Title: The Institute of Random Events
Artist: Tapage
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 25th August 2008
Label: Tympanik Audio
Album Review
The brain behind TAPAGE started in a hip hop / Metal band before starting to cultivate a considerable interest in the vast possibilities electronic sound creation and the result of all his hard work is the debut ‘The Institute of Random Events’.
‘The Institute of Random Events’ opens its doors to the sound of a ‘Black Tape’, a complicated glitcher using one distorted rhythmic pattern and with the help of the sometimes heavy glitches creates a whole new array out of it, even if it’s a little hard to catch the groove at the beginning. A multi-layered pad sends out some dreamy melody now and then and it’s a small melody the following ‘Lockswitch’ starts with to end up in a multitude of stirring beat manoeuvres, hard breaks and pops. The melodies have kind of a vibraphone feeling to it, unusual for such an electronic project, but cool, just as ‘Head Cage’ doing a similar start with soothing pads, while slowly a trembling drone slips into the mix short time before a quite clean and a little old-school influenced rhythm emerges out of the blue. Field recordings are skilfully attached to blend in with the rhythm which doesn’t miss out the glitches this time either. These vibraphone sounds seem to become a distinct trademark in TAPAGE’s sound and in ‘Head Cage’ they seem to come in from a distant place and add warmth and depth to it.
‘Bloomchild’ has become one of my instant favourites. There’s no particular rhythm in it but I find it quite fascinating to hear all this sound wizardry going on in the track. The noisy chops fluently switching from one channel to another or into the depth of the song itself, like a 3D arrangement so to speak. Deep bass tones gravitating towards the listener and completely detached from everything floats a river of organic soundscapes. Hard and heavy is the sound of ‘Transatlantic Headroom Tube’, a destructive down-tempo tune, uncompromising beats broken and distorted took on the lead, spreading a sub-cooled atmosphere reflected in the aura of underwater solitude in the atmospherics only to be broken by airy riffs for a short moment.
‘Dirtwalker’ provides a driven and rocky rhythmical underground with random noises meandering over it like snakes, while an airy spherical breeze blows through the mountains like wind which is radiating cold just as it does with warmth. Dissonant sacral chant and strings prelude ‘Pretend not to see’ which however are in sharp contrast with the highly disturbing industrial and noise cascades soon to be unleashed - a pretty unique hybrid of electronic and classic music of which I’d like to hear another variation on an upcoming release. If there’s any other track on the album, apart from Shadow Stain’ that comes near a club-compatible structure it’s the closer ‘Much like a Dream’ even a little more than the other one. Quite unusual for TAPAGE, the track has a pretty straight rhythm and flow while it doesn’t lack the details and tweaks I’ve come to like, ended with a beautiful ambient passage.
So, now I know why the word ‘Random’ is used in the title, as it indeed crosses your mind when listening to the album. Sometimes it appears as if the rhythms originate just by coincidence and develop naturally yet there is a scheme behind everything. The scheme of unpredictability and that’s what makes ‘The Institute of Random Events’ so fascinating. You’ll never know what happens next. Even if not every track is totally my cup of tea it’s a great release all in all and if you loved what Tympanik pulled out so far I guess you’ll dig this one too. Very melodic, intricate electronic music!
Tracklist
01. Black Tape – 4:40
02. Lockswitch – 4:00
03. Shadow Stain – 4:40
04. Head Cage – 5:11
05. Skinloop – 4:44
06. Bloomchild – 4:58
07. Transatlantic Headroom Tube – 5:10
08. Dirtwalker – 4:24
09. Sinkpool – 4:01
10. Pretend not to see – 5:59
11. Cnyspher – 4:48
12. Acalephs – 3:23
13. Brain Capacity Overload – 4:30
14. Much like a Dream – 4:33
Line-up
T. Ham – All Music, Production
Website
http://www.myspace.com/odakim
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 8.5 / 10
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