Mick Sussman - The Rosenberg Algorithmic Music Generator: Selecte [Sublunar - 2018]This first volume of computer music created by the Rosenberg Algorithmic is a wonderful heady & brain twisting journey- think a more manic & rabid take on Zappa’s Jazz From Hell, or the more abstract & dense piled-up moments from latter-day Autechre. The release comes in the form of a CD- and this features a whopping nineteen tracks and over seventy minutes of music. And for the most part there’s a fairly bit of variation in structure/ textural makeup of tracks, so yes the release really is a brain screwing overload- but you never get bored as most of the tracks come in around the three-minute mark, and for the most part their distinctive enough from each other.
I’d say I enjoy pretty much all of the tracks here, I guess maybe a few stand-out less, but for the most part, it’s a consistently brain scrambling trip. A few of my present favorites come in the form of "Spherical Sameness( Rb.586)"- which sounds like gone wrong chirping ‘n’ bright oriental melody with chopping & darting percussive skeleton. The bouncing sour-ness meets bounding-almost funky crunch of "Italicize Mellow( Rb. 609)". The melodramatic-yet- bent electro strings meets manic easy listening dart of "Licit Teatime(Rb.685)". Or the gone wrong marching toy queasiness of "Dumfounding Squareness (Rb. 684)". I’ve now played through the album fully maybe four/ five times, and I’m still finding new off-kilter sonic treats & details.
The release comes with 10-page inlay booklet- and this nicely goes over how the project came about & the way the tracks where constructed- so that makes for a worthy addition to the set. With the disc itself been presented in a glossy green digipak.
To fully enjoy/ get this release you’ve got to enjoy some form of wonky/ off-kilter music- otherwise, I imagine it will just come off as a manic mesh of electronic tones. But I must say I whole-hearted enjoyed this, reveling in both it’s often complex detail & off-angular creativity. Here’s very much looking forward to Vol 2!. Roger Batty
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