LINELAND - Logos for Love
[Textura] CA
Elaborate too in its instrumental palette, Logos For Love opens with
Lineland (Malcolm Felder) simulating a large combo in the robust, vaguely
psychedelic overture “Pat Garrett” and revealing a gift
for melody too, as evidenced by the miniature piano theme skipping through
the big band arrangement. His 2003 Pavilion release was produced u four-track
Casio recordings, music software on a home-built Dynavox 2000 computer,
vintage keyboards, and novelty instruments, and there's little reason
to suspect Felder's radically strayed from the plot in the current case.
Once again the songs are largely keyboard-based though fleshed out with
acoustic instrumentation such as strings, acoustic guitars, and percussion.
The electronic dimension is certainly present too but to his credit
Felder refrains from randomly strewing electronic bits across these
mini-landscapes; what sounds there are—and they are plentiful—are
carefully considered and hardly, if ever, seem superfluous. Harp-like
acoustic guitar patterns and lush strings join rollicking rhythms, glockenspiels,
and clip-clop percussion in “Northside,” suggestive of a
spirited gallop through the countryside. A markedly Oriental character
pervades the stately melodies in “Pleats & Snaps,” an
otherwise remarkable example of Felder's colourful sound design. “Emerald
Board” is sunkissed pop of the kind one might imagine hearing
at the south of France by the Mediterranean Sea while “Hollywood
Graves” unfolds like a languorous afternoon bus tour through Los
Angeles with a tour guide pointing out the mansions of long-dead movie
stars. Though it appears late, the penultimate “Two Twenty”
may be the album's most appealing track, a dreamily melancholic three-minute
interweave of melodica-like cascades, silken acoustic patterns, and
electronic splendor. At day's end, these are ornately-arranged instrumental
pop songs that are intricate in compositional design without being weighed
down oppressively by excess. The Lineland moniker's borrowed from Edwin
A. Abbott's Flatland , the much-admired novel about life in a one-dimensional
realm, but Felder's thirteen songs are anything but one-dimensional.
They're not only sonically rich but the songs are like little stories
too, with titles alone (e.g., “A Widow and a Prince,” “
Mexican Village ”) capable of painting vivid pictures in the mind.
November 2008
Lineland:
Logos for Love
Reviewed By: Maarten Schiethart
Label: Audio Dregs
Format: CD
[Pennyblck]
UK
More wonderland these days, I'd say. Lineland's follow-up to 'Pavillion'
is his first fully intentional album and an exciting listen. The accompanying
press release with 'Logos For Love' puts me to the test. Lineland's
first album is now recommended to me by my own bloody self. Only one
minute into track number two, I nonetheless feel great relief for Lineland's
move from linear patterns to a richer tapestry.
A warm blanket of sound - a cliché but a true description, is
crafted from a multitude of layers and crispy, digital effects. Yet
electro-acoustics puritans should not despair as the structures still
however veer towards distorted glitchy dance patterns. Too rough around
the edges to count as lounge music, 'Logos For Love' is tantalizing
relaxation though.
'A Widow and a Prince' adds to his, known as classy, compositions with
a merciless beat. Malcolm Felder also known as Lineland fluently puts
together a melody line in progress with evolving repeats. One step ahead
of the game, Lineland reaches euphoria pretty soon. I suppose this will
see the light as an individual release one day with lots of remixes.
Next, 'Logos For Love' chooses to crash course, yet surfaces on the
lovely little bouncy 'Am-Track' then continues in elaborated and gentle
manner. Simple and ever so impressive.
Lineland -
Logos For Love
[almost cool]
US
My goodness. It's been so long since I've listened to this kind of
music that I think I at least partially forgot how fun it can be when
it's done correctly. Lineland is the recording name of one Malcolm Felder,
who creates quirky, semi-glitchy little IDM-tinged pop tracks that combine
everything from antiquated computer sounds to broken toy instruments,
and his second album Logos For Love is one of those cuddly little releases
that makes you wish summer would stretch on for just a bit longer.
