Blogarhythms

This week has been full of ruminations on the bio-mechanical impetus behind man’s desire to create music. I discussed the transformation of our perceptions of natural, spiritual & psychological reality via the electric impulses our brain & body utilize to process and act on those perceptions into sound that in turn has the power to transform us emotionally, spiritually & physically. And I touched on the way mechanically-produced media — man-made music in recorded form, captured terrestrially on tape, vinyl record, compact disc and any number of digital formats — that mechanically reproduces our mechanical reproductions of the bio-mechanical sensations we perceive as “reality” impact us just as profoundly as that primordial reality.

Today though, the mechanical mind music mobius strip will curve back on itself yet again. You see, I’ve got a couple of records on deck from artists who re-processes the bio-electric impulses we call emotions electronically, exchanging the heart, mind & nervous system for microchips, processors & circuitry, and redefining the cycle of emotional-mechanical-mechanical-emotional reproduction I envisioned as the driving force behind humanity’s creation of and symbiotic relationship with music in the process. You could call the music they make IDM, electro-acoustic, laptop music, Lap-Pop, robot music, sad robot music, or, most appropriately, “Emotronic.”

Going by the felicitous cognomen Computerization, Saint Louis-raised Brooklyn-based electronic musician Derek Dobson takes the human experience our brain filters and spits out as electrical impulses we register as emotions and filters them through his laptop computer. Not only that, but he delivers the resultant compositions via the ultimate mechanical filter of human experience, the communal nervous system we call the world wide web. His debut self-titled EP, a collection of nine nakedly emotional, uncomfortably vulnerable, creepily sentimental electronic Pop songs, is available online as a free download from the Computerization website right now.

Musically it should appeal to fans of Dntel/Postal Service, Schneider TM and the like, while fans of the caustic Pop of Aqueduct & the Incredible Moses Leroy should appreciate the lyrics, and Dobson’s huskily whispered nasally pinched vocals should catch the ear of fans of Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service’s Ben Gibbard, Ron Fountenberry of Softlightes (formerly the aforementioned Incredible Moses Leroy) & the One AM Radio’s Hrishikesh Hirway. With such a lean tracklist there’s little room for filler but some of my favorite tunes include “1.14me” with it’s vocoded vocals and guest verse from Dobson’s ladyfriend Ashley, the cartoonish but still disturbingly violent stalker anthem “Evidence #2904″ and “Fukuwinicu” which manages to be saccharine-sweet and affectionately-but-awkwardly crass at the same time.

Computerization “1.14me” feat. Ashley

When dealing with laptop musicians it’s hard to resist comparing them to the Postal Service since their Give Up was so emblematic of the Lap-Pop genre. And while I don’t want to liken Nathan and Mandy Tensen-Woolery of Minneapolis-based male-female duo Ghost In the Water to Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello’s landmark laptop Pop project it’s an inevitability. Admittedly, their boy-girl harmonies and the melodramatic qualities of the songwriting on their debut disc Tooth are also reminiscent of past Blogarhythms featurees like fellow laptop act Roar and the Wolf and keyboard Pop luminaries Mates of State as well.

As might be expected, Ghost In the Water’s beats skitter along nervously, all stutter and jitter, with clicks, clacks, pops, blips and bleeps aplenty, but their keyboard melodies, vocal harmonizing and orchestration often evoke ’80s music (I hear Depeche Mode all over this thing) and the Chamber-Pop (a sweeping Beach Boys vibe permeates) of the 1960’s. Speaking of which, in addition to all the usual electronic instrument sounds one might find on an IDM record Tooth also features plenty of analog sounds such as guitar, xylophone, banjo, live drums and even strings. The stripped down arrangement — with it’s popping electro-bubbles, panned synth-buzz, aqueous keys, clicks and ringing vibes — and solo vocal from Mandy on “A Nightmare” even reminds me of Vespertine-era Björk quite a bit.

Ghost In the Water “A Nightmare”

The laptops, software, keyboards and what-nots used to generate this so-called “Emotronic” sound might be state-of-the-art cutting-edge technology, but the truth of the matter is the generation of sound by man has been powered by electric emotion since the very beginning. Our toys might be fancier now, and our methods might be ever-evolving, but us making all this racket is still just our primitive attempt to reconcile what’s inside us with what’s outside, synthesize our perceptions with our energy, and get in touch with the “ghost” inside our “computer.”