London based Kontakte, obviously had some exposure to Stockhausen, their name acting as a reference or homage to his Kontakte für elektronische Klänge, Klavier und Schlagzeug, composed in 1959 and released in 1960 as Kontakte. To labor the point further Kontakte “refers both to contacts between instrumental and electronic sound groups and to contacts between self-sufficient, strongly characterized moments.” (Stockhausen Texte vol. 2,1964)
Soundtracks to Lost Road Movies encapsulates this contact, or communication if you will between musical forms and social groups whose inclination towards a ‘pure’ encapsulation of sound formations creates a sense of disconnect rather than communication. If we are thinking at all of music as linguistic or communication form. To reference moments in both electronic and rock do we thus have a ‘post-rock’ album? If such term itself refers to a fusion of forms, hybridisation, to the moment of consistent realistion of the superfluidity of form and possible form. Or it my just be a question of branding.
Kontakte are Ben (guitar, noise, programming), Ian (Bass, Synths, Programming), Paul (Guitar, Melody, Programming), and while having not witnessed them live it comes across that the programming preceded the performance. This is not merely self-evident assertion, of course composition precedes performance (without even considering the idea of ‘pure’ improvisation), but also that Kontakte perform to their programming. With the preceding intricacy of form established they essentially build a full sonic spectrum with their guitars creating depth and intensity and pushing the sound spectrum in a rock/noise sense.
Two And A Half Thousand Miles is the most restrained and controlled of the six original tracks and equally demonstrates their skill of loud quietude without reference to the dramatics of which the ‘rock men with axes school’ can be prone. The final six tracks on the album are remixes by their contemporaries ‘Twelve (Chris Olley of Six. By Seven), Winterlight, Polysicness and fellow Drifting Falling artists Matt Bartram (Air Formation) and Oppressed By The Line’. The remixes re often more subtle than the originals, with the bombastic exception of Matt Bartram’s remix of Motorik which is insistant, abrasive and dry. This could be its quality. Winterlight’s remix of Lifes road movies is the most insistently joyous but this is only a question of pre-established notions of form, rather than necessarily the achievement of the sound form of joy.
If these comments, for what they are worth, are meant to form a critical assessment then they have essentially failed. For Kontakte demonstrate that they have talent, they have a musical knowledge and technical ability; they can make disparate forms come together with verve. Yet still I expect more, perhaps because they are better than this debut long player.
Innerversitysound
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