OSCILLATIONS: Song/Sound/Synth

Here are a few recordings that have garnered my attention through their use of synths and/or sound processing within the context of song. They all differ wildly in their approach,  but keep the idea of "song" intact.

SCOTT WALKER - THE DRIFT
Here are songs as cinema and poetry,  and like a good film or poem,  you never know what's coming next. Brilliantly ambiguous and expressive,  these songs blend the personal and the politcal into iconic imagery that leaps between caverns of silence and maelstroms of sound,  including the sounds of a slab of meat being punched.  What is at first forbiddingly surreal,  slowly turns into an expansive vision of us.

PERE UBU -  THE MODERN DANCE
Allen Ravenstein's use of  EML synths elevates the proceedings to a kind of sonic warfare,  where the songs seem to deconstruct and rebuild themselves as we listen.

JUANA MOLINA -  SEGUNDO
With  acoustic guitar,  voice,  and electronics waxing and waning,  here is a passionate collection of signal hymns sung entirely in spanish.  Language and sound nestle comfortably beyond the need for translation.

THE ASSOCIATES - WILD AND LONELY
Even without the more experimental textures of Alan Rankine,  this often maligned release by Billy Mackenzie and company is ignited by great songs,  powerful performances,  and Chain Reaction/Basic Channel kingpin Moritz Von Oswald's punchy percussives.

PHILOSOPHER'S STONE -  PREPARATION
Gareth Mitchell's processed guitar provides the sound/structure for these mostly instrumental  pieces of looped dystopian vistas.  When his voice intrudes,  its haunting tone plunges us even deeper into those vast smeared spaces.

THOMAS BRINKMAN -  WHEN HORSES DIE
"Give me words" is repeated like a mantra on the first track of Brinkman's only song-oriented release   amongst a sea of minimal electronics.  The somber tone of his voice is amplified in the slow piano  ballads and skeletal electronics of this disconnected world.

MIRACLE -  FLUID WINDOW

The newest release (2011) listed here,  but one that also seems the most retro with its analogue sequences and vocals reminiscent of Depeche Mode,  but less mannered and self-conscious lyrically.

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL -  WALKING WOUNDED

Jazz/Rock/Folk/Bossa Nova group embraces electronics with wonderful results.  Its thick bed of electronic beats,  clipped sequences,  and atmospheric loops turn these confessional songs into reasons to move.