Comatone

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)

inthemix.com.au

"Comatone is local (Blue Mountains) producer Greg Seiler, and this is his debut album. It has been my week for reviewing genre-crossing music, and One Into One Out is no exception. Comatone works on the edge of experimental electronic music, and this album covers a wide range of sounds, from beautiful melancholic glitch through techier stuff to banging drill 'n bass.

He likens his own music to Autechre and Aphex Twin, but the opening track Pick up those Disks owes more to another great "A" of the electronica world - it sounds quite like some of the more beautiful Akufen works, with its sliced and diced samples, lost people talking a strange and sad electronic language and soaring strings over rattling drum programming - quite lovely.

Fat my suck one is as jarring as its name - a crashingly hard blend of techy drum 'n bass and electronica, it was shockingly hard after the gentle intro. I loved it - but Mrs TG cowered under the couch and made me put the headphones on. That worked too - injected straight into my head I could enjoy the complexities of it further - War of the Worlds sci-fi meets dark underground club.

Drum 'n bass doesnt normally float my boat, and I know very little about it - but I'd like to learn more about this type of music. I recently bought an album by techno god Umek called Neuro, and got a shock - the album could best be called tech 'n bass, a crunchingly hard blend of D'nB & techno, and once I got over my shock, I loved it.

One Into One Out has a lot of this atmosphere to it as well, hard dance music with a twist, half broken, half banging, interspersed with more atmospheric tracks. Id hazard that Comatone is a science fiction fan - this is deeply futuristic music, both in atmosphere and in its experimental nature - some of it would be at home in an Alien movie, and some in a club in Berlin in 2045. Cut is a heavy star-lifter of a track, a spaceship cruising deep space, smooth, dark and cool with real weight and presence.

Carbon Line is more on the future dance side, wicked drums underpinning R2D2 bleeps and beats - hard but fun. My personal favourite is Toy - music-box jingles over crunching bassline and a drum machine wound up tight, with massive attack and the decay so extended it sounds like a door creaking.

Comatone is not a musician afraid of experimenting, and more often than not it really works. This is quite challenging music and certainly wont be to everyones taste - sometimes the shifts in beat and more unpredictable moments threw me - but overall I rate it highly, and if you like the sound of experimental electronica meets drum 'n bass, give it a go.

Reviewed by Technogeekery, 24/11/2003 for inthemix.com.au

Groovesmag.com

"As Comatone, Australia-based laptop composer Greg Seiler runs a heavy, but emotional DSP set with his first release. Imagine the varying crunchiness of Proem or Quench atop playful, nimble melodies from Mike Paradinas, and you'll come pretty close to what Seiler has in store here. "Pick up Those Disks" opens with an unmistakably new-wave flavor that builds in a percussive program before it melts away, while headbangers will revel in the damaged frenetic chaos of "Fat My Suck One," even as old-school types might cringe a shade at its not-so-subtle nod to Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express. Easily the best track on the disc, although one of the shortest, its too bad its stomping beat doesn't build into something greater; there seems real potential in stretching out the finale a shade more.

The softly circular interlude of "Cut" reminds the listener of the gentler moments of Autechre's Amber, before the disc gets back to being as hard as possible. Indeed, the clockwork mechanics of "Toy" plays a decaying music box against a relentless breakbeat-a unique blend. Jungle-inspired but still fresh, "Going Home" drops a cascading Funckarma-like synthesizer passage atop melancholic phrases, quite tasty, while "Out One into One" is pure hardcore, nearly industrial in fact, closing the disc in a wash of radio static. Interesting, well-executed ideas abound here."

Reviewed by Alex Reynolds for Grooves Mag

splendidzine.com

"Australian laptop guru Greg Seiler makes electronica that stands up to the experimental character of progenitors such as Autechre and Squarepusher. However, his music retains much melodic and harmonic interest amidst the glitches; witness the lush harmonic background of "Pick up Those Disks". "Carbon Line" uses a skittering programmed beat against a droid-like bleeping counterpoint to create a hectic melange; midway through, an electrofunky synth solo takes the track into the bumptious arena of video game soundtrack music. "Cut" is far more subdued, creating a hushed blanket of chords and a soaring melodic arc, roughed around the edges by the occasional buzz or percussive fill. The gradual build-up of "Scrubber", which juxtaposes slowly moving chords with an active foreground rhythmic groove, makes it one of the album's most effective arrangements.

"Fat my Suck One" is hardly a graceful title, but its use of sophisticated rhythmic layering techniques is quite impressive. Occasionally, the odd fleeting melody or wisp of a chord change humanizes an otherwise mechanistic soundscape. This dichotomy of opposing forces - pitched versus unpitched material - creates much of the rhetorical drama in Seiler's music. What's more, One Into One Out often seems to present just the right balance of the two. As such, it makes for both engaging and challenging listening."

Reviewed by Christian Carey for Splendidezine

igloomag.com

"One Into One Out is the obvious result of countless hours of hard work and meticulous attention to detail. The production is crisp, the arrangements well-voiced, and there are moments that will absolutely grab you - if even just for a few bars at a time.

"Shadow Hopper" is probably the most moving piece on the disc - its slapback-echoed synth-bass lays down a twisted path for the clarinet and string patches to travel along while broken beats chaotically hold the track together. The melancholic pleas are infectious and the most likely candidates to inspire you to reach for the CD again after having put it down for a while
"I have the feeling Comatone is just getting warmed up and will be one to watch in the future."

Excerpts from review by Mad e.p, contributing editor, Igloo Magazine http://igloomag.com/doc.php?task=view&id=791&category=reviews,