http://electronicexplorations.org/podpr ... hestra.mp3
(01) - Daniel Blomqvist - Not For Me - [Thinner]
(02) - Barbarix - Lucifer's Happy Hunting Ground(rmx) - [myspace_barbarixuk]
(03) - Distance - V - [Chestplate]
(04) - Reso - Void - [dub]
(05) - Peverelist - Junktion - [Tectonic]
(06) - Mad EP - Sugarlips - [Ad Noiseam]
(07) - Barry Lynn - Lattice Shimmer - [Planet Mu]
(08 - Pattie Blingh And The Akebulan 5 - Brother The Point (2562_remix) - [Ramp Recordings]
(09) - The Village Orchestra - The Grey King - [Forthcoming Stuff Records]
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The Village Orchestra - Electronic Explorations mix
01 - The Village Orchestra - Afanc - [Forthcoming on Stuff Records]
02 - Gescom - Puzl - [Clear]
03 - Pole - Achterban (Shackleton remix) - [~scape]
04 - Daniel Bell - Superminimal - [Logistic Records]
05 - Special Forces - Propaganda - [Photek Productions]
06 - Spank Rock - Put That Pussy On Me (Acapella) - [Money Studies Records]
07 - Soft Ballet - Jail of Freedom (Jailtilsi remix by Autechre/T.V.O edit)
08 - The Village Orchestra - Two Nine
09 - Skream - Aint It Cold - [Destructive Recordings]
10 - Ghislain Poirier - Blazin' Instrumental - [Ninja Tune]
11 - Carl Craig - Science Fiction (A Break For You) - [Blanco Y Negro]
12 - The Village Orchestra - Dwyer - [Metal-On-Metal]
13 - Search and Destroy - Espionage - [Destructive Recordings]
14 - The Village Orchestra - Tober
15 - The KLF - 3 a.m. Eternal (3pm Electro mix) - [KLF Communications]
16 - Rue East - Birmingham (Surgeon remix) - [Pure Plastic]
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(10) - TRG - Time Is Now - [Immerse Records]
(11) - Jakes - Warp 9 - [H.E.N.C.H]
(12) - Andy Stott - Fine Metallic Dollar - [Modern Love]
The Village Orchestra
Is every avant garde muso just a frustrated pop singer, sworn to mete their vexation upon our ears? It's a question cryptically answered in the affirmative by Glasgow's Ruaridh Law, aka The Village Orchestra. Law's debut album 'Et In Arcadia Ego' (Highpoint Lowlife Recordings) contained a litany of side-swipes and in-jokes which referenced a youthful love for pure chart perfection. The only difficulty was excavating beneath layers of found sound, reverb, concréte and glitch to find the often starkly quotidian source data.
However, rather than merely forming an intellectual parlour game, or symbolising an attempt at pastiche, swaddled in the protective balm of ennui, the results more than stand on their own merit. 'Et In Arcadia...' was a triumph of thick, dense melody and brittle clicks and pulses which combined to create an immersive and emotionally arresting soup. From the fragile sine waves which herald album opener 'COSHH', through 'Jacob Bad Hand At Cards V2', replete with 4/4 bass drums and as near as electronica comes to a “hands-in-the-air” bassline, to the final destination of 'In Arcadia', resembling as it does Apocalypse Now soundtracked afresh; listening to the album constitutes a manifestly narrative experience.
Law is one third of Glasgow/London collective The Marcia Blaine School For Girls, whose long-awaited album Halfway Into The Woods finally surfaced in early 2007, fifteen months behind Et in Arcadia.. after many EPs and compilation appearances . Whilst the Marcia Blaine material is clearly more maximal, owing to its collaborative nature, The Village Orchestra presents a stark, coherent musical vision. Excursions in ambient drone with his Accrual project, and multimedia activity as part of Rose & Sandy mean that the number of labels Law has worked with in the past five years runs into double figures. Motivation is clearly not a problem.
Future releases include another album for Highpoint Lowlife in 2008, an appearance on the Highpoint release Magnetism... That Electricity with Marcia Blaine, Fisk Industries and The Mandlebrot Set, plus a combined 12”/CDR release entitled The Dark Is Rising on Stuff Records, scheduled for the spring. Showcasing Law's main audio touchstone, this latter collection is his most overtly techno-induced work to date.
Often found weaving a dancefloor tapestry comprised of anything and everything electronic at Glasgow's Numbers club night, the sometime DJ Law is evidently no stranger to the means and methods of cutting up some rug. By fusing the washes of sound which characterise his work to date with a more pervasive rhythmic texture, ...Dark Is Rising extrapolates the contradictions of stillness and momentum which made his first album so beguiling.
