Reviews

Static Beats

Fittingly titled, Dissecting Disastratos is a compendium of distorted beats, destructed ambience, and restructed dub. The first piece, entitled "How to Make Beats (Room's Pot-Pourri) is an engaging mix of early Disastrato tracks. At once melodic and pleasant, the song plays equally to the dark side of easy listening. If anything, it sounds well appropriate for a performance at Toronto's legendary Mutek festival where experimental music takes on new shapes and forms.

The second piece; "Desirez Rien (After a Rice Kick)" is another dark piece of ambiance and occasional melodies. The music comes and goes in waves of intense samples, sounds and noise, and finishes with the haunting sobs of a woman crying in the rain.

Together, the two tracks make for a 20 minute EP of dark and dubby introspective soundscapes. Not for the faint of heart but definitely for the discerning listener, this EP is recommended for a chilled winter's night of quiet listening and perhaps a cognac to stoke the fire in your chest.

Interesting stuff to be sure.

Splendid

French electronic artist Desastrato offers one new tune, and gets cut up and sampled by Room on the other half of this two-track assemblage. The cut-up track, "How to Make Beats (Room's Pot-pourri)" plays like it sounds -- it's basically a primer, designed to bring uninitiated listeners up to speed on Disastrato's past beats. At twelve-plus minutes, it drags, especially during its nothing beginning, but the pace picks up when it hits the four-minute mark and more concrete beats enter the fray. It changes tack frequently -- one minute we're listening to a child's sampled crying combined with a tinkling keyboard loop, and the next we're weathering a storm of scattered notes and beats. It's an experience to listen to, but its lack of direction will frustrate anyone who expected Room to assemble the samples rather than lay them out randomly.

"Desirez Rien (After a Rice Kick" is the real draw -- it's an actual new track from Disastrato himself. It's about half the previous track's length, but has far more intriguing (and coherent) ideas. As it opens, the sounds of heavy industry -- typewriters, chains, bars -- clang violently, then stop abruptly. A haunting passage follows: a choir repeats a depressive melody over the sound of heavy rain. A woman coughs and cries softly in the background, her choked sobs occasionally breaking through into the foreground of this disturbing, occasionally frightening composition. Try spinning it in the car while it's raining to get the full effect.

Taken together, the two songs provide an interesting look into Disastrato's work. There's not quite enough substance here for Dissecting Disastratos to stand on its own as music, but it would make a perfect soundtrack to a David Lynch short film.

XLR8R

In so many ways "glitch" (that most fractured of experimental electronic music) is just today's Industrial. Not the industrial dance of Wax Trax and Netwerk Records, but the cut-up, Burroughsian ilk of groups like Hafler Trio and Nurse With Wound. Evidence of this theory can be heard on these MP3's, in which first, Disastrato's recent sonics are unravelled in a 13 minute mix by producer Room, followed by a disturbing six-minute sound collage, which includes rattling metal, falling rain and a girl sobbing while a mournful dirge loops beneath.

Vital Weekly

From the recently established Audiobulb Records comes this EP to download with two tracks, one being a new track by Disastrato and one a remix of that project by Room. Not having heard any music by both before, it's a bit in the dark for me. But it seems that Disastrato uses beats, ambient sounds, found sound and traditional instruments. In the remix that Room did, this unfortunally leads to nothing. It's called 'How To Make Beats (Room's pot-pourri)', and that sums it up quite clearly. Taking samples ad infinitum from Disastrato's work, Room makes rhythms out of these, but never takes the song anywhere, which might be hard also seeing the length of almost thirteen minutes. The Disastrato track 'Desirez Rien (After A Rice Kick)' is much more interesting. About half the length, this moves from a heavy percussive intro towards the introspective and doomy sobbing of somebody. Quite an intense piece there.