first in a very irregular series occasioned by the most likely rather small number of friends with albums out this year
I've already given this fellow a lengthy write-up; I'll keep it short this time, for now anyway. Woebot's made an album. It's very good, flexing further the strengths exhibited on the second of his debut brace of EPs. Found and spoken-word voices, elegaic classical samples, electro-acoustic shivers, and this time slightly more rave energy than before (the astral ardkore riff from DJ Trace's "Lost Entity" here, a gabba kickdrum pulse and "Dominator" smear there). Second track had me flashing on Blectum from Blechdom and then I check the title and it's called "Blech"! And when I heard the sonorously intoned phonetic poetry of "Diudatae" I thought "Is that Stanley Unwin?" and then decided nah, too thespy. But Unwin only goes and pops up on the very next track, blethering about "the o-rhythmic contrarpole". Matt's way with samples reminds me sometimes of animations based around cut-out figures from magazines and picture books. Sometimes this creates uncanny depth effects, as on "Diudatae", where a mournfully ecstatic diva suddenly steps into the foreground of the sound: it's like watching a video installation and suddenly a woman stands up in front of the screen, but it's part of the total artwork, you realise. Other highpoints: the dankly twinkling "Horse"; the blissed guitar meander "Daisy Chain," like Manuel Gottsching, very stoned, trying to thread a needle.
Woebot's completely refurbished his website since you last looked.
