The seemingly unpredictable crackle and ping of early microsound electronica used to be thrilling, now it seems appropriate for elevators and hotel lobbies. This isn’t necessarily a criticism, ambient sound is certainly one of our most frequently encountered forms of listening, and soundtracking our backdrops the objective of many producers. K. Leimer’s Degraded Certainties functions perfectly as lower case Muzak, eminently listenable, largely indistinguishable from the work of myriad like-minded contemporaries but for the minor-keyed melancholy that pervades these lengthy tracks.
For all the crinkled Max MSP waves of singing sine tones which dominate this album Leimer brings in a few curve balls, relatively speaking. The clunky xylophone melodies on ‘Allotropy’ could almost function as children’s music, but for the gloomy synthetic strings which sweep in like black smoke. ‘Paper Telephone’ centres around the close miking of jostled hand-held knick-knacks, then left to decay through granular synthesis into vague pointillist smear. ‘Common Nocturne’ features lonesome piano notes over the familiar flickering haze, the instrument clearly more used to plunking out honky-tonk. Taylor Deupree’s involvement ensures fine sound, arguably the most important feature in work of this sort.
Joshua Meggitt
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