Product Details

• Released on: 2001-05-29
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Like any art worthy of the name, the work of Oval transcends its origins. Markus Popp, the German laptop musician and software developer who is the wizard behind Oval's digital curtain, is fond of slinging around all sorts of heavy theory about the meaning of that work. But you don't need to know how his audio (Popp prefers that term to music) is supposed to comment upon the marketplace or authorship to get a kick out of Ovalcommers. All you need is a couple of open-minded ears. The first track (of 11, all unnamed) commences with a rhythm loop reminiscent of an alarm buzzer, then erupts into a spectacular neon-hued blast of whistles and hums. Elsewhere Popp sculpts static and complexly textured tones into crunching riffs and delicate melodies, and sets them to beats fashioned from skipping CDs. It somehow makes for dense, kinetic, and undeniably rocking tunes that are as immediate and accessible as experimental electronic music ever gets. --Bill Meyer

Customer Reviews

Pure Beauty
This album is pure beauty. Dense, layered, and noisy, it is like taking the noisy guitar parts from a My Bloody Valentine album and making a new CD out of that by cutting-up the sounds and layering them. This results in an extremely beautiful audio experience and one of the best albums of the year. Listen to the audio samples. If you like what you hear, buy the CD because the whole album sounds like that.

Markus popp is my hero!
Ovalcommers is an amazing headphone experience. I would have to say that this is one of my most beloved possesions. Ovalcommers shouldn't be written off as "audio terrorism". Underneath the brutal scrapes and pops are beautiful textures that slither and whisp in and out of your ear canal. Then once that little texture has done its job it'll drift far and away to find a safe haven. I love oval

A Beauty among 0�s and 1�s
This is glitch grown up. Minimal digital repetitions of previous works (which I love and have nothing against) have been replaced by the all too rare "melody," carving traditional musical structures into a wall of digital sound. This is one of the best albums I've bought this year. My first impressions were fairly indifferent, just another glitch album of beeps and bleeps, but as I listened further, I began to piece together the underling melodies in my head. Intertwined with the noise was a beautiful song waiting to be discovered. To this day I still can't make out every note but rather I take in the music and hear a guideline that that makes me piece together what's there and what's not, I'm sure its different for everyone. It's hard to explain without hearing it, and unfortunately the snippets above don't do it justice, but if you looking for something a little different from the norm and you are able to keep an open mind I think this album might be for you.