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Dusted Reviews
Artist: Blevin Blectum Album: Magic Maple Label: Praemedia Review date: Mar. 30, 2005 |
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Simply put, Blevin Blectum’s third solo record, Magic Maple, is astonishing. Blectum’s style of seamless electronica works from the basis of circular melodies, ephemeral sonics and slippery glitches to heighten the stakes in a genre incessantly in re-inventive flux.
The somnambulant drip of “Benadrilled and taking on water,” slips Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” under a mischievous Stalling-esque quilt of percolating dial tones, spiraling keys and music box naivety to craft something that operates in a locus between Carpet Musics’ Audio Dregs releases and Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygen and Zoolook albums. Other pieces show Blectum to have more in common with Futurist Luigi Russolo than Russia’s DJ Vadim – for all of Blectum’s hyperactive gesturing, the music is never derailed, even if it’s constantly on the brink of falling head-over-heels into chaos.
Maple’s density makes repeated listens not only seemingly mandatory, but also incredibly enjoyable. Before annoying ideologues like Paul D. Miller “intellectualized” electronica to the point of clinical staidness, laptop tweakers were all smiles and struts, making music more danceable than Derridean. And Maple is a return to this time, with Blectum joining sympathetic partners Matmos and John Fell Ryan in the continuing quest to merge Studio 54 hubris with the neo-dada sonic pranksterism a la Kid 606. Highly recommended.
By Stewart Voegtlin
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Talon Slalom