Modern Obscure Vinyl & CDs

Review: Recorded in Essaouira, Morocco, Pedro Vian and Maalem Nabob Soudani present an exercise in melding the traditional and unorthodox, the old and new, the abstract and the direct, the exotic and, well, something even more exotic. Rooted in the Gnawa sound, but leaning heavily into deep electronic worlds, EMS AKS Synthi and buchla meet the qrebeb and guimbiri, everything contrasting yet complementing. The result is this intoxicating brew that transports you to the North African coastline on which this collection was conceived and captured, and then onto somewhere that's almost beyond the terrestrial. Close your eyes, allow the hypnotic looped musical phrases and organic aesthetic of the recording itself to wash over you, through, and around your body. Something to truly get lost in and a fantastic example of cross-pollination done properly.

Review: Pedro Vian and Merzbow release their first joint work, Inside Richard Serra Sculptures, marking a worthy expressionistic turn in an already monumental discography by the former artist. Building on and expanding upon a series of field recordings made by Vian inside one of the artist Richard Serra's sculptures, then housed at the DIA Beacon Foundation, this eponymous two-park work is a guttural, verging on obscene noise crud-out, albeit one which still scoops redoubts of emotion from its expansive walls and toothy upheavals. Vian's original recordings are lent an ungular sharpness by the latter Japanese noise legend, whose name not only adds much clout to the mix but whose sound likewise eviscerates the sounds derived from the modernist roundhouses of Serra's work. An acousmatic masterwork laid to record, with brutally frank but ultimately rewarding consequences.