Search - Oval :: Oval Process

Darker

Matthew D. Mercer | Chicago, IL United States | 07/07/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Markus Popp has finally given us a new installment of his work as Oval. Implicit in its title, this disc is all about process (none of the tracks have titles this time around), much like the rest of Oval's albums. However, Ovalprocess is the first Oval release to reflect the developments Popp is making in developing the Ovalprocess software, an application which actually generates sounds and configures and arranges them, in essence doing the composing for him. Ovalprocess has been featured in installation environments which can be viewed on a site. The music does sound quite different from past efforts, while still sharing the same quality that's run through all of the Oval releases. The CD skip still crops up now and again but is more abstracted and less obvious than on "diskont" or "szenario." It is less rhythmic than "Systemisch" and less soothing than "dok." The closest comparison is the rather abrasive and strange remix Popp did of Squarepusher's Big Loada album (in one track, that's right) on the Warp 10+3 Remixes compilation in 1999. The quiet, abstracted bells of "dok" have been replaced by a slightly darker, harsher buzzing sound (which perhaps can be interpreted as an extension of the short experimental interludes of the "Szenario" collection). The result is much busier than any of the previous releases, and at times this can prove somewhat irritating, but on the whole the album works fairly well. In terms of a starting point for Oval, for those not familiar with his recordings, this may not be the best choice; most Oval fans will rate "do while" from the diskont CD as the best track he's recorded. There are several tracks on Ovalprocess, however, that evoke a certain melancholy mood, such as the seventh track for example.... this mood didn't really surface for me until making repeated listens, and to be honest I didn't enjoy the album at all at first when comparing it to past efforts. But judged on its own merits, and picking up on the aural clues buried within the process, this album is equally engaging when compared to the rest of Oval's backcatalogue."

Great cd

Jennifer Dworak | Hornell, New York United States | 08/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ovalprocess is a really great cd, flowing textures and beautiful drones and tones. On this cd one can truely hear a possible future music. All their cds are great except Whonton which has vocals. Ovaprocess and DOK are the best.Track #10 on Ovalprocess includes sampled material from Andrew Deutsch's cd Garden Music release in 1999 on Magic If recordings."

Music to upset your pets

P. Gunderson | San Diego, CA USA | 10/13/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Even pets know the sound of something going terribly, terribly wrong. Unlike other glitch artists, Oval eschews techno-minimalism to create lush textures from skipping CDs, feedback, and assorted drones. The funny thing about listening to Oval is that, after a while, you'll start to hear music in their ungodly scraping and you won't be able to tell if the music is objectively "there" or if it is your brain trying to cope with the trauma.
If you're going to buy just one Oval CD, this is the one to get."