Haydn / Chiaroscuro Quartet - Haydn: Sun Quartets 20 - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

On March 29, Eric Copeland delivers Trogg Modal Vol. 2, the counterpart to last October's Vol. 1. The former Black Dice member's 'Freakbeat 4/4' agenda gets further refined here -Vol. 2 is more laid-back than the first, but still highly danceable. Self-described as Inchlate Night Flight proto tekno,Inch the tracks pulse with thick layers of percussion, melodic fever dreams, and riffs wrung through a taffy puller. Eric's textured, off-the-cuff approach to dance music adds a refreshing element of spontaneity and 'jamming' to a climate of uncanny smoothness and Polish. Where Vol. 1 was composed of Inchrippers,Inch Vol. 2 travels at it's own pace, continuing to showcase Eric's ability to recontextualize 4/4 tracks as psychedelic contortions, from the squelchy vibrations of InchBS DropoutInch to the blithe, video arcade soundtrack InchHigh Score Zed.Inch Taken together, the two volumes of Trogg Modal showcase the versatility of one of the most continuously exciting experimental artists of the past twenty years - arriving in 2019 with his mischievous sense of adventure firmly intact.

After their exciting interpretations of Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, the Chiaroscuro Quartet now turns to Mozart's Prussian Quartets, his last compositions for this formation. These quartets were written for Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and amateur cellist, and offer that instrument an unusually prominent role. The first of the three was composed fairly quickly, in June 1789, but the next two were not completed until the following year, and in the end Mozart's plan for a set of six came to nothing. The writing of quartets was never an easy matter for Mozart. However, one would hardly guess that the Prussian quartets were the product of 'exhausting labor' (his own words), such is their beguiling ease of workmanship. No. 21 in D major stands out as one of the most melodious chamber compositions of Mozart's mature period, emanating something of the sensual Mediterranean warmth of the opera Così fan tutte composed shortly afterwards. No. 22 in B flat major also emphasizes the importance of melody and gives the 'royal' cello some beautiful solos. As for No. 23 in F major, while it is tempting to hear a melancholy, autumnal quality in Mozart's later works, there is, however, no sense of farewell in this his final string quartet the spirit of Haydn is everywhere, especially in the finale with it's effects borrowed from Hungarian folklore.

Tranquilizer isn't the sound of sedation but resurfacing. Daniel Lopatin isn't condemning our need for escape, but exploring what happens after. The record maps a movement from weightless calm into something more grounded, the necessary cycle of withdrawal and return that keeps us sane in a world both overwhelming and mundane. We plummet from the watery bliss of InchLifeworldInch into the mournful melancholy of InchCherry BlueInch and spastic grooves of InchRodl Glide.Inch As always with OPN, the real collides with the unreal. Listen closely and you will hear the scrape of fingers on a fretboard, a stone sliding across a dungeon floor, the squeak of a door opening. His music has never been an abstract color field; it has weight, edges, shadows. Tranquilizer feels like falling out of a dream you can still touch.