Various Artists 'Switches CD' (Audiobulb Records) 9.95

Tracklist and MP3s
'Content' Rodolphe Kuffer [Hi-Fi, Lo-Fi]
'June' (That Is When the Smaller Sparrow Began to Cantilate) [Hi-Fi, Lo-Fi]
'He Can Jog' Audiobulb Records [Hi-Fi, Lo-Fi]
'Singalong Tammy' Marion
'We Lost Him, But Kept Going' Claudia
'C(ch)oaipba, Koa, C(ch) (s+am)' Disastrato [Hi-Fi, Lo-Fi]
'Large Open Spaces' OTI
Document. Write 'Bllix '
'Wishing a Disease' Diagram of Suburban Chaos
'Ever Since' Henry Leo Duclos
'Breath Holding On to a Window' Autistici
'A Development (with a Grid of Streets and Shopping Centre Heart)' Build
'Half Asleep' Prhizzm
'Your Open Face' Room
'Fire At Sea' Effacer

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Reviews

Contrasting greatly with the diversity of Delivery Room, Audiobulb Records’s Switches compilation presents a surprisingly homogenous collection of experimental compositions from the label’s roster. Although the label is based in the UK, in the heartland of British electronic music that is Sheffield, home of Cabaret Voltaire, Human League, Heaven 17 and later, Warp, the artists gathered by Audiobulb boss David Newman come from all over the world. The idea of setting up a label came up after Newman spent the best part of two years chatting to young musicians about sound design and composition through message boards. Realising the potential left untouched out there, Newman started collecting tracks, originally making them available through MP3 releases, eventually collected at the end of last year on two MP3 compilations, Exhibition #1 & 2, still currently available to download for the Audiobulb website. Switches is the label’s first official CD release.

Opening the procession is Rodolphe Küffer, with Content, a melodic piece supported by glitches and micro beats reminiscent in part of Autechre circa Cichlisuite. As the track slowly progresses and the main melody develops more clearly, the beat pattern becomes more assured and consistent before disintegrating when a treated human voice emerges. Perfect introduction for this record, Content very much highlights the human interaction behind the mechanical sounds on offer throughout this album. Marion’s Singalong Tammy or Claudia’s We Lost Him, But Kept Going work on a similar level, although via different means. If We Lost Him… also features vocal samples interwoven with complex sound structures and found sounds, Marion strongly relies on acoustic instrumentation to support the minimalist setting of Singalong Tammy. More straightforward, Bllix presents with Document.Write a true moment of classic electronica, evocative of Boards Of Canada or Christ. Only artist here to have an album under his belt, Diagram Of Suburban Chaos, aka William Snavely, evolves in similar spheres, with beautifully-laid warm analogue sounds wrapped over gentle glitches and carefully structure beat sequences, while Oti (Large Open Spaces), Autistici (Breath Holding On To A Window) and Effacer (Fire At Sea) create atmospheric landscapes, relying almost solely on scarce melodies and rarefied beats. Elsewhere, Disastrato or Henry Leo Duclos meticulously deconstruct a multitude of found sounds that are then collaged again, altering their relevance through profoundly electro-acoustic cycles.

Promising further compilations as well as individual releases, Audiobulb gives with Switches a promising taster of things to come. Despite the variety of sound and technique on offer, Switches remains sonically very consistent all the way through, and could well be the first of many steps into electronic wonderland.

Milk Factory Review

Buy a copy here! Filed under 'Music by Genre > Electronica'