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"Trigger Happy"

Score: 8/10 Spoiler Alert: reading this review may reveal too much, and ruin the vivid fun you might otherwise have listening to this record. It's really good.

If you like your food to be local and your art wild, then maybe you'll be like me when you first listen to Trigger Happy and totally love it. What starts out as an Amon Tobin-inspired weatherscape, turns into a solitary piano phrase, designed to force us into deeper consideration of the space between the speaker and our ear. This opening definitely comes as a surprise, but as "CFI" progresses, it transforms many more times. Soon electric splatter-core gives way to a very wet sounding acoustic instrument being shredded by a child, which then feeds the off-kilter drumming in our peripheral vision, all backed by some doctor-approved audiology tones serving as the curious bass line. What does this have to do with local food? It's fresh!

Nothing piques the fancy like fresh ideas, and the Australian combo Comatone & Foley (or G. L. Seiler and Alon Ilsar) have plenty of them. Using a live drum kit with plenty of effects and programmed electronics, it's amazing how many different sound environments they decided to engage. Ilsar developed his own instrument called the MARU, which manipulates sounds and effects "by moving MIDI sensors attached to a baseball hat, the subject of which is currently undergoing an overhaul to make a more involved full body triggering device" (from their myspace page). It is no surprise that the album took over two years to make, which is usually one of those facts about a work that can convince you of its potential depth right away (though sometimes it's the drugs). Each track is a unique creature. We visit the world of Venetian Snares freaking out in rush hour traffic on "Morsecode". The beat-boxing on "Heifen" is oddly paired with some untamed, lazy-boy singing. "Prayer Bowl" is an album standout, with bowl strikes ricocheting around the headphones, creating a very tangible structure, like watching ants build a nest in time-lapse. Foley's drumming tackles some pretty exciting time signatures and free-form material. Combined with Comatone's piano parts and melodic rhythms, it all becomes quite riveting, an animal with a consciousness that changes each time one listens. This is what I would want to dance to out on the town.

If their live performance of this material is anything like the Norwegian jazz-tronic group Strønen and Storløkken, then anyone going to see this stuff is going to have their mind blown. It is relentlessly danceable and intellectual. The layering is like a matrix of mycelium. Bells and chimes help texture some of the more abstract pieces. Even some vocals color a couple tracks, but if the album's perpetual style mutations make you feel comfortable, nothing can prepare you for the explosive surprise they drop on "Electric Sheep." The skittery beat and vibraphonic chimes play nice with a child-like android voice that sings of electric sheep (but do they dream of them?!). They back off to let a completely fuzzed out rock band barge through the doors and raze the building to the ground! Completely out of left field, but absolutely delicious and appropriate. And you never saw it coming, begging you to question what kind of a record you are actually listening to. What genre is this? Who the fuck cares? This music is as exciting as dashing someone's expectations.

Don't let the album cover fool you into thinking this is some kind of computer software company (I don't really get it, either). The power of Trigger Happy is in its exciting variation and richness of composition. Each consecutive listen takes you deeper down the rabbit hole. By the time "Computer Rain" and its nocturnal insect shuffle comes on, you've probably checked to make sure you were listening to the same band. I thought the last song was a bit dull, actually, like some Frontline Assembly mock-up, but I would never compare the two groups. The score I gave would have been higher if I didn't think these talented architects could do even better. For now, I am highly thrilled with Comatone & Foley's confident wrangling of this heavy-idea organism. Easily one of the best electronic records of the year.

-Nayt Keane

http://www.thesilentballet.com/dnn/Reviews/2008/tabid/119/ctl/Details/mid/529/ItemID/1959/Default.aspx

Whenever you see big goverment sponsor logos on the back of an album, the alarm bells usually start ringing.
My God, goverment-approved electronica. That can only mean two things: either saftey checked wallpaper for working family consumption or arcane weirdness that no record company in this country would ever want to spend money on.
With "Trigger Happy" it's the latter.

