There's nothing I like better than some slow, dark, moody, fuzzy, thumpy dirge-music. Well maybe there are a few things, but not many -- and regardless, I sure do like this CD. Adam Wiltzie from Stars of the Lid and Bobby Donne from Labradford began this collaboration by sending tapes to each other in the mail, then got together to finish it off with some face-to-face recording sessions.
While you might think music made via the USPS would necessarily end up rather disjointed and fragmented, that's not the case at all on Aix Em Klemm. In fact, it's hard to believe that these quiet, flowing, detailed and nuanced songs weren't diligently coaxed out of the ground in someone's backyard organic music garden.
"The Girl with the Flesh Colored Crayon" starts things off low and slow, with thick pedal tones, strange mechanical clicks and an unintelligible voice. "3x2 (Exit)" speeds up the clicks until they're more cricket-like than anything else. Organ tones fill out the space and quiet, backwards percussion and assorted chirps and crackles make it all the more spooky. "Sophteonal" is a more traditional guitar-based number but it manages to hang onto the slightly spooky, otherworldly quality of the first two tracks. It has "creepy indie film soundtrack" written all over it.
"Prue Lewarne" (which as far as I can figure is the name of one of the anchors on "The BLOOMBERG Moneycast") heads back into pedaltone/organ land, with more low, slurred vocals on top of slowly throbbing and gurgling drones. Crackling guitar cords (not chords) and deep, controlled feedback provide the background for an ever-repeating synth chord and more high, momentary clicks and chirps on "The Luxury of Dirt". Finally, "Sparkwood and Twentyone" continues where "Sophteonal" left off, with more atmospheric, perhaps David Lynch-inspired, music.
There are only six songs on Aix Em Klemm, but they're all over six minutes, so this is still a pretty substantial chunk of sound. It's a lovely, quiet CD, but there's enough variety and detail to make repeated listens worthwhile. You're not going to get the urge to actually do anything while listening to these tracks, but you might just drift off into some strange, dark dreamland, which is just fine by me.
