Album: Systemische

Song Title

Time

Tectuell

Aero Deck

Politics of Digital Audio, The

Sch”ner Wissen

Catchy Daad

Meditation

Tonregie

Oval Office

Compact Disc

10)

Post-Post

11)

Gabba Nation

Album: Systemische

Song Title

Time

Tectuell

Aero Deck

Politics of Digital Audio, The

Sch”ner Wissen

Catchy Daad

Meditation

Tonregie

Oval Office

Compact Disc

10)

Post-Post

11)

Gabba Nation

Performer Notes

Oval: Markus Popp, Sebastian Oschatz, Frank Metzger.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Frank Metzger; Sebastian Oschatz; Markus Popp.
Oval's notorious technique involves damaging CDs in creative ways--using paint, acetone, tape, and gouges--and collecting loops from the skips and glitches produced when the impaired discs are played. Holding to a conceptual aesthetic that is as semantic as it is artistic, Markus Popp, Sebastian Oschatz, and Frank Metzger educe beauty and structure from this digital mutilation. The Berlin trio processes and sequences the shards of broken sound to craft tremulous musical mosaics and tessellated soundscapes infinitely more pleasurable than such cerebral underpinnings might suggest.
1993's formative WOHNTON combined Oval's glitchy constructions with occasional vocals and tentatively song-like arrangements. SYSTEMISCH wisely abandons such tactics for 11 tracks of fragmentary ambience. The results range from the lulling and surprisingly pretty ("Textuell," "Oval Office," "Mediation," "Gabba Nation") to the brittle and juddering ("Schoner Wissen," "Tonregie") and the slightly more abrasive ("The Politics of Digital Audio"). Slow melodic developments, nascent rhythms, and gentle folds mark each track, effectively disguising the music's crippled origins. Countless imitators have copied Oval's experiments to much lesser effect. The overall tenor of SYSTEMISCH is not the irritating stutter of malfunctioning stereo equipment but the calming sensation of futuristic elevator muzak drifting pleasantly through sterile white halls.

Professional Reviews

Alternative Press (4/02, p.96) - Included in AP's "10 Essential Laptop Techo Records" - "...The album that kicked off the 'glitch' movement....a warm, thrilling meditation on sound..."