Normally I dislike remix projects. They reek of egos run amok. Results of their egos usually disappoint, with the mixer thinking “Eh, whatever, I guess I’ll ride this guy’s coattails into fame”. Or the opposite reaction, which is worse, is when someone famous (like Thurston Moore) remixes some good obscure artist’s stuff into something far less interesting. It doesn’t sound good, it feels like charity, like aw, poor unpopular artist. Let me help you.

Scion proves that there are exceptions to the rule. Yeah, they might not be as popular as Basic Channel, but they are very familiar with their…

Mark Fell is a pretty accomplished interdisciplinary artist. Besides being one half of “SND” he also does live performances of both sound and vision. This particular release “Ten Types of Elsewhere” deals with his installation work. Despite the disparate nature of the works, it does have its own unifying theme.

44 tracks might seem like a lot to wade through, but really it is more like 9 tracks, since some of these come together like suites. Rhythm is important on here, though there’s none of trademark SND beats. Beats do pop up occasionally, most notably in the “Storage” and “Ideation”…

SND named this after a cloned cow, for reasons I can’t possibly fathom. At no point are you reminded of farm animals at any point during the recording. Instead, you get that sweet, technically talented music they are well known for. If I had a sore spot about the EP, it is that it is that there are only 93 copies of this, already sold out. I’m not sure whether or not to blame Dust Science Recordings for this, or blame SND for releasing through their label in the first place.

Musically, this seems like a logical evolution for SND.…

According to Mark Fell, this is a reconstruction of the Human League’s “Reproduction”. Even the cover states as much, with instead of showing babies, it shows microscopic cells. Strangely enough, that does a pretty good job of introducing to the music held within.

Each piece bumps and blasts around. Glitches are a given, and any sort of interaction you’ve had with SND might better prepare you for what’s in store. Beats scatter about. Melodies are hidden somewhere within the glitching electronics.

Some of these pieces point to the direction SND would later take. “The Path of Least Resistance” and “You’ve…

According to Mark Fell, this is a reconstruction of the Human League’s “Reproduction”. Even the cover states as much, with instead of showing babies, it shows microscopic cells. Strangely enough, that does a pretty good job of introducing to the music held within.

Each piece bumps and blasts around. Glitches are a given, and any sort of interaction you’ve had with SND might better prepare you for what’s in store. Beats scatter about. Melodies are hidden somewhere within the glitching electronics.

Some of these pieces point to the direction SND would later take. “The Path of Least Resistance” and “You’ve…

Maybe I enjoyed SND’s little EP offering this year, but I’m really into Mark Fell’s solo stuff lately. With this, he basically gives his music the greater edge I knew it could have. Previously he did his release of “Ten Types of Elsewhere” on L-NE, and keeping in sync with that label’s aesthetic, it felt brittle. Sure, there were tender moments on it, but overall it felt a tad bit distant.

His “Multistability” changes that. This is a work absolutely brimming with life. If you didn’t read the cover, you might think it was SND’s follow-up to their album from…

These guys turn trashiness into an art form. When I was lucky enough to see them perform live at the Knitting Factory (when it was downtown, before it moved to cheaper pastures) they wore bizarre outfits. It felt like pirate punk rock, with paper mache heads.

It is dirty, noisy, kind of gross music. Of course I mean this in the most flattering way possible. All the right references are here: from the junk rock of Royal Trux to the fractured fuck-up of the early Residents. In case neither one of these things are your bag, they also do very…

Really, I have no idea what this acronym stands for. Nor do these California dance rockers offer any sort of insight either. But since (!!!) came out of this, you should probably realize that it is pretty good.

I prefer this album to their second one for a few reasons. For one, the best song on “Let Us Never Speak of It again” kind of harked back to the weird fests of this one (Dear Mr. Bush, There Are over 100 Words for Shit and Only 1 for Music. Fuck You, Out Hud). Plus, this one doesn’t feel the need…

Maybe the kids in Tempe, Arizona need something to do. Leave it to the blandest suburbs imaginable that would make people create “Dunkwave”. Apparently Dunkwave is a mixture of noise, drone, and random basketball samples. Before you groan and say “Geez, that sounds like literally the most awful thing ever” give it a listen. I decided to pretend I hadn’t just read what it actually was and put it on.

Vladee Divacc (a reference to the Serbian basketball player Vlade Divac) consists of Edouard Urcadez and Christian Filardo, two young artists from Arizona State University. Together they’ve made an oddly…

Bittersweet would be the best way to describe what’s going on here. There are only two sides to this, “The Sinking of the Titanic” on side A and “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” on side B. Both sides are pretty good late night winter listening. Each has its own specific take on various hopes or failings. Neither side is particularly troublesome or tricky, there’s no difficult serialism or extreme avant-garde tendencies to overcome here. Probably the hardest thing to get through is the emotional content.

“The Sinking of the Titanic” comes first and is the bleaker of the two.…