Lex (album)

Last updated
Lex
LexVisibleCloaks.jpg
EP / soundtrack album by
Visible Cloaks
ReleasedDecember 8, 2017
Genre
Length27:13
39:23 (Japan CD release)
Label RVNG Intl.
Producer
  • Ryan Carlile
  • Spencer Doran
Visible Cloaks chronology
Reassemblage
(2017)		Lex
(2017)

Lex is a mini-album [3] and partial soundtrack by Portland, Oregon duo Visible Cloaks, consisting of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. Continuing the experimental electronic music stylings and East and West relationship ideas of their previous work Reassemblage (2017), the album takes place in a future utopian world with aliens talking in a hybrid of several languages to the point of speaking a "non-language." The speech sounds on the album were made by Doran feeding dialects and accents to the language translation program Infovox Voice Manager.

Portland, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Portland is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Multnomah County. It is a major port in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. As of 2017, Portland had an estimated population of 647,805, making it the 26th-largest city in the United States, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest. Approximately 2.4 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area (MSA), making it the 25th most populous MSA in the United States. Its Combined Statistical Area (CSA) ranks 18th-largest with a population of around 3.2 million. Approximately 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.

Visible Cloaks are an American electronic musical duo based in Portland, Oregon, consisting of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. The duo originally emerged in 2010 as Doran's solo project, in which he explored rare groove new age music and ambient music from Japan. Carlile joined the project in 2014. Scott Wilson of Fact describes their music as "shattering the idea of “fourth world music.”

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means, and that produced using electronics only. Electromechanical instruments include mechanical elements, such as strings, hammers, and so on, and electric elements, such as magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar, which are typically made loud enough for performers and audiences to hear with an instrument amplifier and speaker cabinet. Pure electronic instruments do not have vibrating strings, hammers, or other sound-producing mechanisms. Devices such as the theremin, synthesizer, and computer can produce electronic sounds.

Contents

The first five tracks of Lex soundtrack a short film the duo and artist Brenna Murphy did titled Permutate Lex (2017), and the closing track "World," according to RVNG Intl.'s press release, is a "fixed" version of a piece the duo and Murphy previously originally did for an unspecified art installation. The film was released by Kabinett on October 12, 2017, the album issued by RVNG Intl. on December 8 to favorable reviews from music writers.

Brenna Murphy is an American artist based in Portland, Oregon.

RVNG Intl.

RVNG Intl. is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2003 by Matt Werth, the label is run by Werth and focuses on experimental dance and electronic music, often incorporating avant-garde genres. Release formats include vinyl, CDs, and digital downloads. In 2011, they were named one of the top 50 indie labels in America by Billboard.

Production

The making of Lex began with Spencer Doran and his friend Brenna Murphy, who does artwork and videos for Visible Cloaks' music, being "commissioned" to produce a fifteen-minute short film; he said this in an interview with The Quietus , though he did not specify who commissioned the two to make the film. [4] Doran conceived the idea of having a speech synthesizer to serve as dialogue for the film. [4] Doran produced the speeches by having the language translation program Infovox Voice Manager speak various dialects and accents into other languages. [5] [4] Visible Cloaks and Murphy titled the short film Permutate Lex, and its audio also served as the first five tracks for a Visible Cloaks mini-album titled Lex. [5] The word "Lex" in both titles derived from the speeches being spoken in a "lexical permutation." [4]

The Quietus is a British online music and pop culture magazine, focusing on arts news, reviews, and features. The site is an editorially independent publication led by John Doran and a group of freelance journalists and critics, some of whom have worked for other media outlets.

Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech computer or speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal language text into speech; other systems render symbolic linguistic representations like phonetic transcriptions into speech.

