REVIEWS

Brian English
Beyond Words

Record Label Records

Posted: Thursday, September 28, 2006
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

Now that it's become a concrete genre, IDM has lost a lot of the playfulness and experimentalism that made it so appealing in the first place, replacing it with a clinical proficiency that's technically exquisite, but all too often soulless. Thankfully, there are still composers like Santa Cruz's Brian English, whose debut album, Beyond Words, offers over 70 minutes of sonic improvisation and sound collages that stand up to the work of such artists as Aphex Twin and Matmos. English is well-versed in the modern techniques of avant-garde techno, and demonstrates them ably on such tracks as "Scatting Loons," with its crunchy breakbeats and tiny chopped up bits of speech arranged in complicated rhythms, and "Say Amen at the Worst Possible Times," which starts as glitch-infused beats and atmospheres before evolving into a more organic selection of contemplative tones and somehow wet-sounding percussive effects. Some of English's most entertaining moments, however, are throwbacks to earlier ages of electronic experimentation. "The Honey Thief," for example, recalls Nurse With Wound's combinations of electronic beats and deconstructed field recordings, while "Resynth and Relax" combines old-fashioned ragtime pianos and vintage analog synths, resulting in something straight out of an elementary school science documentary. English's compositions can be abstract and inaccessible at times, as on the minimalist "Fire Your Work," which recalls Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio. For the most part, this is a charming album with lots to recommend it, from the appealingly robotic "How 2 Meet Girls in Berlin" to the pleasant harps of "Orchestral Surprise." Often cheerful and soothing and occasionally eerie and discordant, the important thing to remember is that Beyond Words is never boring.