Valcrond Video Us Vinyl & CDs

Review: Commonly found lurking around L.I.E.S., Technicolour and W.T. Records, Florian Kupfer has plenty of credentials in the noisier end of the hardware house and techno scene, so it makes perfect sense to find him sidling up to Valcron Video in collaborative moder with Torn Hawk. The results are predictably excellent, from the gnarled emotional wrangles of "Fake Blood" to the blown out ambience of "Hungry For Candy". "Sweet Tooth" comes on like a dishevelled club workout, and then "Manipulation" rounds the record off with a tongue in cheek spoken word and ambience piece that packs some serious music underneath the irreverent chit chat.

Review: Valcrond Video, the label of Brooklyn-based visual artist and producer Luke Wyatt presents it's very first vinyl issue in the shape of two new tracks from Torn Hawk, one of Wyatt's aliases. First coming to the fore in a musical sense with a set of distressed guitar and asphalt beat attacks on the LIES White Label series, Torn Hawk has been closely associated with Ron Morelli's label ever since with Wyatt subsequently working with Karen Gwyer, Secret Circuit and Willie Burns. Distancing himself a bit from the grime and grit some associate with his productions, the two new tracks have more in common with the more expansively voiced compositions on Emotional Response release Teen Hawk, or the cinematic melancholy of the untitled EP he released under the alias Lossmaker. Clearly Wyatt is building towards housing all his musical instincts under one roof.

Review: After last year's well-received Tariffa, a killer excursion on L.I.E.S, electronic explorer Torn Hawk (AKA producer Luke Wyatt) returns to more familiar territory with his second full-length for Valcrond Video. While the attention to detail, and particularly melody, that marked out Tariffa is present, it's masked in all manner of curious, clandestine effects, industrial rhythms and mutant noise. At times, 10 For Edge Tek comes on like a latter-day Steve Reich with drum machines and effects units; at others, it's more akin to early '80s noise albums or droning techno. Such wild swings and leftfield intent makes for a fascinating listen, furthering Wyatt's credentials as "one to watch" in 2013

Review: Valcrond Video presents the next work by sound and image artist Luke Wyatt, Songs From Bad Kid School.

On a high desert plain, inside a cinder block compound, a prank squad is incarcerated. Between fiddling with ninja stars and leafing through back issues of Fangoria, they find time to scrape out the soundtrack of their escape.
On the first track, heatsick guitars and steel wool beats suggest a landscape strewn with abandoned car carcasses, old Camaros left for dead in the sun, used for shotgun practice.

The B-side leads off with the beat-less, articulated sprawl of "Saline Flats". Here is the story of a desert search for water: figures warping mirage-like on the horizon as they make a confused journey over dunes, ending with a cathartic drone that suggests the mirages resolving into a real oasis. Though it is just as likely that the bad kids have expired from thirst, and ascended to the sublime.