It’s not a real audiologist but an electronic musician masquerading as one (at least nominatively) and he has created another free album to add to Section 27’s burgeoning discography. That’s a nice phrase. Gosh I’m clever. I wish someone would write a review of me where they said such nice clever things. Maybe one day. Till then I’ll keep building up the bank of potential praisers by saying that this is definitely worth getting hold of.
Opener “Prolgu” got my attention because it sounded like something I might have missed on Toytronic or Warp in the late 90’s and early 00’s. This might sound bad but there is a definite golden era for electronica and Warp’s back catalogue from that time is pretty much definitive (with some Skam and Toytronic and Rephlex etc etc) so anything that can lay claim to that heritage is on the right track (even if it’s a lie). Qitag is also a pretty special thing, indeed it was this tune that caught my ear on the basis it sounds like a melancholy miniaturized version of Scotland. I don’t know why I think that. Maybe the barely there military tattoo style drums (possibly fireworks) that provides beats and the plaintive bagpipe sounding solo synth but it’s definitely an interesting sounding tune. Much the same can be said for the outstanding Mystic Cave (hee hee I’m thinking of something dirty when I think about Mystic Caves) which is an industrial style minimal beat with an addictive little Ethio-Jazz sounding mystic piano riff over the top of it.
So a third of the way through the album and all’s good. My first reservations pop up at this point because the next few tunes while being pretty good lack the strong features of the opening volley. I was also disturbed to find myself humming the X Files theme tune while listening to “Opasenye” which is because the opening synths have a passing resemblance to Mark Snow’s greatest work. Obviously this is unintentional but that’s how my stupid brain works. Things hit a peak again with “Halloween” which is a kind of glitch tribute to the spirit of John Carpenter’s awesome theme tune, no sampling but all the atmosphere. “9ine” is another little peak, being very clean sounding and quite B12-esque. I liked B12 so that’s bound to go down well with me, plus it has a nice little skewed ploppy synth lead. That does mean something trust me. The rest of the album has its moments but also some flaws and then it’s finished and it’s time for me to say something meaningful.
As much as I like this album I also think it could have been made stronger. Why have we got remixes on there ? Why is “Knee” so long ? I would have trimmed a few tracks off this and made it a leaner and (in my opinion) stronger album; taking away some of the chaff to expose the lovely golden (musical) corn but that’s a thing of mine nowadays and it exposes my brain for the dusty relic it is. Digital releases can be as big or small as people want them to be and “more is more” is certainly the philosophy most people seem to abide by. Final judgement ? A really good album with some exceptional moments and some skippable moments, now go and get it because its free like all Section 27 gear.
http://section27netlabel.blogspot.com/2011/12/s27-087-theaudiologist-idios-kosmos.html
Kim Monaghan
