Couchblip! is an Australian label and Disjunction Reunion’s “Modernism for Newborns” is their seventh full-length CD and Disjunction Reunion’s second full-length album. Starting off the fourteen-track album is the fast paced “Modernism for Newborns” with apt drum programming, nice melodies and string sounds and the same can be said about “Crackers”. In “Thickwig” you get more warmth, nice piano-like chords alongside a steady hip-hop beat and some vocal samples thrown in for good measure. “Arse/face Uplink” is especially beautiful and has a melody to die for fused with beats and bassline you’ve got a gem. “Chippies” has a strange whirling melody contrasted by dry beats and a really melancholic melody on top, it’s strange but in a nice way. “Chunk2” starts off with some glitch and onto a healthy and very solid beat nice chords and bassline join the beats. It would pass in the nursery and it will make you happy. “Three” another very nice track reminiscent of the workings of Plaid, relatively simple beats and lots of atmosphere. “Dripping Wreck” a dub track for the purist and a good one at that, you know dub? Then you know what it is. “Cockhead” a bit more intensity displayed with furiously played keyboard and quirky bubbly basslines, jazz influenced in a sense. “Smiley” maintains the high pace, but moves into the more distinct electronic domain, remarkable tempo and outstanding bassline. “Tension+” draws heavily on hip hop and has all the ingredients really, a sampled piano, the cut-up vocals and the beats to go it’s well crafted and reminiscent of Machine Drum’s output. “Poisoned Well” moves along the same lines of thought, heavy bassline alongside cut-up vocals, but with more of a Big Beat (or whatever it is called these days) feel to the whole thing. The lush strings opening “Illeged” redirects the feeling induced by the two previous tracks, excellent dry beats and lovely played melody move forward as the strings linger by and you get a premium piece of electronic music. And it is possibly the best track on the entire album. Ending the album is a track entitled “30” a calm intro gets layered with forward moving beats and clever arrangements, a bit of cut-up treatment and quite a lot of melancholy makes a perfect ending to this album. This being my first encounter with Disjunction Reunion it’s still not hard to understand why Couchblip! choose to release a full-length by Disjunction Reunion, the material is there and the production skills are definitely there. Maybe the album would have benefited from stripping a song or two and focus on the artists apparent strengths. I’m happy I’ve discovered Couchblip! and it’ll be interesting to see their future releases. A note on the nice packaging is not out of place.
electronic desert ≡ revisited + extended