New Batch – Orange Milk
10.19.15 by Scott Scholz
Orange Milk Records returns for autumn with a wicked batch of artists working at and above the 40th parallel. Grab a light jacket and take a stroll with four freaky neighbors to the north:
The second Man Made Hill tape for Orange Milk, “Totally Regular” features gritty recordings of smooth jams. Man Made Hill loves mad flow and wasp-attack envelope filters, and you can get your groove on while occasionally finding yourself pushed into old-school Ralph Records territory. Double and triple-dip as prescribed, and consult “Spoiled” for the best in contemporary luxury shopping lists.
Also returning to Orange Milk for a 2nd full-length (but don’t miss his killing track on last year’s 4-way split on OM, too), Larry Wish lays down a new set of overdubbed lounge-prog funhouse mirrors. Sprawling arrangements melodically twist through a series of forgotten side alleys, making the longest tunes feel like their own Choose Your Adventure novels (minus the sudden death pages). Wish knows his way around the drum kit, and his tempo shifts keep these jams from standing still no matter how far away from home they wander.
A striking followup to last year’s “AG_GREATESTHIT” on Umor Rex, “ad.sculpt tutorial” lives up to its name perfectly with a quartet of sculptural sound pieces. Created via MaxMSP coding, G.S. Sultan works with short bursts of rapid-fire electronic blips that nervously arrange themselves into the aural equivalent of Calder mobiles, well-balanced but sensitive to the slightest pulse of energy to burst into hyperactivity again. Serious rhythmic workouts for your brain, this is the perfect digital process-generated composition freakout companion to last year’s “Zones of Influence” by David Rosenboom on Pogus.
Tendencies brings us a 20-minute taste of Edmonton future funk on “Waterbed”, subtly drawing from the looped phrase manipulation of vaporwave (you get the chopped/screwed overcast skies most prominently on “その蒸気 2”), but with a focus closer to dance floors than closed dorm room doors. The last two tunes head way down tempo from the rest of the album, so don’t worry about getting your groove on as hard as you’d like right out of the gate—you’ll get a chance to catch your breath.
All four tapes are available individually, or in a four tape bundle, from Orange Milk Records.