The longest song on the album is just over four minutes, and most of
the thirteen clock in at even shorter than that, and in the process
focus on melody, melody, melody (with just enough rhythm to keep things
grooving). "Pat Garrett" is a perfect example, opening with
some ticky-tock sounds and shimmering filtered electronic sounds before
everything in the bedroom studio arsenal kicks in and it lopes into
an almost full-band anthem that's joyous as all get-out. "A Window
And A Prince" is a bit more on the robotic side, with a bit of
a crunchy distortion chewing on just about everything, and a limber
bassline that dances around kids-toy melodies and gasps of hiss.
In other places, filtered human voices blend with delicate acoustic
guitars and hand percussion in playful dances ("Northside")
while the machines win the battle in stripped-down numbers like the
filtered, quirky "The Move Down." The album is at its best
when it moves into little living-room one-person band jams that recall
the opening song, though, and both "Hollywood Graves" and
"Tinsel Spots" flourish with a lush, but sort of not-quite-live
feel that really feels like something slightly different. It's not exactly
something that's groundbreaking, but Logos For Love is one of those
charming little releases that caught me off guard and made me smile.
rating: 7
Lullatone - Computer Recital
[absorb.org]
UK
more amplified gorgeousness from audio dregs. this time it comes in
the form of lineland, aka malcolm felder, whose debut album arrives
after three years of crafting tunes from humble beginnings (on a casio
four-track) to more ingenious inventions (via home-built computers and
novelty instruments). the result is a stew of off-centre melodies, kitsch
drum-kicks and playful xylophone harmonics.
with tunes such as 'rock 1, rock 2', lineland delivers chirpy, spacey pads alongside the recognisable, durable percussive staples of arcade games. it's a catchy mix. in places tracks bear witness to a kind of stripped-down computer-language minimalism but never achieve the ascetic electro-fanaticism of say a band like echokrank. melodies such as 'planeta igreja' are precise but warm and bouncy: you can bet babies would like jumping up and down in their walkers to them (that's if babies have walkers anymore!).
other poptastic gems worth exploring are the wah-wah guitar-inflected
'acorns and matches', the distorted music-box jam of 'antique woman'
which unites wobbly piano tones with upbeat guitar and drums, not unlike
something you might find on last year's manitoba album. with the flute-driven
lushness of the epic 'pigs is' adding another string to feldman's bow,
i hope he'll be taking another line for a walk very soon.
reviewed by elizabeth wells
Lineland - Pavillion
[Penny Black]
UK
Linear compositions, richly orchestrated and on a par with
orthodox percussion, approach on a sound that's close to digital be-bop.
'Pavillion' has many storylines, no real headlines and ends up like
a short novel for reading on a seacruise. But as these loops unwind,
Lineland a.k.a. Malcolm Felder floods the sound of bits and bytes with
sinewaves in an ever changing scape. 'Pavillion' smoothly fluctuates
from ambient lullaby dub to hypnotic grooves but the Lineland is neatly
brought into culture and perpetually grows. With its cartoon-like qualities,
imagining bubbles and popping cork sounds - at least it seemed
to me, but I guess Bacchus genetically modified me in a previous life,
Malcolm Felder's CD is naive electronica entertainment which will last.
Harmonic buzzes fall over layers of found noise samples, toy instruments
and, reportedly, older casio tone recordings. Producing computer music
has adapted the method of writing. It no longer is the reflection of
an instance, hours or days in a studio but the end result of a programming,
performing, recording and arrangement process that can be held to one's
original intent and in one's own time. 'Pavillion' has succeeded;
was slowly built, then opened up doors and simply became a delicate
resort. Arguably with the best Audio Dregs release from 2003, Lineland
manipulates sounds and he pre-occupies your expectation to fulfill it
with either gritty beauties or with wonderful twitches. 'Pavillion'
is only Malcolm Fedler's first album yet 'Pavillion'
is a parallel surprise.
