Pelktron

nobile – pelktron
by nobile
nobile – pelktron cover art
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bahnhof 00:00 / 07:12
Digital Album

The premiere klanggold release is by label head Andreas Usenbenz (aka Nobile) whose laptop strategies involve the reinterpretation of classical music elements—not that anyone would necessarily recognize them as such after Usenbenz is through with them. The sounds themselves may remain recognizable but the remarkably unusual configurations that emerge within his arrangements sound completely unfamiliar.
In the opener “bahnhof,” chattering electronic organisms incessantly shudder and squirm while softer, recorder-like tones eke out some faint semblance of conventional melody over restless activity churning below. The equally-surprising “durch” pairs acoustic bass lines and tom-tom accents but combines them with croaking tones and glockenspiel tinkles into some mutant variation of a jazz ballad. Each piece explores heretofore undiscovered terrain: an army of trilling percussive rattles streams through “k.rogk”; a funereal two-tone lurch drags “tagtraum” forward while dense bird-like masses overtop threaten to attack; and, like a ping-pong match taking place in some alternate galaxy, gaseous surges hypnotically alternate at both left and right channels throughout “renoise.” Identifiable acoustic sounds rub shoulders with abstract noises in organically unfolding pieces that both command one’s attention and simultaneously exhaust it. Unpredictability reigns throughout, and consequently the listener is engaged at each moment, constantly thrown off-balance by the jarring paths the pieces pursue. Though Usenbenz’s Nobile material sounds nothing like Oval, the two artists are similar in the degree to which they challenge the listener with entirely alien yet wholly captivating experiences. Pelktron is an auspicious label debut, to say the least. (2007 Textura.org)

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