Nexsound – experimental, ambient, noise, improv record label

Review

Vital

ok01 – various

Ok_01 – Oleg Kovalchuk who is a member of the Moglass band, responsible for their synths and self-made effect boxes actually does the music under this moniker since 1998. Using hometaping techniques, his custom and unique sounding effect boxes, soviet drum machine with altered DAC and sometimes playing guitar and synths himself in two hands he creates very worm and touchy lo-fi music about his life. The ep greets us with a shortwave melody, a pleasant wake up call filtering in through the static. The morning sun peaks through and bird songs tweet over a dusty out of tune guitar with added analog electronic wonderment, reaching an almost Faust-Tapes like quality. The third track finds us outside speeding down icy slopes, a ski version of Autobahn with glitch rhythms and flashing pulses of a metropolitan landscape. Mass transit for the mind. The fourth track is a dead ringer for the old Insane Music group Pseudo Code with the over flanged guitar and analog drum machine-a wonderful composition. The ep ends in a similiar spirit, music from a different era in a different place. (JS)

Vital

ok01 – various

This is the second mp3 release by this member of the Moglass on the Kharkov imprint, Nexsound. The ep is no doubt dedicated to the label boss Andrey Kiritchenko. It opens with a short prelude for loop and harmonic, which has the strange feel of something that Mark Twain might have heard going down the Mississippi on a steamboat. The second untitled track is based on a loop phasing loop with a synth melody on top. Too short i think, as the basic material could have been developed further. The third piece is a happy little melodic loop that repeats and goes through different variations moving from a synth to xylophone type sound all the while being destroyed by various effects with a good dose of electronic noises thrown in the mix. The final track is again based on a swirling loop, with the addition of drum machine. In a strange way it recalls the old S.F. band Breather with the distant droning vocals and a hit of piano. There are alot of ideas crammed into this 10 minute ep giving so there is plenty to enjoy despite the short length. Very different from the first ok_01 release and a lot of fun. (JS)