April 2008 news

April 27, 2008

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER


• tube'|121 - Mother - Self Deprivation

Once again, Chris Komashko releases a compelling set of sonic options to cerebrate upon. According to most dictionaries, deprivation is the loss or absence of parts, powers, or things that are needed. Is the self a part? Is the self a power? Is the self needed? In any case, listening to "Self Deprivation", you will encounter the pleasant absence of melody, familiar chords and structures. This absence can make you reflect about things that are not longer present. Hence the expression "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Is heart the self?

Along these concise tracks you can be lifted momentarily by soothing ambiances, or be taken by the sudden arrival of extraneous sounds that keep you in a very attentive mode. The atmosphere created in this album has the power to raise different types of questions. Some of this questions might be about the strange nature of what you are hearing pan around your head. Like the nature that surrounds us, this creation is still unknown and that probably will remain like that for ages to come. In this album, "Mother" communicates in languages that can be understood only in thoughtless awareness. Even-though the titles of the tracks appear to be very humane, they carry a profound celestial meaning. Mother is full of human moments that suddenly take a divine turn. Within this divinity, a wide range of dark and light moments show you different aspects of the living and the non-living, the organic and the non-organic. Let Mother grab your hand and take you into territories without distress.» - Sebastian Alvarez

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April 23, 2008

STFU ALREADY!



Tomorrow begins this year's edition of STFU Porto, at the same place where it happened in 2007: Fábrica de Som. Here is an image wih the complete programme.

Unfortunately test tube will not be present physically, but we sent some DVD's of our catalogue (vol. 1) to be offered as present to the attendees. That's one more reason to be there!

Peas,

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April 19, 2008

SOMETHING ALMOST UNNOTICEABLY


• tube'|120 - Gordon Tebo - Patina Turner

«Remember Gordon Tebo back from tube031? Probably not since it was like two and a half years ago... still, Gordon offered us at the time, a nice little release called 'Adaptive Immune' and it was a conceptual EP about the human body system. Musically, it was minimal/experimental/noise at the very least.
Well be prepared now... because Gordon is back, and he's different. 'Patina Turner' - funny name for a release - is like a 360 degrees turn for Gordon, as he now enters minimal techno territory with it. But not down-to-earth minimal techno like that one coming from Germany and other european countries. No, Gordon did his own minimal techno blend, and, from Gordon's own words: «it's all got something very slightly fucked about it, almost unnoticeably.» Something unnoticeably, like the picture on the cover... And yes, it is fucked up, but in a gentle way. Gordon knows what's he's doing and what he wants, and he also threw in some ambient to boot, and the result couldn't be better: Four hypnotizing and extremely danceable tracks that have that special power to put us into 'nod mode' even if we are sat down in a comfy chair. Opener 'People Mover' couldn't have been more appropriately titled and it's the real keeper here. 'Phone Home' is also a special little gem. Braindance, people!
Best with headphones or very loud speakers. Enjoy.» - Pedro Leitão

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April 14, 2008

THE FALL FELT THE FALL


• tube'|119 - Spirit Elevating Brains - Pulsos Temporales Memorias Estables

«'Pulsos Temporales Memorias Estables' is the second album from SEB here at test tube and this time he made it even bigger than the previous one. Twenty tracks of SEB's trademark 'digital nostalgia' style of clicks 'n' cuts and weird sampling. After a couple of listens, it's clear that Sebastian has been refining his sound. He's more precise and to-the-point when he tries to capture an emotional essence into a track or simply by telling us a story. Most of his new tracks are also smaller and more effective, like a new engine model that consumes less but takes you farther. Some of this tracks work a bit like interludes of sort, filling the gaps between heavier, denser and more mesmerizing ones.

A couple of my favorites are 'Microcranes from jpeg' and 'Transitorio en'. They're both round forms of loop samples put under a warm blanket of nostalgic ambient. Sounds a bit like Animal Collective's craziest tracks if they ever went all electronic, or maybe a bit closer to Panda Bear's latest solo incursion. But SEB is also a sucker for nice beat sequences, and this becomes obvious after listening to 'The fall felt the fall' (awesome title), 'Our meat politics' and 'People vanished too'. Speaking of great titles, SEB has a knack for picking colorful and funny yet interesting titles for his songs, titles that leave us wondering about their true meaning, if any. 'Perra con chompa' is one of the most intriguing ones. 'Perra' must be female from 'Perro' which is spanish for 'Dog', and 'Chompa' seems to be a sweater or similar type of clothing. Pretty weird, huh?

In the end, Sebastian Alvarez offers us 20 wonderful tracks for us to dream about metaphorical titles and the unknown dimensions that inhabit his mind. Have a nice trip.» - Pedro Leitão

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April 03, 2008

OLD LIKE NEW


• tube'|118 - Platform - Templates

«Platform was the first electronic band Rui Gato formed little after he went solo as Outersites (later an audiovisual duo) - from Elastic Void, his first individual effort. For Platform he teamed up with Nuno Clímaco Pinto, a friend guitar player strongly influenced by european jazz and experimental rock. Gato on laptop and modular synth and Nuno on guitar synth and effects they started composing new material built on percussion bases with improv. phrases on top and went to play it live almost immediately. It was never meant to be a studio project but rather a pure live one. Their compositions often changed from gig to gig, although they kept the same percussion elements throughout the lifespan of the duo. In 2004 they put Platform to sleep as Nuno moved to a different city.

Well now, after this 3 years hiatus, Nuno got back last year and a month or so ago, an opportunity arose for Gato to perform in a culture fair in Pontevedra, Galiza (Northwestern corner of Spain) called proxecto-edicion. They decided to reactivate Platform and began rehearsing straight away. Then we had the idea to take some of the best live recordings back from the Platform concert days to do a 'special' release here at test tube. The boys re-mastered 8 tracks for 'Templates' and incidentally, they're playing today at the mentioned fair so it is with special pleasure that we release the record today.

Hope you enjoy this as much we do.» - Pedro Leitão

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April 02, 2008