|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12"
|
|
BPC 103EP
|
Don't expect to hear some sort of "Soft Parade" on this record. Sylvie Marks and Hal9000 graced their computer a consciousness raising excursion on their album Krazee (BPC 098) with the track "My Computer Eats an Acid Trip." Listen how it came to be that the computers of Tomas Anderssonand BPC newcomer Dexter had to go to sleep. Sylvie Marks and HAL900 were working on a track when they suddenly heard a ringing surprise in their machine. The processor is forced into trouble as the uploaded pieces of the music program run amok. It is thus given a good dose of psychotropic side effects just like the devil would have wanted it. It growled, rattled, and chirped until the screen flickered with a rainbow of psychedelic colors. The computer swallowed calls for help of the sweat-drenched producers and relayed them in a sponge-like call or goat-like whine, ending it all with a laugh. The rhythm maker was the only thing that kept going, encouraging Sylvie Marks and HAL9000 to successfully complete rescue attempts. They decided to write off all drugs after this experience and ended this fiasco by pouring out a glass of water. As everyone knows, acid blocks filters that protect our brain against over-stimulating effects. The trip itself is about determined and relentless information cells pouring in. It's always interesting to examine this. That's why: staying true to abstinence, curiosity is what pushed Sylvie Marks and HAL9000 like never before. They decided to send their mixture with a smile to friends Dexter and Tomas Andersson. It was yet to be determined how their machines would react, virus warnings were supplemented somewhere on the instruction sheet. Dexter's computer experiences a moment of clarity. Look here, this is how it could be today; a crispy clear error message: "There is acid in my system!" and then it marches along with a relentless beat and bass drum. Listen to the angel sounds and strings. This box is floating in heaven! The machine tumbles and gets tipsy, the pressure valves rattle, and a whirlwind blows into synthetic synapses. "Trip!" is what the scratched-up chorus of virtual drag queens yells, falling back into convulsive jerking. Computers on acid: you almost want the experience yourself!
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
2LP
|
|
BPC 098LP
|
|
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
BPC 098CD
|
"With their debut album on BPitch Control, Sylvie Marks and HAL9000 tell an audible tale: a tonal cross section of their life experiences, which is coupled again and again via the click of the bass to their reminiscences. Thus music was/is always the common thread of the Ariadne -- for both -- that through the labyrinth of life made expressiveness the chief premise. If Sylvie Marks surprised her piano teacher in former times with improvised playing, this is very much a characteristic, perhaps she is just compelled to do so: by her many years of experience with the structure and apparently unlimited possibilities in the field of electronic music (everything goes!), she exchanged the fixed limitations of improvisation freely compared with the status quo. In this sense one finds that in Sylvie Marks and HAL9000, this path is traversed all over again, which translates today as a variety of perspectives and a real 'being into it'. With their first album, they composed Krazeeee, which clearly suggests them to be like the original maxi of the same name. They enlighten the traces and origins of techno, which are distinct and thereby steer a sure instinct for the substantive beat. Both do not forget to present however the diagonally unusually picturesque gesture, which with each of the releases already provided on the 7" Label of the same name, HAL9000 makes for pure joy: a bit off-beat, slightly disturbing and the sideways swimming of sounds and pictures, these developments leave all control to a straightened-out bass line. Along with the already long list of past publications, the publication of Krazeeee on BPitch Control demonstrates, how very much Sylvie Marks and HAL9000 must have sharpened their musical vision over the years. With 'Baby take me a little bit higher' (BPC037),'We electric' (BPC051) and 'Bad women meets zen on the street' (BPC058) the two play about on BPitch Control. As well as on Ellen Alliens' 'Weiss Mix' (BPC047) the two already collaborated some time ago with 'Baby I'm Electric'. The fact that Sylvie Marks has a friendship of many years with Ellen Allien is to be suspected. Thus it is now time to burn -- and to let burn."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
12"
|
|
BPC 096EP
|
"The original version of 'Krazee' has its own separate history: Rather minimalized instrumentation in the classical structure of a track. Long-pent memories of disco nights of the past, ecstatic dancers on flashing dance floors, and extremely compelling sounds are released. Along with the combination of glitzy surfaces and twirling windmills, all are bound together, following the march of the beats. Showing techno always pulling itself by the hair from the darkness. In the remix it becomes essentially experimental, snappy and more playful, although the beat takes over the orientation here. However, the beat is added intractably to the whole, more so than with the original. Resting a bit offbeat is perhaps the strongest of characteristics already known from Sylvie Marks and HAL 9000. Steadily emerging are synthesized flutes camouflaged as gimmicks, -- sworn staple of large acts -- only however to ring in with the vocals of Sylvie to make out the sense. How does she sound on the other end of the telephone, 'are you still there? / Anyone out there?', but so loud that she does not hear the other one at all, and perhaps doesn't care to. The disturbance is raised to the point (sleep can wait til another time), and the noise holds all attention. Thus, perhaps one doesn't want to but can't help but hear. In its entirety, the remix is a decidedly slower tempo, however, one tapered synchronously to the messages from another world, ending with DJ friendly suspense. 'Wir Sterne' makes clear with its alarming entrance, how one can imagine Sylvie as a tipsy steering Barbarella in a rolling orbital glider. Clearly how near HAL 9000 at HAL 9000 (the revolting supercomputer from Kubricks Space Odysee 2001) could be so real. Sylvie seems to have the look of being intoxicated with power from the window, onlookers comment. Now and then system overload warning flashes, but at this point the acceleration is the option chosen, rather than slowing down. Again in five minutes is packed here the slightly offbeat audio canal, whose perception saturates the senses, until the plug is ripped from the socket. HAL 9000 (the genuine) would certainly have begun to dance."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
12"
|
|
BPC 058EP
|
"Sylvie Marks and HAL 9000 once again let robots and super-computers do their dance: nice conflation of indie-tronics, electronica, and melancholic pop. Her fragile vocals swerve from recitations to singing, thus leaving no desires unreciprocated. 'Bad Woman' bridges another gap: whoever didn't realize that DJ's can sing will now know what's up. Put your hands in your pocket, sharpen your ears, and listen closely. 'Mad Zen' immediately gets more aggressive for the dance floor making you pull your laces tight. Deepness leads the way here along with a driving beat that heats up with heavy elektro velocity. The last piece shifts gears and moves in another direction: the four hits the one straight up and ends up as a gadget-like-dance-floor-buster via Green Velvet, raunchy girls attitude, and British school-girl charm. Nice, you can almost see Sylvie's hair flowing."
|
|
|
|