It seems utterly churlish to conceive of reviewing a free album in anything other than the most glowing terms. This hard working label has a broad roster of artists, from whom you can pick and choose any number of songs and albums for free. It’s a pretty website and each release is presented beautifully with some really outstanding artwork. The only downfall for me is that it is a purely digital label, but if you’re doing it for free it’s really the only way to go…anyway, enough about Section 27.
Mitoma is another release from the head honchos of the label, who also work as Altered:Carbon, but who they are isn’t important; what they sound like is. Well, certainly Autechre feature in their influences, but which electronica album released since 1989 hasn’t at last been informed by the mighty ones ? There are points at which they remind me of Bola, but their use of influences is restrained (except when it comes to song titles like “Vlibb” and “Cpertad” which are clearly Autechre-esque) but this nonsense language has basically been the standard for a lot of electronica releases for a while, so no harm done. My only other criticism of the album would be that it is strictly for the heads. If you have never listened to any electronica, this is a bit of a dive in at the deep end with melodies being scarce and intellectually orientated, with scary time signatures (“Sixfour”) abounding.
If you’re not sure about investing the no pounds it costs to get hold of this album, have a listen to “Vlibb”, “Rvrk” or “Subwrack” and then go and not spend your money. Anyone who listens to electronica with less than Platonic intentions will be happied up. And if you don’t listen to electronica then fuck you.
http://section27netlabel.blogspot.com/
Kim Monaghan
A fine review, thanks!