i think its about experimental music. .. ... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... .......... ...........

Monday, July 31, 2017

Album Review: Forest People Pop by Derek Piotr



There have been a few albums whose titles have imagined new musical categories to describe the sounds contained within. Brian Eno's “Music for Airports” (among many others of his), Equivel's “Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music” and, Atom TM's “Pop HD” come to mind, albeit as a somewhat diverse set of examples. “Forest People Pop”, an ambitious new album by New England based Derek Piotr, fits firmly into this noble tradition of music created for a bespoke genre.

Track 1 of the conceptual "Forest People Pop" provides some clues for what we should expect over the course of the 10-track album. “Tonic/You Move” begins with a light, pleasant drone, perhaps created via some grain-manipulation technique, which is quickly overtaken by heavily auto-tuned vocals. The "pitch-correction" here is applied as an effect, not a new concept in itself, but Piotr purposefully abuses the software's instability to create expressive arabesque trills, deep vibratos and stepped slides, which moves Antares' pop trope of robotic cool to an place of wildly ecstatic digital ululation. These unique vocal components are allowed space - there is a lot of air in the forest. As the reverb tails of the introduction linger in the generous fade out, we can hear faint sounds of woodland insects. Precise electronic percussion sounds, woodblocks and short noisier elements soon appear, flittering and stuttering, before eventually settling into syncopated patterns and incorporating coarsely snipped samples of exotic instruments as the song proper develops. Piotr returns to these building blocks on nearly every track. This consistent sonic vocabulary brings an intuitive coherence to his imaginary space, yet each track sees these elements combined in ways that produce a rich range of results.


“Hear You” stands out as the anthem of the album. Vocal lines snake around shifting stuttering drum patterns and a consistent, fierce, distorted stab sound building into a glitchy freak-out before eventually unraveling into sparse percussion variations. “Light” re-imagines Aaliyah-style R&B with all variety of bent percussion, a low-gravity bounce and a glorious noise outro. “Crush on You” teems with ideas, one section anchored by a 4-to-floor kick around which a deconstructed pop-maelstrom swirls, later melting into a repeated glitched-out vocal harmony under which an IDM electronic break beat builds up. While most of the tracks on the album are quick to evolve, “Sky” feels almost hypnotic. A regular repeating hip-hop beat underpins dueling vocal lines that blend into soothing mantra.

Piotr's pop, much like his use of auto-tune software, takes something that is well known, and makes it new. In contrast to much of the music commonly placed in the genre, there is neither lazy nostalgia, nor arbitrary futurism in its construction. Each element that he uses seems carefully selected to add to the cohesive mixture that makes up these fourth world woodland hits. So who are these forest people? They are not rustic or provincial, and there are no beard-y folk-guitar pastorals. These forest dwellers are surprisingly sophisticated, pixilated sprites and tracks with names like “Sky”, “Light” and “Sunup” give a good indication of the tone that their popular music conveys. This forest bright, open and alive and while it is masked by technology, it's still very much connected to our world. Many of the sounds have a glassy, digital sheen, and perhaps the overall atmosphere is something akin to the worldly electronica of Fatima al-Quatari. The album is ambitious in concept and thorough in execution. Piotr succeeds in finding a mode of expression that feels both genuine, and genuinely new. This is an album that can be enjoyed both for its clever experimentation and also, simply, as pure, honest pop music.

Eamon Hamill

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Feral Split by Debutante

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Neatball by Ray Kosmische

Friday, July 28, 2017

East Boof by Requiem For Venus

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Liquida Vita by Walter Forestiere, Vito Pesce

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Cubs Night @ A​.​E Randolph Presents by Kinsmen & Strangers

Monday, July 24, 2017

Meditations in Jazz by Arius Blaze

Some Dream by BOUT

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Grey Zone Collapse Nostalgia by Nac/Hut Report

Saturday, July 22, 2017

washing room sessions by martin rach

Sunshine Girl - Diary Death

Friday, July 21, 2017

of memory and dreams by Bill Thompson aka prof_lofi

Wasteland by Malicious Wonderland

Thursday, July 20, 2017

GⒶngstⒶ N⎔ise - Brist⎔l by Isn'tses

Plant Surprise by Decomposer

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

The Unassumed by As Above | So Below

Hootenanny! by GORPLORD and Michael Beggs

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Touch Test

Psacredelia by The Big Drum in The Sky Religion

Monday, July 17, 2017

Population by Crown Larks

Pontou, France by Jack Hyde

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Gel Nails - No Fun Deep Winter No Sun prod. Nightshade

The Isolation EP by Snuff American Style

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Steeple by Wovette

BLUFRANK "i am fine"

Friday, July 14, 2017

Piksel x Asthmatic Harp - State of Mind

Movnolawe by Noise Trinity

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Obsessive Compulsive by Luke Mawdsley

After Losing Our Sun by Daniel Lukehurst

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

the sound of STEREO NO AWARE by STEREO NO AWARE

isabel nogueira and luciano zanatta - unlikely objects

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Points of Decay by Theo Alexander

An Ant And An Atom - "My Craft Broke At Launch"

Monday, July 10, 2017

Avril and Sean in Camden by VLK

Sunday, July 9, 2017

The Golden Sickle (Mystic) from The Golden Sickle by Sonatine

Friday, July 7, 2017

You Are Not Stone by Heather Stebbins

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Creyon by dpath

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

CLEAR by PLYERS

Monday, July 3, 2017

Araqsana EP

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Bang​-​Rho by Wu Cloud

Saturday, July 1, 2017

innerenvironment by astral samara