MUSIC
Seaclones - Delete Time - Cover by Sam Lubicsz
Delete Time—the debut album from Pittsburgh producers Machine Listener and Five Star Hotel’s duo Seaclones —lives up to its title. Spanning six tracks while stretching to nearly two hours, its hypnotic grooves will bend your perception of time, while its head-rattling sound design keeps you on your toes. At times it feels like a love letter to Autechre, not only in its structure, which resembles one of the IDM duo’s sprawling NTS Sessions, but also in their shared love of mind-melting electro. The result is an album you can jump into for just a single epic track—but feels great in one relentless rush.
- Miles Bowe for Bandcamp Daily
Delete Time—the debut album from Pittsburgh producers Machine Listener and Five Star Hotel’s duo Seaclones —lives up to its title. Spanning six tracks while stretching to nearly two hours, its hypnotic grooves will bend your perception of time, while its head-rattling sound design keeps you on your toes. At times it feels like a love letter to Autechre, not only in its structure, which resembles one of the IDM duo’s sprawling NTS Sessions, but also in their shared love of mind-melting electro. The result is an album you can jump into for just a single epic track—but feels great in one relentless rush.
- Miles Bowe for Bandcamp Daily
Machine Listener - Headfooter - Cover by Nathan Bowers
Operating as Machine Listener, Matthew Gallagher continues the time-space shifting work they've been developing for the better part of the last decade. Headfooter follows tapes on Moon Villain and Hasau Mountain, and finds Gallagher bending existence around sign posts, pixelating memories from early adulthood, peeling the faces off of billboards and recording the panicked conversations that happen as they fall. Fried confusion meets up with chunky, ectoplasmic beats and dream sequences reminiscent of the strangest peaks of the late '90s WARP Records catalog. As often as Machine Listener sounds like the brainwaves of shady figures lurking in darkness, Gallagher also steps into the light with moments of questioning beauty and reflections of hard-fought peace.
- Fred Thomas for Unifactor
Operating as Machine Listener, Matthew Gallagher continues the time-space shifting work they've been developing for the better part of the last decade. Headfooter follows tapes on Moon Villain and Hasau Mountain, and finds Gallagher bending existence around sign posts, pixelating memories from early adulthood, peeling the faces off of billboards and recording the panicked conversations that happen as they fall. Fried confusion meets up with chunky, ectoplasmic beats and dream sequences reminiscent of the strangest peaks of the late '90s WARP Records catalog. As often as Machine Listener sounds like the brainwaves of shady figures lurking in darkness, Gallagher also steps into the light with moments of questioning beauty and reflections of hard-fought peace.
- Fred Thomas for Unifactor
Machine Listener - Metonym - Cover by Scott Davison
Ohio producer Matthew Gallagher, aka Machine Listener, delivers such unpredictable delight with Metonym that I’m tempted to ask that you just skip to the next blurb and go into this record blind. The overwhelming drone of the stunning opener “Charon” suggests a glacial, ominous listen. But, like the mythic ferryman who gives the song its name, Gallagher is just transporting us into their strange world. Ultimately, that song is a misdirection; Metonym is defined by movement and transformation. As soon as we think we’ve adjusted, out bursts the tense, hypnotic synths and robotic percussion of “Liquid Magnets.” In lesser hands, that kind of unpredictability would be jarring; but Metonym renders each of its twists and turns with tension and precision. The sexy EBM of “80!” provides its own thruway to “Boston Boy,” which begins as a succession of fractured Autechre grooves before breaking down midway. After a grotesque transformation worthy of Carpenter’s The Thing, the song reforms around a pristine rush of drums and a plaintive synth refrain that sounds like Berlin master Errorsmith. It’s an absolute gut-punch. Album closer “Scanner / Amma Eyes” provides an elastic synth comedown to help you come back to Earth. Metonym reveals Machine Listener’s many strengths, but its the seamless shifts between them makes it so remarkable.
- Miles Bowe for Bandcamp Daily
Ohio producer Matthew Gallagher, aka Machine Listener, delivers such unpredictable delight with Metonym that I’m tempted to ask that you just skip to the next blurb and go into this record blind. The overwhelming drone of the stunning opener “Charon” suggests a glacial, ominous listen. But, like the mythic ferryman who gives the song its name, Gallagher is just transporting us into their strange world. Ultimately, that song is a misdirection; Metonym is defined by movement and transformation. As soon as we think we’ve adjusted, out bursts the tense, hypnotic synths and robotic percussion of “Liquid Magnets.” In lesser hands, that kind of unpredictability would be jarring; but Metonym renders each of its twists and turns with tension and precision. The sexy EBM of “80!” provides its own thruway to “Boston Boy,” which begins as a succession of fractured Autechre grooves before breaking down midway. After a grotesque transformation worthy of Carpenter’s The Thing, the song reforms around a pristine rush of drums and a plaintive synth refrain that sounds like Berlin master Errorsmith. It’s an absolute gut-punch. Album closer “Scanner / Amma Eyes” provides an elastic synth comedown to help you come back to Earth. Metonym reveals Machine Listener’s many strengths, but its the seamless shifts between them makes it so remarkable.
