New Music: So Percussion, Rom, Patrick Porter

So Percussion - What the Hell - Amid Noise (Cantaloupe 2006)


So Percussion – Amid the Noise / Cantaloupe

Producers and programmers have dominated the meshed genre of folktronica/acoustica, obviously because it’s a sample-based, building-block style of music even though it finds its roots in the classical experimentations of Steve Reich and his contemporaries. The Yale-based quartet of four extensively trained percussionists (who by the way teach their craft at Harvard, Duke and Princeton among others) have set out to bring this style of music back to it’s origins while simultaneously continue to push it’s progression. After albums consisting almost solely of drums, the group who goes by So Percussion experimented with an array of melodic instruments including glockenspiel, toy piano, vibraphones, bow marimba, melodica, prepared pipes, metals and even electronic wiring to create a tightly composed sound of percussive wonder. Slated somewhat fittingly as Four Tet and Tortoise meets Aphex Twin and Brian Eno, Amid the Noise is a challenging and enjoyable percussion and tone exploration that can appeal to fans of folktronica, IDM, classical, experimental, ambient and post-rock alike.




Rom - Glacier - Rom (Wimm 2006)


Rom – Rom / Wimm

Rom’s eponymous debut will more than likely not receive much attention in the States, which is a shame because it is a very good album. Given the fact that it’s being released on a Japanese label, Wimm Recordings, not even close to showy in an immediate attention-grabbing sort of way and content in finding a single humble groove to build each song’s foundation just doesn’t give me much hope for it finding a solid American audience. The production duo is made up of the Miami-based Matt Crum, a guitarist turned drummer who has spent some time in the pop band Feathers, and Georgia-based Roberto Lange, who also records as Boom & Birds and Epstein. They team together for a sound that finds a calm void between post-rock, IDM and instrumental hip-hop, coming off like the hypothetical product of a Fridge and Jimmy Edgar collaboration. They have the ability to push their sound from blippy dance-floor ready grooves to more contemplative post-rock meanderings; a skill I definitely dig. It will probably be overlooked in the large context of things, but will definitely make a small group of lucky listeners very happy.




Patrick Porter - Lite Sleeper - Die Wandaland (Greyday 2006)


Patrick Porter – Die Wandaland / Greyday

The much traveled and prolific writer Patrick Porter is out to reestablish himself stateside by jumping from Australia’s Camera Obscura label for Portland’s Greyday, home to Minmae, Head of Femur and Books on Tape. With years of homemade cassettes behind him, Porter has been honing his singer/songwriter approach and for the most part, it comes through fittingly. While not stupendous or overtly individual, his voice has a good variance to it as he is able to low-end it in a gravely Nick Cave-lite deal to a fluttery upper-register hum. I expect a bit more from him lyrically, especially with his hearty bibliography, and once again, while excelling at points, he doesn’t posses that individuality that can really distinguish singer/songwriters. His inventive folk-pop backdrop is what pushes Porter of the mundane as he intertwines acoustic and electric guitar parts with peculiar keyboard ditties and jangling percussion. Die Wandaland certainly has its high points, but it would fare much better as an EP than a full-length, which would shroud Porter in a much needed cloak of mystery and potential.