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LOCALS ONLY
Electronic Barnacle
Island
Deeply Faulted Area
Resembling An Upright Deck Of Cards
Kira Kira
Electronic Barnacle
Island (or E.B.I. for short) is the brainchild of local talent Aaron
Nole. That's right folks, you heard me correctly local talent. Not
only is he local, but he has created one of the best electronic music
CD's I have heard in some time. E.B.I. does not fall neatly into one
category of the electronic realm; but rather, in some respects, has
created it's own genre entirely. Truthfully, I was fortunate to hear
much of this CD during the creative process, simply because I happen
to know the artist. However, I was still not entirely prepared for the
final outcome of the album. For one, there are only eight songs, and I
know that there were several other tracks that were not completely
finished or were finished and he decided not to use them. Also, some
of the music incorporates an unusal technique where a song completely
changes tempo, mood, and sound midway to three fourths of the way
throughout the piece. The very first track (Mortal Hood Clip) is a
perfect example of this. It sounds to the listener as if two songs
were tied together that were completely unrelated, but the end result
works very well musically.
As I mentioned
before, it's very hard to categorize E.B.I. There are elements of
ambient, experiemental/noise, staggered beat structures, groovy
melodies, but throughout all of it is a sense of warmth and beauty. I
felt after listening to the album several times, that no matter how
much a song might sound as if it would become chaotic and break apart,
there was always a sense of melody to pull it back together. Aaron's
strong point is definitley his sense of musical composition and
arrangement, while blending it all together with unusual sounds,
samples and cool beats. I personally love how the entire album flows
together with one track almost merging into another. It encourages you
to just sit back close your eyes and just absorb it in it's entirety.
None the less, I still have my favorites. The first being "Colourfloor,
" which has the most upbeat feel on the CD. "Mheragain" which shows
off the ambient side of Mr. Noel's musical foundation very nicely.
"Chance To Be Hollow" with it's funky beat, and lush string sounds.
"Hand Wounds" might just be my favorite of them all. It put's all the
elements together of everything I stated previously, in what can only
be the most gorgeous track on the album.
I did an interview
with Aaron several issues back, and the album was supposed to have
been released last year. Due to unforseen circumstances this obviously
did not happen. The good news is that it will be coming out soon, with
Febuary 10th as the scheduled release date. You can check out Kira
Kira Disc(www.kirakiradisc.com) for more news on this and other
information about E.B.I. and other artist's on their label. So, for
those of you who want a new listening experience in the world of
electronic music, I think that this album is a sure thing. I have said
before that it merges the line somewhere between Autechre and early
Tangerine Dream with a sound and feel all it's own. My only
disappointment with this album was that there were not more songs.
Also worth mentioning is the incredible cover design by another local
talent James White, who by the way is the creator of "Minikon" also on
Kira Kira Disc.
-Craig
Harvey
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