Oh heavens, this is the second OTA release in my batch, and I’m deep. First it was Patrick R. Pärk, now Konakon? (And I see you there, Lace Bows tape – you’re next.) Konakon, aka Parma artist La Blancheur des Cygnes (which is NOT a real name, unless your parents named you “The Swan Whiteness – blame Google Translate for any miscommunication there), has been jamming experimental nigh on twenty years, even playing in an Italian noise rock group called Brother James and peddling wares through Second Family Records Netlabel. As Konakon, he drops all that noisy horsecrap and steers down the straight and narrow, playing wonderfully expressive electronic tunes using digital tools that he developed. (Not that the noisy horsecrap is a bad thing – goddang I love noise rock.) It’s pretty great stuff, and it’s pretty all over the place too, which is just how I like these kinds of releases: you never really know what direction it’s going to head in next. From stuttering hardvapor to chillwave to IDM to industrial to ambient, Konakon knows when to hang back and when to jam the pedal to the floor, only letting up when he feels like he’s shredded the tires of this metaphorical jalopy and you’re just coasting on the rims. Then he just rides the rims. Oh, what’s that? The tape’s stuck in the tape deck and it just keeps skipping and disintegrating on itself? OUSIA has a little bit of that too. But mostly it’s a noir electro free-for-all, a brooding party for night owls SO OVER the club scene. I don’t know where OTA keeps digging up these releases, but they can keep ’em coming for all I care. Never stop never stopping, friends. Also, as is the label’s wont, each tape in the edition of thirty comes with “unique handmade covers done with wax crayons on architect sketch paper. That’s a terrible photograph of mine up there – doesn’t do it justice. Beautiful stuff in real life, Catarino Gorgulho. Beautiful tape Konakon. Keep on keeping on, OTA.
Konakon
OTA
--Ryan Masteller
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