Keith Fullerton Whitman

Generator

Genre: ELECTRONIC

MP3
FLAC

Boomkat Product Review:

Following his incredible 7" transmission 'For Oud & Synthesizer', Keith Fullerton Whitman presents a set of mindblowing compositions recorded late 2009 for Root Strata. Frustrated by the restrictions of performing computer music in public settings and keen to involve a larger element of risk into his music, Keith follows his obsession with "the tenets of Process music & Systems music" to investigate "the unpredictable entropies & slight signal degradation inherent to Analog instrument design", resulting in a set of infinitely morphing and self-modulating sequences subtly guided by a hand and mind that perceives the possibilities of music like very few others we can think of. For the tech-heads this involves sending three voltage streams from two LFO's to different modules... and that's where we'll stop, because it's all noted in the lovely heavy card sleeve anyway! He's basically creating every sound you hear in-the-moment, on-the-jog, weaving sine waves into florid patterns which can range from alien acidic permutations like the frankly incredible 23-minute 'Generator 2', to lushly psychotropic sequences such as 'Generator 1', both of which were left untouched meaning you're simply listening to the modular synths organising themselves into stunningly "musical" arrangements. We can hear the merest hint of human involvement in the audible patching and slightly mismatched levels, but to be totally honest we wouldn't have noticed this if KFW didn't point it out. The tracks just seem to have a hugely varied, constantly mutating life of their own, expanding with the vivid pattern arrangements of a DMT trip to immerse us head to toe in tactile waves of pure electronic pulse, panned, pitched and pushed into timelessly chaotic yet controlled motifs. In a way, this tape puts swathes of kosmische imitators and synth obsessives to shame, being both eminently listenable, and completely original. A late night listening session with this has just left us gobsmacked and it's a crying shame that there's only 200 copies for the world because far more people need to hear it. So good.

MP3 Release (7)