Oval — O

I am a long time fan of Markus Popp's Oval project, though admittedly there are a lot of albums I've never listened to.  He has a rare meticulousness, but oddly I have seldom felt in the mood to sit down and listen to his music.  Loosely describably as glitched-out ambient electronic listening music of the digital age or even the future.  Popp's work often sounds similar to other glitch-happy artists such as Four Tet and The Books, but while those artists have often satisfied themselves clicking and popping out sing-songy, 3 and a half minute indietronic anthems complete with sampled hook, Oval has shown, with albums like "94 Diskont", that he is unafraid to remain uncompromising and minimal, not to mention unrelentingly synthetic and sterile.  His experimental techniques are not only novel, but produce quite musical results.  He has an ear for texture to equal that of any academic savant on the Raster Noton label that gives his music a distinct, deep sound that improves with repeated listening.

For this new double album "O", the constant, grainy, clicking rhythm that Oval is known for concocting has been translated to a new and mysteriously organic sonic palette; it sounds like guitars and other unidentifiable stringed instruments have become Popp's latest victims - from the mutilated, twanging yet strangely lovely, resonant sound of it, he mangles and heavily alters both the instruments themselves and the sounds he subsequently gathers from them.  Prepared pianos and music boxes are a close points of reference, but Popp's methods, whatever they are, are less straightforward and transparent.  The more percussive sounds produced are a bit like the shrill, high pitched sound that occurs when you pluck that little bit of guitar string pulled tight between the top of the neck and the tuning knobs.  Various distorted imperfections are occasionally coaxed from the strings, and they're a little jarring, but the recording is still overall relaxing to
 listen to.

The only other audible sound source is an acoustic drum set, which adds some groove to several tracks on the first disk, which end up reminding me of the jazzy-yet-still-spliced-up sounds of Squarepusher.  The tones of the drums are warm and not unnecessarily heavy.  Occasionally the splicing makes them sound a little rigid, but it's not too distracting.

The compositions themselves have not changed much from past Oval except to become more concise and mature - they are as harmonically rich and consonant as ever.  Individual overtones are manipulated and woven into an anesthetized daydream.  Each track is packed with the thick halcyon chords of ambient music and shoegaze, transplanted into a different musical language altogether and formed into a 2 minute symphony.  The Cocteau Twins and Robin Guthrie's ambient solo work often come to mind, though no track on "O" is ever so sleepy or passive.  Popp's new palette of sharply bright, metallic string textures bring the melodies up out of the soupy mess in a way both Guthrie and a younger Popp never quite managed.  In the days where his instrument of choice was a damaged CD, his music had more of a muffled, fluid sound, and it was indeed both original and wonderful.  Here, though, we get to see what a contrapuntal genius Popp truly is.  That's the second time I've described the compositions of "O" in classical terms, and I do believe it's on that level in terms of thoughtfulness, emotional depth and sheer detail, a compliment I almost never give.

"Ah!" is one of the album's strongest and most complete pieces, and benefits from being less sparse than the rest.  Almost abrasive pluckings rattle along to the drums in the fore, while others are granulized into mostly smooth, yet still somehow metallic drones.  "Salamanca" is a tragic gem with a mere 1:37 duration that turns the relaxed feeling of most of the album on its head for almost painful emotional immediacy.  "Dolo" and "Cry" approach dub and chillout territory with laid back psychedelic drum grooves reminiscent of the music of the 60's (before rock drumming shifted radically in style with drummers like Neil Peart).  The sunset drive of "Emocor" is a great finish to the first disk.  "Rivo" is a quick foray into the dazed, nostalgic melancholy of Aphex Twin, whose explorations with prepared pianos on the "Drukqz" album are not far removed from any of the shorter pieces on "O".

Two full disks, with 70 (!) total pieces, may be a bit much for such a thematic and homogenous work.  I feel at least a few tracks are forgettable and that if they were cut, I doubt anyone would notice.  Most of the these are on the second disk, which consists of 50 tracks, two minutes or less in length.  Some are clearly reworks of others.  When listened to as a whole, the numerous tracks congeal into a pleasant blur of similar sound textures and never become grating or tedious, but if the fat were trimmed the emotional impact would be much greater.  I feel "O" would have been best as one maximum length (80 minute) disk.  I can still listen to it and digest the way it is...  just maybe not all in one sitting.

It is sure that Markus Popp has created a record which sounds like no other record in existence, and that the creation of "O" was a hugely ambitious, massive undertaking.  For these things I respect him immensely, and so I feel compelled to give the album a perfect rating despite its excess length and repetitiousness.  This is the sort of album where even the tracks I process as filler now could easily grow on me later...  These are some of the most wonderful, original compositions I have heard this year, somehow equal parts song, mood space and textural exercise.  I feel few other artists do so well at integrating the hip aesthetic of IDM with the precision of avant garde.  As with other Oval records, it's possible I may go long periods of time without revisiting "O", but that says more about the uncompromising specificity of what Popp has achieved here than anything else.