Mille Plateaux became my grad school soundtrack while in NYC. I had previously been into drum and bass, and then the Warp label mates Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. One day I happened into Other Music when SND’s Stdio album was playing. It’s minimal pulses and crystalline beats were the sirens I’d wanted to hear my whole life. From that day on I bought everything the label put out, and was rarely disappointed.
Andreas Tilliander: Untitled Track 2 from Ljud. Propulsive scratchy clicks and cuts.
Alva Noto: Module 7 from Transform. Minimal.
Donnacha Costello: Your New God from Together is the New Alone. Is it melancholy at dusk?
Andreas Tilliander: Untitled Track 10 from Ljud. Snap, clicky, pops!
Donnacha Cotsello: In Spite of Everything from Together is the New Alone. Lonely, longing, clicks.
GAS: Eins from Koenigsforst. Glacial gas.
Shuttle358: I’m Not Afraid from Understanding Wildlife. Simple beauty from one of the masters of the genre.
Donnacha Costello: Lateral Thinking from Growing Up in Public. Almost techno.
GAS: Untitled from Zauberberg. Molton lava as seen from the air.
Whereas my Raster-Noton selection did not suffer terribly from file type restrictions (I input CDs using AAC because Apple offers higher bit rates for AAC than MP3), this list is almost trivial compared to the brilliance I’ve (temporarily at least) been forced to omit. These are four albums that anyone wanting to know Mille Plateaux should have. They are still largely incomparable.
1. SND – stdio: Clicks and Cuts never got any better.
2. Tim Hecker – Radio Amor: found sound from Ecuadorian fishing vessels turned rapturous post-everything opera.
3. Electric Birds – Gradations: the most satisfying release in MP history: clicks, acoustic guitar, and tape hiss turned into musical clicks, acoustic guitar, and tape hiss.
4. Tilman Eirhorn – Task: saxophonist turned clicks-master. Poetic clicks and cuts.
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