Record Review: Pontiak

Pontiak
Maker
[2009, Thrill Jockey]
3.5/5

Full review Here. Despite being recorded in the confines of a 12x12’ home studio by three brothers, Pontiak’s Maker avoids sounding overly jammy or excessive. And this is no small feat, particularly in the absence of a supervising producer. Even on the title track, the album’s 14-minute centerpiece, the siblings tastefully monitor both how long they allow each idea to gestate until it is realized and when to progress to a fresh one before driving old ideas into the ground through unrelenting repetition... continue reading

Side note: If you're in Tallahassee, go check out Pontiak at the Engine Room tonight!

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Spotlight: Oval

Oval are pioneers of glitch, a genre which has itself birthed some interesting offspring ("glitch hop" a la Prefuse 73 or Machinedrum, "glitch pop" like Dntel, etc). However, elements of any kind of popular music are pretty far removed from Oval's sound. The group draws patterns in Magic Marker on the backs of CDs, and records the sounds of their playback. The results, particularly on their groundbreaking 1995 album 94 Diskont, are nothing short of astounding. Overall, their approach is not unlike that of 20th century minimalist composition in the vein of Reich or Glass, but channelled through fairly modern (at the time) technology. By leaving certain spaces of the CDs unmarred by marker, traces of cut up melody appear, and are repeated heavily. Variation and evolution occur over time, just as in a long form minimalist work.
Overall, this record is just fantastic, and I highly recommend you seek it out. The other groups that Markus Popp, the group's leader, has been involved with (Gastr Del Sol, Microstoria) are also highly recommended.

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