Jin Sangtae/Park Seungjun - 5 Modules IV

Manual
IV

The fourth installment in this fascinating five part series from Manual Records finds Jin Sangtae (laptop, mobile phone, radio) engaging in intense and often hyperactive dialogue with Park Seungjun (feedback with electric light, broken CD player and radio). While not as structurally intriguing as its predecessor in the group, the music provides a good amount of excitement, tight interplay and sheer luxuriating in the harsh world of cracked electronics. In fact, if you think of a less rhythm-driven version of Voice Crack, you wouldn’t be far off. Pulses do appear throughout but they’re not pushed to the fore and tend to integrate among the general welter.

In a way, it strikes me as a good old-fashioned improv collaboration, usually a pretty forceful, dynamic one. Not that I can distinguish for a second between the musicians and their devices, but you do get a strong sense of dialogue. In fact, despite the instrumentation, it often sounds as though several wind instruments are in use, especially on the first track where there’s both wheezing and popping noises that could’ve easily had a reed as a source. Throughout, there’s a thickness of sound that’s consistently appealing. Not a bad track in the bunch, really, though were I to choose one standout it would be the third out of four, “square_03”.

It’s the quietest piece on the album, all hisses, clicks and thin sine tones near the start (again, I swear someone is expending breath over a surface—the mobile phone?) yet manages to be tactile to an almost sticky degree. It made me think of nmperign in how much control you sense as they sculpt their surroundings. Otherwise tough to describe, but a wonderful work.

All of the releases in this series have been well worthwhile—at the very least--so far and deserve far greater exposure than I fear they’re receiving. Check ’em out.

manual

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