Systemisch
A side project featuring members of Cologne, Germany's Mouse on Mars, and Rome, Oval is a distinctive recipe of CD-scratched rhythms, obfuscated sample collages, and endless, cyclical structures. Suggesting vintage <I>musique concréte</i>, the French IRCAM collective, Krautrock progenitors like Neu and Kraftwerk, and what you imagine your computer might do if left to its own devices, <i>Systemisch</i> is both amazingly boring and incredibly fascinating; the aural equivalent to a Chuck Close tableau or the architectural sculptures of minimalist Sol LeWitt. Utterly impersonal, devoid of musical gesture, and downright John Cage-ian in its unspoken declaration of nonauthorship, it's the kind of music that plays with your programming; where are we, what and who is this, and, darnit, why? <I>--James Rotondi</I>