This 'itelligent' record of burbling, burping, bleeping broken up beats and soundscapes should definately be filed under abstract. This album calls to mind the kind of space that Warp records were trying to inhabit once upon a time, with its blend of Autechre, Aphex, Recoil and even Cabaert Voltaire. It looms over you, impassive and monolithic.

Typical of the album's oeurve is the eerie fluttering of 'Computer Rain', with its crisp, compressed sounds and insectiod shuffling momentum. This is the soundtrack to an imaginary David Lynch film, one set on an ice sheet, where lonely weirdos wander around in an hallucinogenic and vaguely melancholic daze.
Elsewhere, 'CF1' drops in chilly piano lines and a subtle jazzy drum pattern as it builds to a heavy, beat-laden plateau. 'Heifen' starts with rounded pulses before crashing into razor sharp beatsand mind altering backwashes of almost lush sweetness. "Electric Sheep' briefly threatens to be '80s electro funk but diverts into much harsher territory and ends up steely and glinting.

Comatone & Foley are clearly brining ideas from places as far apart as industrial noise and Nordic Jazz, and the result is a dangerously abrasive chemical stew of strangeness and alienation. If it were a book it would tell the tale of a Soviet-style dystopia. Taxpayer money well spent.

Paul Ransom.

Inpress

This is a challenging record.

I have taken longer than usual to decide what it does for me. I challenge you to decide what this arty, ad lib take on electronica does for you.

At first play, most tracks reminded me of a crashing 8-bit computer game from the 80s getting stuck in a sound loop. On subsequent plays, the complex intricacies of Trigger Happy start to unfold.

Indeed, the subtle everyday sounds and objects that Comatone & Foley seem to have woven in become more apparent, and you can really begin to appreciate the originality of the source of much of their percussion. Indeed, Prayer Bowl appears to have been played entirely on one object of the same name.

And it’s the percussive elements that drive this record for me, moodily set to a backing of Jarre-esque synth strings and acoustic mayhem. To complete the wide mix of moods, more mainstream dance beats take over on some tracks and couple well with the interesting timings and almost random syncopation.

Crazy rock guitar breaks out in Electric Sheep, demonstrating the duo’s desire to surprise the listener and blur the boundaries between musical styles.

This is one of the more marketable tracks in my opinion, though I base that on its slightly more melodic bent and a more traditional time signature. But to be honest this track is not the reason you would buy this record; it is everything else to be found contained therein, a lot of which does not become apparent until you’ve listened through several times. I like this re-play value.

Released nationally through Vitamin Records

Mark Godfrey

Mark Godfrey is a Melbourne based web developer, guitarist and singer-songwriter, and a veteran of the UK rock pub/club circuit. When not doing any of the above he enjoys stargazing and reading theoretical physics.

Albert And Leonard Put Things In Holes

"Valium Hop: the name of the new genre Comatone a.k.a. G.L. Seiler coined to describe the music on Albert and Leonard Put Things in Holes, his new split release with Sleuthound. I can see how this is a fitting name, as Valium is mainly used to treat anxiety and tension by producing a drowsy or calming effect, and this split album is definitely some good music to chill out to. However, it will not yield quite the same effects as Valium, nor will it put you to sleep, as some of the tracks are very catchy and can indeed be addictive.

G.L. Seiler is an electronic artist who has released two albums under the Comatone pseudonym as well as a highly regarded collaborative effort with classically trained pianist Amanda Handel which was reviewed back in 2006. Not much is known about Sleuthound other than the fact that he is one of Seiler's fellow producers at Blue Mountain Sound in Australia. Each artist contributes four tracks to the album, adding up to about twenty five minutes of music from each.

