Writing about the "lowercase" or "microsound" genre increasingly becomes a battle against couching judgments in nebulous or pretentious terminology, purely because the music is difficult to describe in layperson's absolutes. Often, articles and reviews become more concerned with the actual process behind the making of a particular work than the actual sounds of the work itself. This presents an unusual problem for the reviewer in some respect: how does one separate means from ends, and still put forth a helpful guide, or introduction, to the music on one of these CDs? I'll admit that I've been turned off by a large portion of the practitioners in this style, as it often seems to me that the technologies used have taken over the artists' individual voices and created a humorless, somewhat sterile genre of form over actual useful function.

As with every rule there is always an exception, of course, and it is with a high degree of pleasure that I approach the second in the Bip Hop/Fällt Reciprocess series of collaboration discs; this time it's a si-cut.db/Full Swing combo. Admittedly, a collaboration between two artists in this genre means very little--I can't make heads or tails when attempting to decide who did what. In a way, I believe this is a strength--what other genre of music can achieve such artistic synergy where both involved create something that expands and includes their own work without betraying just “who did what”? The thirteen tracks on the CD completely ignore the somewhat stodgy rhetoric of much of Mille Plateaux's catalog in favor of an aesthetic summed up in a quote from the liner notes by Stephan Mathieu (Full Swing): "'good' music has nothing to do with 'good' software."

Here we have glitch-based electronic music with, if not a sense of humor, then a very humanist and welcoming tone. The average glitch release seeks to enlarge the microworld within electronic devices to startling magnitude, ignoring humanity altogether in a type of techno-fetishism--here, on Reciprocess 02, we find that the human element (which is, after all, responsible for the creation of these devices) is never lost. Each track contains the sonic detritus we are accustomed to hearing, but rather than detail the gradual dissolution of sonic elements, we are viewing this decay as it somehow sheds its original mechanical form to create a new, startlingly beautiful radiant being.

I'm surely going to burn my brain out attempting to describe each track here. Some of the highlights were "und.and" which begins suitably minimalistic but gradually opens up into a chiming and resonant landscape that is almost tuneful. "don't.ask" is also beautiful, reminding me of Oval's work--chopped up sounds based on an entrancing drone that makes the whole mishmash inexplicably attractive. "octavia.drive" is a tonal, subtly-shifting form which massages the neurons as they fire wildly within the listener's brain. "wissen.sch.nitt" is rather like Christophe Charles's musique concrete endlessly repeated until it forms a strange melodic pattern completely unlike what it sounded like at the outset. "jfm.gen" brings us into familiar territory, sounding similar to Vladislav Delay with morphed drum patterns and churning dub elements. The next track, "cond.verge" continues the dub stylings, making a strange click-hop track with unusual Zoviet France-like drones. "adorable.capitolism" is a frenetic melange of stereo-panning that made my eyes dart back and forth trying to keep track of the sonic movement. "divpops.stage" is my favorite track on the CD, with droning symphonics and digital noise making a haunting, mysterious, and dramatic ambient piece. Great stuff. Strangely, the last three tracks on the disc fall into rather pat dub pastiches, as we are used to hearing from the before-mentioned Vladislav Delay. I found these cuts to be far less interesting than the rest, as they seemed to fit poorly with the earlier, more experimental material.

Reciprocess 02, above all, reminded me that glitch-based electronic music need not be heavy, pretentious, academic stuff. This disc is infused with a sense of beauty and whimsy I find wholly enjoyable. The material never grates on the senses and proves to be a pleasant, listenable journey from start to finish (and after repeated plays). Praise is also due to the designer of the packaging, which can be read upside-down, and right-side up. This sonic ear-candy probably won’t appeal to those who prefer their sounds to remain rather "together." Those who like a little sonic mulch to break up the sounds, though, will be more than pleased with the controlled chaos herein, often sounding like a catchier Oval, courtesy of si-cut.db & Full Swing.

Released by the very cooperative Bip Hop and Fällt records.

since July 15, 2003