ALOG – islands of memory EP

MLP, creaked

They say that these tracks were recorded in 1999 but somehow the release never saw the light of day until someday in 2005 someone from Creaked records found the master tapes underneath a stack of papers and CDs and was shocked to find out, the release never happened. Sounds too good to be true. So I don’t believe a word of it. How could a hard-working duo of electronica artists like Norwegian Alog “forget” about this record? I once heard a story of a man, who “forgot” that he had bought shares of a company and found out ten years later. When he contacted his bank, he learned that his 10K€ share was now worth 1.5 million. I believed that, because I wanted to believe it. Who doesn’t dream of walking away with a cool mill and a half by surprise? But that story about the lost tapes is just too straight forward for my taste.

On the other hand, why would they make up this story? I mean, they got praise reviews from The Wire and Pitchfork. For a lot of musicians that would be a lifetime achievement. There is no need for them to generate further myth about their record. Also, it doesn’t sound outdated or six years old, not by far. There is more than enough electronica stuff out there completely ignoring the last five years; this is not part of that. These six tracks are spinning, reverberating, breathing and touchable organisms that exist on a wavelength all of their own, radiating warmth and energy. I mean, how could anyone interested in electronica not like this kind of built to detail, multilayered micro-beat music, especially when it still retains a warmth that, e.g. Radian seems to be missing at times. Now, what is it?

Contractual or legal reasons, that need to make this release stand “out of the line”? I don’t think so. Alog has switched labels in the past a lot, so that is that. Or did they use some samples, and their copyright-status has changed since then? But then I read that Alog produce all their samples themselves, by using a large variety of instruments of all sorts which they run through self-built laptop-plug ins and process them with self-written software, until they ain’t recognizable anymore and have received a completely new form and sound.

After all, maybe the story is true, who knows. I am a sceptic, always been. I want to be convinced by passion and good reason. Otherwise I will stand up against anything and try to destroy it with utter cynicism and spite. (Aww, that’s actually not at all true, but it is always hard to discuss with either moralists or aestheticists. Almost impossible, and I am both.) I won’t here. Tracks like “something like islands of memory” and “Bad Luck Bird” have convinced me not to, because of their delicate playfulness and toying with vocal samples that sparkle up here and there like rainbows on a sunny afternoon.