Andy Ortmann - Pataphysical Electronics mp3 download

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ANDY ORTMANN - PATAPHYSICAL ELECTRONICS (LP by Nihilist) Damn. There is a lot going on here. The latest album from Andy Ortmann (who is also the manbehind Panicsville and the Nihilist label) has so many ideas crammed onto its three LPs; it’sdifficult to assimilate. In fact, I’ll confess now that any review, written out of necessity after a fewlistens, will only scratch the surface… my overwhelming impression of “Pataphysical Electronics”is that it will require more time and close listening for me to absorb. The level of sonic detail,compositional variety, and the sheer number of ideas here demand prolonged immersion. If I’mreminded of anything, it’s Nurse With Wound, Luc Ferrari or Bernard Parmegiani… more than amere sound that you turn on as ambience, but music that you live with, revealing nuances withsustained attention. But because I’m reviewing this after a few listens, I can only tell you that Iknow that I’ll be returning to “Pataphysical…” often… ask me about it again in 2020 and I’ll havemore to say. Here’s one example of what I mean. The piece “Eating a Dead Horse” (a hilariously gruesometitle, by the way… though, when you think about it, why would anyone eat a live horse?) is only fourminutes long, yet goes through several distinct phases: it starts as a remarkably detailed andevocative recording of things landing water (what is landing in the water?) with synth dotting thebackground. A lesser piece might sustain this for the entire duration, but instead Ortmann seguesinto insistent typewriter rhythms backing Tangerine Dream, which then segues into morse codeand white noise density before finally landing in a factory that produces folly effects for LooneyTunes cartoons. All of this in four minutes. Yet the song (as a microcosm of all the songs on thisrather long album) is not whiplash Naked City pastiche; it somehow makes sense as a singlethought, and each song makes sense in the company of the others. There are implied narrativeshere… sometimes very blatantly so, as in the narrated verse of the opening “She Knows”, butother times in solely sonic terms. The longest tracks (two of which, “Maelstrom in X Minor” whichis clearly a New Blockaders tribute of some sort, and “Four Cosntructions With Interruptions” areedited from a cassette previously released on Fag Tapes) make clear Ortmann’s compositionchops, with passages for woodwinds and classical musique concrete. “Extended HammeredString Environment VI” is a violent, tape-warped take on prepared piano. The final track ofsustained and treated gongs feels short at ten minutes; lesser artists might have milked an hourput of this, but Ortmann’s sense of pacing compelled him to cut it off once it’s done its job. Noway to mistake this for table-full-of-effects-boxes kicking up a racket. “Pataphysical Electronics”is one hell of an impressive album, easily Andy Ortmann’s best so far. (HS)––– Address: https://nihilistrecordings.bandcamp.com/