Reviews
Alarmen - "There's No Place Like Hoan"
Zero Degree - "Zero Degree"
Vital Weekly
German label Audiophob makes a pretty good comparison to describe the expression of fifth and latest release from the label: Equally to the information chaos, that surrounds us in the age of Internet, the listener of debut release from german artist Carsten Stiller will be flooded by sonic overload as the album is characterized by complexity and spectral extremity. All of the tracks are alternately confrontational. Even though "There is no place like hoan" first of all floats in territories of ambient with only a limited use of rhythm texture, it never falls into the state of pure tranquillity. Deep rumbling drones lie underneath soundscapes of waving ambient reminiscent of the early days of Warp Records meanwhile masses of noise, wash into the sonic picture as small bits of distorted noises and concrete sounds. Droning keyboards playing out over some heavy crumbling helps building a spooky feeling on the album. Final track on the album bearing the humorous title "Thomas Edison didn't have time for it" separates from the previous tracks with its minimalist expression exclusively based on icy drones swirling around pulsating repetitive rhythms that grows from discreet levels to more upfront as the tracks develops in the best Pan(a)Sonic-manner. This closing track remains the darkest and most threatening moment on the album. "Darkness" is also the word to describe Canadian artist Nihil's debut album under the project Zero Degree. With a past in the world of power electronics, under the artistic name Painslut, Nihil definitely knows how to create "not so friendly" atmospheres. Even though Zero Degree expressively is far away from the aggressive sounds of Painslut, the atmosphere on certain tracks on this self-titled album is gloomy and grim. On quite a few tracks the recipe of expression is reminiscent of Alarmen with its starting point taken in drone-based ambient spiced with rhythmic elements. Though the IDM-based rhythms gets more space in the world of Zero Degree. When listening to "Zero degree" it is pretty obvious that Nihil has his musical background in the Industrial sound-spheres, even though impressions of dark electro also seems quite dominating especially on tracks like "Fluid ice", "Irie" as well as the title track. Favorite moment is the 10-minute piece of minimalism, "Pitch black", that combines unsettling ambient-scapes with repetitive ritual rhythmic sounds of Power Noise. After this breathtaking adrenaline rush, the album closes beautifully with a track bearing the significant title "Into the light", - a title that perfectly symbolizes the way out of the gloomy darkness saturating the overall album. With two very interesting and quite emotional albums, Audiophob underlines the fact that this young label definitely is worth keeping an eye on.
Alarmen - "There's No Place Like Hoan"
Black
, Ausgabe 44, Sommer 2006
Hier sind die Melodien sanft in die Elektronik onduliert, dass es eine Freude ist. Und das Schöne daran: Die analog klingende Synthetik ist dennoch düster, gar teilweise kratzig. Kleine Beatrudimente tauchen ab und an auf. Und dezent fiepsige Störgeräusche, irgendwie lower case/microwave light. Jetzt denkt sicherlich schon die Hälfte der Leser: lower case, wie anstrengend, nein danke. Antwort: Dann hast du falsch geglaubt, um mal die unnachahmliche GRUP TEKAN zu bemühen. ALARMEN ist waschechter Ambient-Drone. Richtig guter. Nur genügt es dem Ilmenauer nicht, nur irgendwie in sphärische Hypnotik abzusteigen. Man muss schon auch mal auf Sichtweite an die scharfkantiken Ränder zum Noise, bevor es wieder in die pulsierende Sicherheit analoger Wattigkeit und brummender Wärme geht. Was auch beeindruckt: ALARMEN macht nicht auf Sci-Fi. Nur selten klingt es nach Weltraum-Klischee. Zu 90% geht es um Harmonie, Melodie, Musikalität - minimaler Provenienz war - aber immer mit dem richtigen Gespür für musikalische Spannung. Ein wunderschön audiophiler, und ganz und gar nicht audiophober Tip. (T TM)
