xingu hill (aka john sellekaers) has moved stylistically from predominantly rhythmic sounds into atmospheric soundscapes. the best example of this is his hymen records release ‘alterity’. as part of a collaboration he morphs the input from his partners into something different – like a prism turning a ray of light into colours that have never been seen. you can hear this on ‘the andronechron incident’ which was a collaboration with david thrussell’s black lung. now, sound wizard and excellent producer john sellekaers has collaborated with mathis mootz (aka panacea aka kate mosh aka rich kid aka m2 or squaremeter). there has always been a difference between the panacea sound and m2’s sound. but, m2 is the ‘quieter half’ of a person who manages his’ angers, fears, feelings. it is no doubt that panacea is the ‘loud half’. in the end the prism works. on this 54-minutes release you can hear moments that could be described as ‘academic electronic music’. imagine stockhausen’s early works if they would have become ‘human’ or if one of stockhausen’s works had been transformed into emotional soundtrack or a love song.

rhythms and samples (especially voice samples) are treated as synthesizer patterns and this seems to be a ‘xingu hill trademark’. you can hear a lot of these treatments on the cd. but you can also hear melodies and ‘true rhythms’ - just skip to track 3, ‘dreadful menace’ or 5, ‘in the midst’ and give it a try. speaking of samples, recall m2’s ant-zen debut ‘14id1610s’, which contained 1610 samples. we do not know how many samples have been used on ‘this anxious space’ but mootz and sellekaers produced music that is beyond experimenting and sound treatments. they produced a release that is organic via entirely electronic sources (and natural sources which actually sound electronic).

very recommended.


more releases of xingu hill:
mailorder.ant-zen.com/products/band/id/526
bandcamp.com/tag/xingu-hill

more releases of m²:
mailorder.ant-zen.com/products/band/id/444
bandcamp.com/tag/squaremeter

hymen records ¥717
www.hymen-records.com
www.mailorder.ant-zen.com
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