- Miles Bowe for Bandcamp Daily
Machine Listener - Colubrid - cover by Max Allison
Crafted from squelching synth voices and swathes of fibrous, granular glitch, Machine Listener’s tracks pile together into twitching blobs rendered in high-resolution detail, like dribbles of iridescent plastic allowed to congeal together and dry overnight. Just when their sessions seem to teeter on the edge of total abstraction, Gallagher introduces bizarre beat structures into their mixes that bump and slither into legible grids that build alongside the swirling voices that have accumulated up to that point. Machine Listener’s choice of drum tones runs the gamut from tinny presets that evoke a full drum kit as performed on an 80’s FM keyboard to the 3D volleys of re-tuned percussion found in contemporary club-adjacent techno. Colubrid evokes the feeling of looking out through the compound eyes of an insect or the infrared field of vision of a reptile, transmuting familiar shapes into a fractal visual language that pushes at the boundaries of the human perspective and plumbs the unknown depths of auditory fragmentation
Crafted from squelching synth voices and swathes of fibrous, granular glitch, Machine Listener’s tracks pile together into twitching blobs rendered in high-resolution detail, like dribbles of iridescent plastic allowed to congeal together and dry overnight. Just when their sessions seem to teeter on the edge of total abstraction, Gallagher introduces bizarre beat structures into their mixes that bump and slither into legible grids that build alongside the swirling voices that have accumulated up to that point. Machine Listener’s choice of drum tones runs the gamut from tinny presets that evoke a full drum kit as performed on an 80’s FM keyboard to the 3D volleys of re-tuned percussion found in contemporary club-adjacent techno. Colubrid evokes the feeling of looking out through the compound eyes of an insect or the infrared field of vision of a reptile, transmuting familiar shapes into a fractal visual language that pushes at the boundaries of the human perspective and plumbs the unknown depths of auditory fragmentation
Parabola - S/T CD/DVD - cover by Frank Upson
Parabola is an A/V duo based in downtown Cleveland creating environments of sound and light based on generative systems, with a focus on immersion. Unique synthesis formulas for the Elektron Octatrack, FM synthesis and field recording drive the audio portion of this project. Junk VCRs, camcorders and tapes comprise the toolshed for the video work in Parabola.
Parabola is an A/V duo based in downtown Cleveland creating environments of sound and light based on generative systems, with a focus on immersion. Unique synthesis formulas for the Elektron Octatrack, FM synthesis and field recording drive the audio portion of this project. Junk VCRs, camcorders and tapes comprise the toolshed for the video work in Parabola.
Le Creuset - S/T 12" Record - cover by Matthew Sage
Since September 2016, Le Creuset is the project of Cleveland based sonic and visual artists Matthew Gallagher and Jake Johnson. Based on the engineering of new formulas for generative audio processing, metaphysical communication and psychoacoustics, Le Creuset utilizes extended techniques in sampling and field recording to produce complex "living" sonic environments. Live and recorded performances have been described as "time dilating," "pure drugs music," and "shit that would make Pierre Schaeffer happy." A self-titled 12" record is available on Gallagher's R&D recordings and contains excerpted material from over 45 hours of recorded live performances, residencies and practice sessions. Le Creuset has toured with legendary noise outfit Mothcock and established computer music aficionado Ellen Phan, headlined Savage Weekend Festival 2017, as well as sharing the stage with acts such as HOGG, Robert Turman, Housefire, Negation, Zack Kouns, Lea Bertucci and Icky Reels
Since September 2016, Le Creuset is the project of Cleveland based sonic and visual artists Matthew Gallagher and Jake Johnson. Based on the engineering of new formulas for generative audio processing, metaphysical communication and psychoacoustics, Le Creuset utilizes extended techniques in sampling and field recording to produce complex "living" sonic environments. Live and recorded performances have been described as "time dilating," "pure drugs music," and "shit that would make Pierre Schaeffer happy." A self-titled 12" record is available on Gallagher's R&D recordings and contains excerpted material from over 45 hours of recorded live performances, residencies and practice sessions. Le Creuset has toured with legendary noise outfit Mothcock and established computer music aficionado Ellen Phan, headlined Savage Weekend Festival 2017, as well as sharing the stage with acts such as HOGG, Robert Turman, Housefire, Negation, Zack Kouns, Lea Bertucci and Icky Reels
Machine Listener - Endless Coil 12" Record - cover by Benjamin Osborne
"As Machine Listener, Cleveland-based Matthew Gallagher artist and musician, creates enormous and agile sets of noise music that skirts blunt of brutal tendencies of the genre for more curious, engaged experiences. Endless Coil, Gallagher's latest release, ventures even further into glorious and otherworldly treks of sound and away from some of the more abrasive areas the project has mined in the past. The opening motif rockets into the air in a spiraling din of Terry Riley-esque noise, shimmering in a trail of frayed and shifting sound. The display soon dissolves into a massive, undulating drift similar to Beat-era Bowery Electric and focusing its powers on both terrestrial and celestial bliss points. Gallagher steers things into more minimal realms, ditching the layers of tones and textures for a simple, optimistic but eerie bell melody. The B-side unfurls a slow and sedate but robust shroud of amplified electronics, burning through worn but sturdy organ drones as though John Cale's early New York recordings were slowed to a smear."
- Bobby Power via Adhoc.fm
"As Machine Listener, Cleveland-based Matthew Gallagher artist and musician, creates enormous and agile sets of noise music that skirts blunt of brutal tendencies of the genre for more curious, engaged experiences. Endless Coil, Gallagher's latest release, ventures even further into glorious and otherworldly treks of sound and away from some of the more abrasive areas the project has mined in the past. The opening motif rockets into the air in a spiraling din of Terry Riley-esque noise, shimmering in a trail of frayed and shifting sound. The display soon dissolves into a massive, undulating drift similar to Beat-era Bowery Electric and focusing its powers on both terrestrial and celestial bliss points. Gallagher steers things into more minimal realms, ditching the layers of tones and textures for a simple, optimistic but eerie bell melody. The B-side unfurls a slow and sedate but robust shroud of amplified electronics, burning through worn but sturdy organ drones as though John Cale's early New York recordings were slowed to a smear."
- Bobby Power via Adhoc.fm