Alarmen - "There's No Place Like Hoan"
Bad Alchemy, 56
Hoan? Eine Spur nach Vietnam? Zu einer wackligen Brücke in Milwaukie? Oder nur ‘n zu heißer Bissen im Mund? ALARMEN, das ist Carsten Stiller aus Ilmenau und einer der Audiophob-Macher, stellt sich als Computerexperte vor, der seit 2001 seine Sounds & Rhythms wie SPAM in Köpfe zu infiltrieren versucht. Musik, die sich nicht als Firewall versteht, sondern als Virus, als Verführer, teils heimlich, teils unheimlich. Als ob in den Köpfen nicht schon genug very high tri-axial stress herrschen würde, kombiniert mit lowered material properties, verursacht durch Information Overload. Die Titel versprechen ‚We Cure Any Desease‘ und ‚Feeling Better Is Not A Dream‘. Legale Drogen sind halt doch das grösste Geschäft. ‚Wicked Drugs To Keep You Go‘ müsste nur noch halten, was es verspricht. Wer sucht, den finden sie. Oder geht es doch ‚bloß‘ um ‚Rocken Roal‘? Ich würde Alarmens Electronica als ‚intelligent‘ bezeichnen, wenn dieses Charakteristikum nicht absolut verpönt wäre durch jene durchaus selbst studierten Sprachregler, die in ihrer popophilen Camouflage nur gelten lassen, was für‘n Arsch ist. Alarmens Musik ist abstrakt, vulgo, nur mit Mühe oder nach Konsum von wirklich üblen Drogen tanzbar, und reduziert sich von animierten House-Tracks zu Beginn zum minimalistisch monotonen ‚Thomas Edison Didn‘t Have Time For It‘. Danach folgt noch ein Mandelbrot-Remix, quasi ein Link zu den ambitionierteren Strängen der Ant-Zen-Ästhetik, während Alarmens eigener SKAB-rmx ganz, aber nicht ohne Ironie, in Dark Ambient abtaucht.
Alarmen - "There's No Place Like Hoan"
Chain DLK
The brainchild of a German computer scientist, Alarmen's sound can best be described as an intelligent mixture of glitch, ambient, and IDM that utilizes very mechanical synthesizer effects to achieve its aesthetic. The artist behind Alarmen describes the project’s full-length debut "There’s No Place Like Hoan" as "the soundtrack to the information chaos of our society." I find this description to be misleading, as the album is far from chaotic. But rather, "No Place Like Hoan" offers a collection of compositions that are very methodical and well thought out. Indeed, the beauty of Alarmen is his ability to create evocative music utilizing what would otherwise be cold and sterile sounds. This ability is best represented on the tracks "Feeling Better is Like a Dream" and "Three Inches Longer." The ability to make evocative music with such harsh sounds is a skill possessed by only a handful of experimental artists, which makes "No Place Like Hoan" a very exciting album. Moreover, when listening to the album I could not help but think that this is what CD2 of Alec Empire’s "Intelligence and Sacrifice" should have sounded like. Additionally, the album is that it is suitable for both active and passive listening, which allows it to be enjoyed in a number of different settings. While the final track on the album "Rocken Roal" is a bit disappointing for its repetitiveness and campy vocoder effects, the album as whole is very solid. In sum, I would recommend Alarmen’s "No Place Like Hoan" for any fan of the more digital branch of experimental electronic music. Review by: Michael Grillo (4,5/5)
Alarmen - "There's No Place Like Hoan"
Side Line
Alarmen is a German solo-project delivering a quite diversified ambient work. But Alarmen is much more than simply ambient. His work covers a wide layer of grounds like minimal electronics, experimental parts and clicks'n'cuts. The mix of these inputs resulted in a quite fascinating ambient sphere with a low rhythmic in the background. The opening tracks 'We cure any disease' and 'Feeling better is not a dream' are really well crafted pieces of progressive ambient music. A remix of this 2nd track by Mandelbrot is included at the end of the album. Alarmen never stagnates, pleasing the listener with an impressive arsenal of sounds and ideas. This is an achieved album in the minimal ambient style. (DP:7)DP.