Product Details

• Released on: 2000-06-20
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Oval is the brand name for Markus Popp's singular approach to sound manipulation--he's a software developer as much as a composer. Skipping CDs, field recordings of bells, and his own back catalog are grist for his digital mill, but regardless of a sound's source, Popp's ever-evolving "Ovalprocess" application renders his work immediately identifiable. But not identical; this is both the rawest and most complexly textured Oval recording to date. The album's patterns of rasping low-end blurts, midrange buzzes, and high-pitched glassy splinters will sand the finish off your speakers. The beats, when present, are staggered sequences of CD skips. But adjust your sense of scale and you'll hear Popp's real rhythms; they're in the cinematic variation of his repeating sequences, brief-as-blinking events, and discrete sound scenes. --Bill Meyer

Customer Reviews

Music to upset your pets
Even pets know the sound of something going terribly, terribly wrong. Unlike other glitch artists, Oval eschews techno-minimalism to create lush textures from skipping CDs, feedback, and assorted drones. The funny thing about listening to Oval is that, after a while, you'll start to hear music in their ungodly scraping and you won't be able to tell if the music is objectively "there" or if it is your brain trying to cope with the trauma.
If you're going to buy just one Oval CD, this is the one to get.

Uncompromising and austere - a challenging listen
Being a huge fan of '94 Diskont' and to a lesser extent 'Systemich' and 'Dok', I can see that this album is a logical extension of what has gone on before. There were hints of this starker style in 'Szenariodisk', but there are more moments of respite here than on that quirky little CD. There are also rare moments of beauty - tracks 5 and 7 are almost melodically pleasing.

There are no track titles and it would be hard to 'rate' the individual tracks. Much of it assaults the ears and, like all well made machine-music, begs to be listened to, rather than used as background music.

Markus Popp stands at the pinnacle of the glitch genre, both as 'Oval' and in his 'Microstoria' manifestations with Jan St Werner from 'Mouse on Mars'. He thankfully refuses to stand still musically and each album inhabits its own soundworld.

Newcomers to the glitch style might want to begin with '94 Diskont' or 'Systemich', but for anyone who likes electronica at the far edge, this is as good a place to start as any.

Other offerings worth exploring in this genre are:

- Pole (especially '1' and 'R') - glitch with a dub sound, almost funky
- Nobukazu Takemura (try 'Scope') - very sparse and more spacious than 'Ovalprocess'
- 'Clicks and Cuts' (the first of three volumes - 2cds) - various glitch artists - mostly great stuff, with a couple of boring dud tracks. Good sampler of the glitch style

If you like it, you like it. If you don't, you don't.
The fact that there are no song titles says a lot about this CD. As I listened to it, I realized that it all sounds pretty much the same, which is to say its a lot of noise with some incredibly nice moments throughout. I like this CD, but its not as good as "discont" and its good for one long listening except that it has one of those dumb hidden tracks after 10 minutes of silence (which about ruins any album in my opinion). I suggest checking out the Oval website for some free downloads, which are as good as anything on this record (formandfunction.net/en/artists/oval/oval2.htm).