Dirty Electronics & Oliver Torr — piu hiway

Consisting of eight short tracks, piu hiway is an interesting mix of sounds flirting the line between minimal and noise. Many of the sparse stretches serve to accentuate the sounds when they do arrive, even if the run times are fairly abbreviated. However, this shorter song structure is a refreshing approach when many experimental artists tend to over indulge and run the risk of overstaying their welcome. From the "jazzy" opener, "itsnotasaccmon_!" to the electronic crash of the finale, "flash_death," piu hiway puts together many interesting tones, textures, and approaches. Never cramming too much into one piece, the artists at work on each seem to embrace their time to play, and work with only the elements that they want, with no excess. This often leads to spaces of silence or times of little development, but it's all part of the plan, and since everything is so short, one doesn't have to wait long at all before the sonic palate changes.

 

piu hiway is a very quick hit of an album, and broken up over eight tracks, it allows for many varied approaches to interesting electronics. This is quite the deviation from the traditional structure of experimental albums and it treats piu hiway very well. While this would often want the listener asking for more, the tracks are all appropriately done and that allows for more replays and quicker association with the material at hand. With recording locations as spread over Europe as this is with sound, piu hiway is a fun and intriguing look at some artists finally getting to put their collaboration on record. To check out for yourselves