The 6th full length release from Markus Popp (aka Oval) finds this world renowned digital mastermind extending the concept & musical platform of last year’s acclaimed Ovalprocess in every way. Exploring a spectrum of sounds between the abrasive sandblast of neo desktop rock (tracks 1-3) and the alienating, timeless splendor of DSP chamber music. In between there are unique excursions in folk electronica (track 4) and pop inflected wall-of-sound tunes that could only come from the mind of Oval. Popp describes Ovalcommers as a 3D musical obstacle course, a friendly and accessible invitation to complexity. Ovalcommers surprises with poetic and Read more on Last.fm.
1) oval’s music uses repetitive, roughly cut audio as a compositional tool, but that tool does not define the music. this music has almost nothing to do with any other “glitch” music i’ve ever heard. think about the aesthetic as the instrument.
2) this album is always described roughly as “a bunch of alienating shit with tiny pieces of music in it”. while i can’t paint the most accurate face on it, i can say that this is definitely wrong. the harsh timbres and tensions of noise music are not unifying features here. from pop on the other hand: simple layered rhythms, melodies, vocal delivery of some foregrounded sounds, and an overloaded mix. they do the heavy lifting here.
3) i wanted to say that this is the future of music, but that’s not true. there will be no unified idea of music for the foreseeable future – academic, technologically, socially, or otherwise – but oval’s organizational gestures will be stolen for years to come.
4) this album is more demanding than most of his other stuff though, so it takes a bit of a hit there. it makes it a difficult gospel to preach. kinda like a juicy secret that can’t help but to become a burden