Comatone’s turn comes first and the eight minute opener “Winter Diary” starts with some delicately struck bells followed by several trumpet notes drenched in reverb. Once the electronic drumbeat kicks in, I’m immediately reminded of one of my favorite releases of the year, Arms and Sleepers’ Black Paris 86. The beat evolves quickly, interspersed with electronic glitches and thousand beat per minute spurts. As the song continues, Comatone begins to layer on some synth vocals, a thumping bass line and hi hat cymbals which are beautifully spread across the stereo spectrum. About three and a half minutes into the song the beat drops out and the focus is taken by some sampled dialogue regarding fear, madness, and the fact that “only the evil that men do lives after them.”

The Hop half of Valium Hop is shown when Comatone begins to cut up the dialogue like a record being scratched by a Hip Hop D.J. A clean guitar melody enters the fray at the same point as the scratching and the drums build back up to finish the song. The production on this and all of Comatone’s tracks is excellent and shows he possesses a true mastery of his craft. It’s no wonder that he sticks with his talents during the day while mastering material for other musicians.

The following two Comatone tracks “The Sun Sets Over a Bad Day” and “Leonard’s Lesson” fit the same general blueprint of the first. There are layers of clean and heavily effected guitar, piano, bells and various ambient sound effects led by catchy electronic drumbeats. Comatone’s fourth and final contribution, “A Haunting in the Surface Noise,” begins with some sampled choir vocals which swell in volume and are eventually joined by volume swelled guitar. The song is a bit more slowly paced than the other three tracks and also features some gently plucked acoustic guitar. The drum beat is also a bit more organic, that is until about three and a half minutes in when the glitchy electronics return and take hold.

Sleuthound’s side of the split begins with what sounds like a train coming to a stop, followed by some footsteps and sampled dialogue warning about the threat of scorpions in Africa. Reverse guitar with some very heavy reverb fills the background and about a minute and forty five seconds in a boom bap type drum beat enters. Sleuthound’s drums also make use of electronic glitches and they become more and more prevalent as “Albert Goes Outside” continues. The second track “Four Blue Candles” features droning guitars and vocals soaked in effects which are used as another instrument, rather than as a focal point for the piece. Throughout Sleuthound’s four tracks the drums suddenly disappear and then reappear. The feedback and droning guitars which remain when the drums exit could easily be used as ambient music to fall asleep to, but the drums don’t always mesh well with the ambient soundscapes he creates, even sounding forced at some points.

This is the main weakness with his half of the split, other than the fact that there is no sense of melody, except perhaps for the final track “One Hook in the Ceiling,” which contains a slow moving organ line. The feedback-laden atmosphere Sleuthhound creates with his music has a very eerie feel to it and I feel that his music would work much better without the drums at all. Despite these flaws, I highly recommend this album to fans of Arms and Sleepers or Hip Hop; you will definitely enjoy Comatone’s side of the split.

-Brenton Dwyer

The Silent Ballet
http://www.thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/1299/Default.aspx

Praise for E-50

inthemix.com.au

"Australian glitch / IDM electronic producer Comatone (aka Blue Mountains-based artist and mastering engineer Greg Seiler) first turned heads with his debut 'One Into One Out' album released through the Feral Media imprint back in 2003, which introduced Comatone's evocative and often furious fusion of fragile, glitchy elements and frenetic Autechre meets Aphex Twin broken rhythms. Now, a scant year on the heels of its predecessor, Comatone's follow-up album, the rather enigmatically-titled 'E-50' shows Seiler expanding considerably on the musical palette he introduced on his debut, adding far more detail, a more developed sense of light and shade, and what Seiler describes as 'a darker tone than the first.' Constructing all of 'E-50' at his 'Blue Mountain Sound' studio, for these twelve tracks, Seiler was apparently particularly interested in 'the digital artefacts created by over-using digital effects and 'bad' editing.'

