Moblin
C: Prompt
(This Town Is Doomed)
For every fairly well-known one-person electronic artist out there like Kid 606 and Lesser, there are several other unknowns toiling away in obscurity. While many of them simply aren't very interesting, there are a rare few that have an ear for interesting music and are creating some great things. One of these artists is Moblin, and although you probably won't find this first release in any stores right now, I can't imagine him remaining underground for too much longer.
One of the reasons is mentioned above, and that simply has to do with the fact that Chris Bergen knows how to create some interesting sounds and arrange them in a way that clicks (pun intended). While not every single track on the 11-track, 40-minute disc works amazingly, C: Prompt proves you don't have to be on a big label to create well-constructed music that is also well-produced. Combining a mixture of 8-bit sounds (that remind one of the soundtrack to an old-school Nintendo game) with deconstructionist glitchery and clicks and clacks, this release floats somewhere between the playful, yet sort of sterile glitch of Nobukazu Takemura and the clunky beats and pretty melodies of Boards Of Canada.
The disc starts off with "Format C:" and the one minute track combines some bits of twinkling noise with segments of slamming beats. The second track "Eastmost Peninsula Is The Secret" takes the best of both worlds and combines them into an absolutely catchy little glitch track. While little melodies play off in the background (think soundtrack to Castlevania on Nintendo), the forfront of the track stutters around and drops low end thumps while playing together nicely with the chiming sounds. On "We Triedntried Yet Faildto Strikeitrich," he blends Boards Of Canada-esque IDM with a touch of glitch for something Autechre would be jealous of while "9/10" starts out a couple layers of haunting blips before coating the whole thing with some twitchy, almost acid sounds.
The album ends with "Everybody Dies," and the beatless track again conjures up sounds of beautiful IDM before burying the little melody in fuzz at the end to fade out. Although it's just a self-released disc, you can tell that the Chris Bergen put some time into things. Even the cover works in the context of the sometimes playful/sometimes haunting tracks, and although it's just a CDR release, the sound quality of the disc is top notch. Basically, this guy's on the ball and I for one hope that his name is mentioned right alongside some of the bigger names in the genre right soon.
Rating: 7.5
