drum & fx toy and other oddities.

The night ended with a set by White Marsh….with an interesting selection of electronic devices and fx that produced some real interesting layered analog and digital tones.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMAmS5I-HvM[/youtube]

Tawee Kiva (the Host) was spinning electronic and avant-garde records between sets, keeping the vibe flowing…..

The projector was broken or there would have been some cool visuals on a huge screen behind the stage 🙁

Overall a cool night of BENT UP Stuff!!!!!!!! GREAT sounds!!!!! cool folks!!!!!! a Great post Christmas holiday wind down just before NEW YEAR’s eve.

See some gear here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNs-JGtr4yQ[/youtube]

Music Reviews

Igor Amokian and Igloo Martian split review

igor_igloo_cover.JPG
Last night I finally got around to listening to LA’s Igor Amokian and LaCrosse’s own Igloo Martian split in its entirety without interruptions and with headphones on. Very nice to say the least, refreshing sounds arranged in compositional form. The efforts of both musicians are apparent in their instrument choices as well as their recording work. The split is available now on TigerClaw Records’ website. For your listening presure I recorded a ten minute sampler mix skipping around the CD. Enjoy.
igor-amokian-igloo-martian-split-mix.mp3

Other reviews:

This is DATURA 1.0’s Review on the split…

How you might enjoy this new split disc from Tiger Claw records might just depend on how you personally like your bizzare electronic music served up. On the more chaotic side we have the improvisational feeling of the tracks presented by Igor Amokian. At times fast rythmic cuts of harsh tone bursts and squiggly bent toy samples approach an almost breakcore like beat structure, but for the most part the tracks seem to hold together almost despite themselves, the ear struggles to make structure from the chaos, patterns repeat for only so long, then disappear forever, replaced by a new short-lived repetition. Often this shifting of elements is occuring on more than one level at a time, odd out of context guitar samples and incongruous language snippets suddenly rise up from the gizmonic disharmony and are swallowed up again as the tide of sounds surges forward to it’s conclusion. I like it. But then again, I like chaotic incongruous noise. If the Igor Amokian portion of the disk represents chaos evolving into structure, then the Igloo Martian portion could be said to represent structure derived from chaos. For the most part the tracks here have a more traditional song structure, albeit derived from fucked-up toy samples. The effect of these oddly jaunty bent toy jingles rythmically competing and working together to create a song can be quite, well, spooky somehow. Like haunted neglected toys come back from beyond to extract revenge on their owner. Much of the work here is like that, except for several notable exceptions at the end where instead of weird snappy melodies, the anchor point of the song is huge oceans of static-y noise drone with the bent toys surfacing and diving like swimmers in a sea of sound. I like it quite a lot. But then again, I like haunted toys and oceans of static-y noise.

– Datura 1.0

Music Reviews, Websites

My Top 11 Song Picks on MySpace.com

Top 11 Myspace listens…By: Rodney Clark

There’s always a few songs you have to go and listen to everytime your on Myspace.com surfing around. Here’s my list of the top 11 songs I would recommend checking out next time your logged on. These are all songs that are currently loaded on the artist’s music player. Hope you enjoy!

1. Spunky Toofers – MYSPACE

If you have ever met Daniel Park, you would find this to be one of those laugh out loud stupidly good things he does. Super funny and well executed.

2. Talking Computron – Unexpected Phone Call

This is by Alex, the circuitmaster behind GETLOFI.COM and LoFi Fest in Iowa on the 15th of September. This is a mellow tune that struck gold with me the first time I heard it.

3. Potar – 2point44

Crazy West coast bends, with a touch of everything you need to get you going first thing in the morning.

4. Igloo Martian – Demon straight Skill
Might be a change of direction for Igloo, but knowing him he always has something new up his sleeve. He never wants to be pinned down to one way of making it work. This is by far one of the best bent delights out there.

5. Beatrix Jar – Golden Fuzz
Wow this kicks in right at the exact moment you wonder what the heck is this going to be about…High energy from the Minneapolis duo. Just a sample of what they are in this one. Totally fun stuff!

6. Igor Amokian – Strange Orcherstation

L.A. experimental artist Igor Amokian is all about Chaos and noise!! This is great for chaotic moods!

7. Uplink – Everpresent Effervescent

San Francisco artist Uplink has some harsh bends…and Everpresent Effervescent is a showcase of Devin’s talented bend skills. Just a great song for inspiration.

8. Protman – 125whrddpostchef

Protman starts this one off chaotic…then brings it all together with some decent bends and beats mixed with a touch of salt and pepper. I’d suggest a nice red wine to go with this one. Good eats mate!

9. Creme DeMentia – Zombie Dolphin

DeKalb, Illinios’s Finest citwzen at work. Straight Experimental Circuit Bending NOISE! WOW!

10. ElectroMungo – Robot Jam Demo

Wow this song is worthy of any top 11 list out there. It’s got some cool robo conversation too.

11. Pero – Bend This

Listening to Pero is like reading a great novel no one has checked out yet at the library. It’s some top secret bends with great backing beats. Crazy sounds from Canada EH!

Check them out if you are really bored and want something new to fill your head with!