Ovalcommers (Vinyl): Oval: Amazon.ca: Music

Product Description

From Amazon.com

Like any art worthy of the name, the work of Oval transcends its origins. Markus Popp, the German laptop musician and software developer who is the wizard behind Oval's digital curtain, is fond of slinging around all sorts of heavy theory about the meaning of that work. But you don't need to know how his audio (Popp prefers that term to music) is supposed to comment upon the marketplace or authorship to get a kick out of Ovalcommers. All you need is a couple of open-minded ears. The first track (of 11, all unnamed) commences with a rhythm loop reminiscent of an alarm buzzer, then erupts into a spectacular neon-hued blast of whistles and hums. Elsewhere Popp sculpts static and complexly textured tones into crunching riffs and delicate melodies, and sets them to beats fashioned from skipping CDs. It somehow makes for dense, kinetic, and undeniably rocking tunes that are as immediate and accessible as experimental electronic music ever gets. --Bill Meyer

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Markus popp is my hero!, May 13 2002

By

Neighbor 8 "oppesty" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ovalcommers (Audio CD)

Ovalcommers is an amazing headphone experience. I would have to say that this is one of my most beloved possesions. Ovalcommers shouldn't be written off as "audio terrorism". Underneath the brutal scrapes and pops are beautiful textures that slither and whisp in and out of your ear canal. Then once that little texture has done its job it'll drift far and away to find a safe haven. I love oval

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1.0 out of 5 stars WHAT IS THIS?????, Oct 26 2001

By

bowery boy (seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ovalcommers (Audio CD)

(...) I like IDM, experimental and weird stuff. I love Throbbing Gristle from back in the day when it was called 'industrial'; I'm a huge fan of autechre, u-ziq, aphex twin and the like so when I put this disc on I was expecting more of the same.

WRONG!!!!!!

In my opinion, based upon what I look for in experimental music,ovalcommers is pretty awful (key words: MY OPINION). I'm sure some people can appreciate oval's excuse for "music" and actually "get" them but I thought it was a pure sonic assault of noise. It sounds as if someone took an electronic organ and pressed down as many keys as possible with their hands, stepped on their pet cat and played a skipping CD all at the same time. There IS some structure and melody underneath the noise, but there's an absence of percussion and I need some sort of beat no matter how warped or messed up it is. Not necessarily to dance to but to tie all the elements together. Some of the tracks could have actually been interesting but it seemed as if they were missing something. I don't want to have to listen to "music" over and over again until I can finally pick out some kind of discernable rhythm or melody within the chaos. That's too much work and when listening to a CD becomes a full time job just to search out the "music" then that's the day I stop listening to music. I couldn't wait to take the disc back to the music store and trade it in for the new aphex twin (worth picking up).

By no means am I putting ovalcommers down. However, I think it's a bit unfair to the uninitiated to read all of the glowing reviews other people have written about this release. Perhaps you might like this but it did nothing for me. I didn't feel like I was being transported to another realm, I didn't get goosebumps from the sheer beauty of the music, I didn't put my fave tracks on repeat. All I got from this is a headache. I would really like to know from those who find this to be amazing music when, how, why and where do you listen to this?

All in all it's been a fairly disappointing year for me with electronic music: autechre was a let down; bjork was boring; squarepusher was annoying (and he cancelled his gig I was attending); the orb was average and orbital is losing it. So I was pretty psyched that aphex twin put out a new release that is incredible and definitely worth the six year wait. Thank god for that.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Beauty among 0s and 1s, Aug 28 2001

By

casey (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ovalcommers (Audio CD)

This is glitch grown up. Minimal digital repetitions of previous works (which I love and have nothing against) have been replaced by the all too rare "melody," carving traditional musical structures into a wall of digital sound. This is one of the best albums I've bought this year. My first impressions were fairly indifferent, just another glitch album of beeps and bleeps, but as I listened further, I began to piece together the underling melodies in my head. Intertwined with the noise was a beautiful song waiting to be discovered. To this day I still can't make out every note but rather I take in the music and hear a guideline that that makes me piece together what's there and what's not, I'm sure its different for everyone. It's hard to explain without hearing it, and unfortunately the snippets above don't do it justice, but if you looking for something a little different from the norm and you are able to keep an open mind I think this album might be for you.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Beauty
This album is pure beauty. Dense, layered, and noisy, it is like taking the noisy guitar parts from a My Bloody Valentine album and making a new CD out of that by cutting-up the... Read more

Published on Aug 20 2001 by S. Barry

4.0 out of 5 stars lovely glitch audiochaos
With ovalcommers, Markus Popp has reached a new level of intricately composed and overwhelmingly complex soundart. Read more

Published on Jun 21 2001 by Dan Mohr