2008's Axolotl Eyes is different from 2001's Masters of Confusion. It is also very different from anything else near it on this website, anything else you'll hear on radio today, or anything in the chart of your local HMV. That’s why we love them so much.
Firstly then, how is this different from Masters of Confusion? Well Masters of Confusion was very much a live album whilst this is a studio album and was always conceptualised as one. Secondly then, how is this different from everything else you'll probably listen to today? Well, its very very good for a start, but more importantly this is experimental, with emphasis on experiment (and not on mental). Irmin Schmidt, if you don't know is the keyboardist from seminal experimental rock group CAN. More importantly he is a highly accomplished musician having also worked on three solo albums, numerous film scores and the opera, Gormenghast, to give but a flavour. Kumo on the other hand is a redoubtable breakbeat pioneer, producer, arranger, engineer and programmer. Having first worked together on Gormenghast, they have since released the aforementioned Masters of Confusion, as well as working together on sound installation Flies, Guys and Choirs, for the Barbican Centre. Together they are formidable.
The true beauty of the pieces that form Axolotl Eyes lies not in the tracks themselves but in the stories of their conception, so lets start there. In this respect the sleeve notes are just about as indispensable as the CD itself, cataloguing some of the processes of improvisation and careful editing involved along the way. For example, 'Umbilicus Clear', one of the more conceptual pieces, is a magnificent 7 rhythm with an improvised structure of space-audio layered on top. For those of us who don't know what space-audio is, it's recordings of radio waves from space. Yes, this track is quite literally written in the stars.
Of all the back-stories though perhaps that of title track 'Axolotl Eyes' is the most intriguing. Having begun with what Schmidt describes as Kumo's jazz rhythm with a "…Dave Brubeck like quality…", improvising around this rhythm took on a waltz-like life of its own. With Paul Fredericks adding a vocal part, the piece apparently became more and more symphonic to the point that it became unbearable sentimental rubbish. This trend was drastically reversed by enlisting the Afro-Cuban percussion specialist Mike Bennett, ditching Fredericks vocal part on this track in the process. The folkloric rhythms that Bennett brought to the piece are described by Kumo as having "…shot an arrow in the heart of the romantic beast". What we are left with is a relentless rhythmic assault that is both entrancing and captivating in equal measures. Thank god the beast is dead.
Truth be told (and why not), describing experimental music is pretty damn hard unless you've heard it too. It's like describing the Mona Lisa as some girl who doesn't smile much, strictly correct but you can't get the full sense of it. All you really need to know is that this isn't 'experimental' in the sense of your-mate-Dave and his 'bleepy' machines. Instead this is experimental music from people who are masters of their musical arts making engrossing and accessible pieces (predominantly with a 9 rhythm).
That this is an artistic venture is no more apparent than when it comes to the DVD accompanying the release (another reason to not just download). The DVD is based on their multi-channel installation at the Barbican Centre, Flies, Guys and Choirs. The environmental music from the original installation is combined here with hypnotic images from our environments to construct a more coherent whole. The altered images range from a frog full frontal to passing traffic and provide a mesmerising accompaniment to the piece.
Overall then, Axolotl Eyes? Dogs bollocks more like (and that's a good thing). So, Ditch your Operator Please CD, put away your Goldfrapp and turn off the Kills (if only briefly). This is art, this is music, this is worth your time. - Matt Coxon
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