Pantha Du Prince is a German minimal techno/microhouse/call-it-what-you-want artist, made famous (to me) for the heart-stoppingly beautiful Asha on 2007’s This Bliss. Previously on microhouse hero Lawrence’s Dial label, Pantha has relocated to the very not-techno Rough Trade for this, his third record. Featuring contributions from Noah Lennox (which should hopefully provide some clues to the direction of the upcoming Panda Bear record) on Stick To My Side and Tyler Pope (of LCD Soundsystem, !!!, and corrupting high schoolers fame) on The Splendour, this album is a musical creation in a world of its own. Layered yet minimal, the sound is so uniquely delicate that I must let Pantha Du Prince speak for himself:

“music slumbers in all matter; any sound, even silence, is already music. The mission, then, must be to render audible what is unheard and unheard of: black noise, a frequency that is inaudible to man. Black noise often presages natural disasters, earthquakes or floods; only some animals perceive this ‘calm before the storm.’ Black noise is something archaic and earthy. The music on Black Noise balances precariously on the slippery threshold between art and nature, between techno and folklore, which lends it a certain spectral and intangible aspect.”

This is electronic music and also much more.

If you listen to one techno release this year, nay, one electronic music release, have this be it.

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Another awesome release from Ghostly. Lusine, (previously Lusine ICL), or Jeff McIlwain is an ambient/IDM composer from Texas who has put out releases on Hymen and Isophlux in addition to Ghostly. His style typically ranges from anywhere from subtle and textural ambient to minimal, glitch, and softly serrated IDM. Here, he has refined his sound so it is crisper and snappier for a wider musical audience that has become much more accustomed to the addition of brightly popping electronic beats from IDM and hip-hop. I would venture to guess that if he, as Moby did with his first album, agreed to license out all of the songs on this album for commercial purposes, they would probably all be grabbed quickly and he would make a fortune. I don’t really know what that means, but I still really enjoy the album and think you will too. After the first listen to either Operation Costs, Two Dots, or Gravity, you will hear it’s clearly the result of careful, deliberate composition and polish.

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The first song is the best song I have heard in a few years. Everything else just falls into place. Minimal Spacey bedtime discothequeno. On Ghostly, one of my favorite labels.

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