Biotron Shelf - Cloud Banks And Arabesques

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4...according to our Clinton on Fri 08 Jul, 2011.

New on Boltfish, this is the debut from Biotron Shelf, one half of which is the man from Cheju who also doubles as the man from Boltfish. It's a CD jam packed with beautiful, warm semi-organic electronica, 'Formless Geometry' being particularly impressive with its warm chords over strident clicks providing the listener with the feeling of movement and travel. Trains pulling into stations, bags in carousels, etc. It reminds me mostly of the wave of electronica circa early 2000s - I'm thinking Nautilus and particularly Metamatics. Just when you think you have the album figured we get the folk wanderings of 'A Tree Without Birds' which uses banjo and acoustic guitars sounding not unlike Will Oldham's 'Ode Music' instrumentals. It's a nice departure from the electronics which soon return with the clicks and squelchy sub bass squelches of Clockwork Pharmacy.

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Biotron Shelf present their first Boltfish Recordings release - a collection of tracks that take in elements of classic melodic electronica, glitchy IDM, soft minimal techno and textured ambience.

"With this record, Biotron Shelf have created a particularly effective collection of timeless electronica."
The Milkfactory

"Characteristically strong and diverse stuff that’s well worth investigation. "
Cyclic Defrost

Field recordings made around the East End of London, in particular Victoria Park and Canary Wharf, formed the basis for many of the tracks. The sonic character and mood of these spaces informed the album: contrasting sites of culture and commerce; scenes of urban decay and pockets of pastoral tranquility; a vibrant clash of cultures, both ancient and modern. All these influences found their way into the musical and rhythmic elements of the tracks, which were created from a variety of electronic and acoustic sound sources including analogue and digital synthesizers, acoustic and electric guitars, hardware and software drum machines and samplers, prepared piano and shortwave radio static. The compositions were then bounced back and forth several times between Mint’s studio and Cheju’s Liverpool-based studio, with each artist working into the tracks with further edits, treatments and processes.

Tracks like Three Ten to Euston, Kyph, The King’s Horses and Forests of Glass and Steel are classic Biotron Shelf: warm organic electronica works in which soft autumnal analogue synth tones trace melancholic melodies, balanced with intricately crafted clicky beat patterns. Clockwork Pharmacy and Butternut Squash are more upbeat IDM tracks. The former blends heavily edited and processed prepared piano recordings with complex funky glitch beat patterns and oscillating bass tones, while the latter features crunchy drums, broken mechanical clicks, warm synth tones, twinkling electronic melodies and soaring strings. Formless Geometry is more of a tech/house styled track, with lush Detroit-influenced chords and a minimal, subtly glitched 4/4 beat. Other tracks show a more ambient and experimental side to the duo’s work: October Mist layers warped melodic droning textures over field recordings; in A Tree Without Birds folky acoustic guitar picking and electric guitar twangs are joined by bleepy synthesizer sequences and radio static; What Colour Is Your World? processes recordings of piano and acoustic guitar into dense layers of bit-crushed tones and granular textures.

Tracklisting:

October Mist
Three Ten to Euston
Formless Geometry
A Tree Without Birds
Clockwork Pharmacy
Kyph
What Colour Is Your World?
The King's Horses
Butternut Squash
Forests of Glass and Steel

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