novo line: dyad

Novo Line reprises the meter-messing genius of his Movements album with the Dyad mini-LP. Exclusively using the tools of '88/'89 professional recording set-ups, namely the Atari ST, but with a slight algorithmic alteration. While it's increasingly hard to find new tricks in old gear, especially with the resurgence of hardware fetishism and the ubiquity of DAWs, that's exactly what Nat Fowler has been doing for the best part of a decade as Novo Line. By, in his own words, "misusing one algorithmic composition program (not, by a longshot, a professional music production tool of any epoch) contained in 208kb of data on a 3.5" floppy disk," he generates and explores new permutations of old music which, ironically enough, sounds more innovative than a lot of new music in circulation. Inputting ever-changing parameters of melody, and 29-year old algorithms, the machine's voice is live-mixed and presented un-rendered as maxed-out waveforms via 1MB RAM, resulting in a severely compressed and combusting effect that leave mastering and sound engineers the world over scratching their heads in puzzlement. However, the effect is equally enthralling to anyone whose ears have become overly accustomed to contemporary emulations of "space" in electronic music, and genuinely sound unique in relief of the contemporary field. The release poses a playful question: can a record be ambivalent as to which speed it should be played? Celebrating vinyl and futhermore physical media, the listener is encouraged to find their exact speed of preference with the RPM toggle and pitch slider, that nearly forgotten joy in modifying speed in real time without a CPU mediating between the listener and sound; some tracks stumble heavily at 33rpm like boulders in the tumble dry, while others flash by at 45. In the taut, recoiling thud of "Monad", through the frenetic pop edit of "Ennead" to the 'floor-curdling prong of "Dyad Marcia" on the front, to the forceful new beat mutation "Tetrad", and the mind-bending "Melpomenean Dyad" which closes the LP, the album's heavily challenging, but deeply satisfying gear seriously, yet playfully, messes with convention. Essentially, Novo Line is reveling in the pure spirit of computer music and the sonification of dance music as we know it -- born in the '88/'89 phenomenon of techno-house music, including its industrial/EBM precedents, and its new beat/euro house offshoots. RIYL: Aphex Twin, V/Vm, Not Waving, Powell. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.