"Opening track 'Stillpoint Coma' slowly creeps into vision, with gently flickering and clicking pulses trailing their way over a distant ambient backdrop of eerie electronic drones, sinister rushes of sound that almost sound like breathing making their way over distorted bursts of noise and icy electro-informed snares that venture to an extremely minimal point, ala the bare yet hyper-detailed electronic soundscapes of the Mille Plateaux label. Halfway through though, an melodic sense of melancholy starts to seep through the cold rhythms, built up by the brooding, almost orchestral elements that start to wander below the furiously stuttering, processed beats, that adds a directly emotional tone often missing from this strain of hyper-meticulous production. 'An Absorbing Colour' ebbs open with washes of digitally treated sound rattling back and forth over vast distant droning chords, the rattling noises resolving themselves down into furious glitch-junglist beats that corkscrew along in an Aphex-y style, while intriguing almost gamelan-informed ringing tones play out around a pretty melody thatxs beautifully counterpointed by evil bass buzzes and metallic slams, while 'Not For Years' sends a disembodied voice synthesis program loaded with what sounds like highly personal lyrics hammering and skittering over a fast-motion blur of complex timestretching and beatmashery, all the while suspending an eerie music-box style melody above the mayhem that's beautifully boosted up by vast building orchestral elements.

"'So Much For Gravity' drops the pace slightly, sending clanging, percussive beats that almost sound like a robot-making assembly line ringing out over a juddering backdrop of throbbing electro-informed bass synths and a fog of de-tuned radio interference, all the way trailing glacial ambient tones around its edges, before 'Can I Have The Keys To The Robot?' makes an appearance in two separate parts, the first slamming its way through a furious blur of twisted Squarepusher-y junglist beats that hyper-accelerate over a fog-like background of ambient chords, before the second takes things out amidst ringing echoes of treated guitar feedback and riffing, in this album's most Kid 606-style punkoid moment. 'Off White, Off Mic' injects a welcome dubby feel, with downtempo beats echoing their way through a shimmering backdrop of synth buzzes and almost jazzy, stumbling keyboard tones, calling to mind some of Vadislav Delay's minimal dub-electronics, while 'The Condition' offers a completely beatless ambient moment, with filtered and treated harmonised vocals playing their ghostly way over a minimal ebbing backdrop of what almost sounds like backwards strings and choral elements, and is guaranteed to put the hairs on the back of your neck on edge. Finally, the two-part 'Method A+B' brings this album to a close, the first sending shimmering glacial chords and buzzing effects gliding out over a brooding background of lurking bass synths and almost Depeche Mode-y understated melodics, hard-as-steel downtempo beats slamming their way over menacing digital distortion and pretty suspended notes.

"'E-50' is a stunning follow-up album from Comatone, that opens up the spectrum of sound elements explored on 'One Into Out' much further, in particular exploring far more melodic terrain and also adding a much greater detail and sense of vivid colour to these twelve immaculately-produced tracks. Those who've often found this type of glitch / IDM electronics slightly antiseptic and cerebral rather than visceral in the past are particularly encouraged to investigate 'E-50', as all of the tracks here show Seiler crafting sounds at an almost cellular level, whilst at the same time never losing sight of the wider picture - you can easily hear the emotion that seeps through these twelve tracks. An excellent album that more than delivers on the expectations set by its predecessor, that easily stands alongside such lauded internationals as Rephlex, Planet Mu and the Warp stable. Highly recommended."

inthemix.com.au, Monday, Jan 17, 2005

Praise for One Into One Out

Metro, The Sydney Morning Herald

"Sonic artist Comatone (aka Greg Seiler) cooks up brash electronica, obviously influenced by the UK's Warp label (think Aphex Twin and Autechre) and the frenetic, hyped up beats of San Diego's Kid606. Comatone moves from excited, crunching beats to lost rhythms. He only stops for breath at Cut, an expanse of moving sound pricked by random clicks, and the music-box melodies of Toy. The execution is exceptional, devoid only of a signature sound. But that will form with time."

Chloe Sasson (3 1/2 stars) (Metro, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 2003)