- Maarten Schiethart
lineland - pavilion
[de:bug]
Germany
Wieder mal so ein Schnufff. Malcolm Felder, der Drummer von Sybarite,
lässt es auf seinem Album aus allen Maschinen nur so pumpen und
juchzen und fiepen und bleepen und knarzen und bouncen. Allesamt sehr
surreale, kleine Tracks, denen zwischendrin harmonisch immer wieder
mal der Gürtel von der Hose rutscht, die aber eigentlich nur freundlich
leiernd glücklich sein wollen. Wem könnte man das denn auch
verbieten? Und wer könnte sich darüber aufregen, dass in unseren
schnellen Zeiten die Synthesizer nicht mehr genug Zeit haben, den Knigge
durchzuarbeiten. Spritzig das. Erinnert mich an Schlampi, Lektrogirli
und die anderen Süßen.
thaddi •••-••••
lineland - pavilion
[autres
directions] France
Already appeared on compilation For Friends (Audio coproduction Dregs/Tomlab),
new-yorkais it Lineland delivers its first Pavillon album for the fantastic
Audio Portland cement label Dregs. House is, with the image of its small
pocket designed by E*Rock, the musical description of an interior swarming
and effervescent world. With the instar of the other productions of
the label which lodges it, the music of Lineland (Malcolm Felder, resident
with Queens - NYC) use of electronic and acoustic sources, gathered
on computer; it is soft, generous, at the same time poppy and experimental.
The structures and textures are worked, they carry in them this happy
medium between the accessible one and the mysterious one, the synthetic
one and the naive one, robotics and the spontaneous one. In the counting
rhymes with the moods varied from that which was beater for Sybarite
for maximum Scene Of A Crime, some guitars, low and of the Casio keyboards
are the principal melody actors, whereas thousands of details (rhythmic,
rattling, broken boxes, rusted springs...) constitute the wobbly and
exaltés tempos. Other noises (planes, children...) are also of
the part. With this first opus of Lineland, Audio Dregs still gratifiée
us of an intimate and gracious second reading of the marvellous one.
-stéphane
lineland - pavilion
[avant.folk]
Spain
Audio Dregs arrives at its reference number 50 with the work of the
New Yorker of residence Malcolm Felder, aka Lineland. We had already
had a sample of its music in recopilatorio that the seal of Portland
shared with Tomlab (' For friends '), and that "Antique Woman",
also presents/displays in this debut, was of the best ones of the lot.
With the spontaneous and natural air of almost all the references of
Audio Dregs, also it keeps other signs of identity common in the rest
from the catalogue of the house, like is finished of low fidelity and
certain sound of toy, simultaneously that makes of patchwork of sounds
and samples an art. Between miniatures of hardly a minute and some phase
of dirt and bad milk in the meantime caramel ("Rock I, Rock II"),
Malcom goes to pop of precious melódicos games to rate of hip
hop ("Chef chow's house", "Ferry breaks"), certain
regusto Eastern (placentera "the Planet igreja"), hymns with
foundation dub ("Pig is" with its low line of and echoes)
and to the sound of videojuego of "Promise follows two". The
beauty is based in the capacity to clear great songs with a priori so
diverse sources.
Lineland, "Pavilion", Audio Dregs, 2003
Loop [loop.cl]
Chile
The Music in Audio Dregs has that quota of gentleness that generates
a positive calm and mood, without it means an obliging attitude, because
it is in the details in where the creative turns in where abound they
cross of pop, rock and electronics. The textures and timbres are essential
part in the music of Lineland. "Rock I, Rock II" it seemed
that it was done with keyboards of intense toy that dismiss melodías.
Organic and electric noises appear in "Planeta Igreja": an
imaginary and friendly world. Guitar, drum machine and processed keyboards
promote in "Acorns and matches" a captivating harmony. Rhythms
that approach the Latin unfold with great freedom in "At times
divide". Interesting by the way is the field recordings that are
used in "Queens II [the quest]", where a couple goes on the
street in search of something… In "Antique woman" Malcolm
Felder shows in more evident form its interest by the Latin rhythms,
giving with it new lights and shades in his music. Really, this artist
with residence in Queens, New York, plays with variety of rhythms, atmospheric
noises, and simple and naïf melodies. More info. in Audio Dregs
which is in our label section.
-Guillermo Escudero
