- After years of quarantine on his own Nonplace label, Burnt Friedman's otherworldly world music is starting to infect the wider ecosystem. Last year's The Pestle for Latency was a career highpoint, and Toronto's Marionette will soon release further recordings from Friedman. This release on the Berlin label Bright Sounds follows a remix he did for their last release, from Andreas Tilliander. As with the Latency record, it consists of older tracks. On The Pestle, knowing this fact made the vivid, timeless music even more powerful. Isomorphic, whose contents date from '94-'99, doesn't quite pull this off. There's a slightly dated stoner vibe, for instance, to the lazy dub skank of "1999 Platin Tundra." But weird details—such as the sci-fi flickers of wah-wahed bass, dry and teasingly polyrhythmic percussion and vapour-like ride cymbal—still carry it.
The other tracks are ultra-subtle rhythm pieces made from soft percussion and micro-samples. "1994 Knick" and "1996 Echokammerr" offer moments of suspense, rather than the oceanic bliss found in Friedman's more dramatic productions. Both are quietly fascinating, but the latter track takes the cake thanks to its dull ripples of delay. The slower "1996 Plastikthai" has a prim microhouse swing and the pillowy suggestion of a 4/4 kick. Saxophone—it's also in "1999 Platin Tundra"—voices a riff in the latter half, but doesn't get above a whisper. As with everything on this release, it seems like it might evaporate at any minute.
TracklistA1 1994 Knick
A2 1996 Plastikthai
B1 1996 Echokammer
B2 1999 Platin Tundra