STREAM: Bernholz - Consequences 2 (Faking It) & Austerity Boy

A while ago I reviewed the excellent debut release from Brighton based electronic producer Jez Berns, aka Bernholz. This is the second part in his ‘Consequences’ series asnd it comprises one long rehearsed improvisational loop jam titled 13. It was originally intended for the debut but Jez says it ran too long and was too rough to be ready in time so he's redone it in higer resolution and tweaked it. The title is a reference to this book he has been fascinated with recently, which questions the role of authenticity in popular music.

The track is available for free download from Brighton based label Anti-Ghost Moon Ray, a label you should be getting to know from releasing the stunning Gazelle Twin album - an artist who should really have had a much stronger showing on this blog by now.

Jez has mooted plans to release a limited cassette run of the two Consequences projects later in the year, which would be very nice indeed.


 



Secondly, there will be a new ep released in October titled Austerity Boy with brand new tracks - the teaser for which you can hear here.  Keep your eyes here on on his Facebook for that

DOWNLOAD: Bernholz - Consequences 1 (Variations on a Theme)

Bernholz
Consequences 1 (Variations on a Theme)Anti-Ghost Moon Ray Records
DOWNLOAD


Berholz is the name of the solo out-wardly experimental explorations of one member of Brighton's Duke Raoul.  Most of the tracks in this release are very brief, only a couple stretch over two minutes creating a flickering tapestry of an album that offers up a lot of very neatly realised ideas in its brief twenty minutes.

Starting off with a minute of loose jazz-based bass & voice freestyle that segues through fifty seconds of prettily delayed white tone, then real beats kick in; for ninety seconds a clicking see-saw of minimalism is seduced by luscious grey hum that all simmers away to starkness.

The fourth track builds on the third, the minimal clean lines to all sounds are there, an organ playing a short chiming refrain that rolls around in small cycles, disappearing under a rumbling bass mid-section, then reappearing on the other side loaded up on effects. The piece is fleshed out of the longest running time of 4:26, giving the listener their first and only chance to really immerse and breathe in the ambience and feel the languid pace of the rhythm.

On the fifth, Beach Boys harmonies back a fatter dirtier bass-drum beat, the skin reverberating with the solid thumps propelling the track along, the vocals floating lazily over the top like they were basking under Californian sun – a fantasy which the atonal grinding tone between them attempts to aggravate as best it can.

The ninth track breaks up the smoothness by chopping into the rhythm with an almost glitch-like disrespect for form, but the trajectory isn't separated by too much to actually vibrate your teeth out with dissonance, the track progressing with a linearity to lock on to. The final piece is three minutes of vocal harmony, voices layered upon on another, firm toned, heavy breath and sighing.

The ten tracks are each titled with a simple number from one to ten 1,2,3 – but not in sequence. Reordering the album into track title sees it play with equal, if not more success, so it's worth giving both orders a listen. Minimalist abstract art jokes. The music is no joke. Excellent stuff.