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways to refer to two different types of linguistic phenomena:

Composition and concept

Lex continues the experimental musical style, 1980s Japanese electronic music influences, and East and West relationship concept of Visible Cloaks' previous album Reassemblage (2017). [6] [2] According to RVNG Intl.'s press releases, Lex takes place in a future utopia, "a limitless, delicate space developed by fluid musical techniques and subconscious voices," with "mysteries" told via an "unknown but imaginable melodic language." [5] Doran stated that the album is trying to present a future vision of the world that can't be determined currently, and thus it seems "only surreal and inscrutable" to most people. [5] Also like Reassemblage, [7] Lex takes sounds of metallophones, woodwinds, and synthesizers and makes the "source" of the instruments less identifiable, "adding a 21st-century digital-versus-acoustic complexity to the mix," writer Chal Raven stated. [2]

<i>Reassemblage</i> (album) 2017 album by Visible Cloaks

Reassemblage is the second studio album of Portland, Oregon duo Visible Cloaks, consisting of musicians Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. The record is named after Trinh T. Minh-ha's 1982 documentary film of the same name, since both works observe its subject matter without showing meaning to it. Reassemblage departs from Doran's past hip-hop releases for a more high-quality style inspired by the works of Japanese synthesizer music acts such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto, all of which were featured on Doran's 2010 mix Fairlights, Mallets & Bamboo.

Metallophone musical instrument

A metallophone is any musical instrument consisting of tuned metal bars which are struck to make sound, usually with a mallet.

Synthesizer electronic instrument capable of producing a wide range of sounds

A synthesizer or synthesiser is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals that may be converted to sound. Synthesizers may imitate traditional musical instruments such as piano, flute, vocals, or natural sounds such as ocean waves; or generate novel electronic timbres. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device, often a MIDI keyboard or other controller.

The music is led by aliens trying to speak a hybrid of several languages but end up speaking a "non-language" as a result. [5] Doran stated the speeches were meant to be a commentary on inaccurate translations that most translation applications makes. [5] The speeches are the most commonplace on Lex's first four tracks, which Raven labeled as more "fragmented, unsettled, and inscrutable" than Reassemblage. [2] The record becomes almost entirely ambient by the title track, however, with only bits of the alien voices before completing disappearing on its 14-minute closer "World." [2]

Returning to the "dreamy" tones of Reassemblage, [2] "World" is a "fixed" version of a "generative composition" that Doran made for an installation he worked on with artist Brenna Murphy; that's according to the press release, though it didn't specify which installation. [5] While the original version of the composition consists of erratic MIDI notes and uses of low-frequency oscillation, the version that appears on Lex is about "a more conclusive view" of the "deepening, patient intimations" the future world of Lex will likely bring. [5] Resident Advisor described "World" as more "immersive" than the album's more "blur"ry previous tracks: "Watery sounds slosh around, airy tones drift at the periphery and chords ripple outwards." [1]

MIDI electronic musical instrument industry specification

MIDI is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music. A single MIDI link through a MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device or instrument. This could be sixteen different digital instruments, for example.

Low-frequency oscillation

Low-frequency oscillation (LFO) is an electronic frequency which is usually below 20 Hz and creates a rhythmic pulse or sweep. This pulse or sweep is often used to modulate synthesizers, delay lines and other audio equipment in order to create effects used in the production of electronic music. Audio effects such as vibrato, tremolo and phasing are examples. The abbreviation LFO is also very often used to refer to low-frequency oscillators themselves.

<i>Resident Advisor</i> online music magazine

Resident Advisor is an online music magazine and community platform dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. It was established in 2001. RA's editorial team provides news, music and event reviews, as well as films, features and interviews. The website also manages services that include event listings, ticket sales, club and promoter directories, photo galleries, artist and record label profiles, DJ charts, an online community, and the RA Podcast.

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
The 4057/10 [6]
Pitchfork 7.1/10 [2]
Resident Advisor 3.8/5 [1]
The Skinny Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]

On October 12, 2017, the company Kabinett released Permutate Lex on its website. [9] RVNG Intl. released the album Lex on digital and vinyl formats on December 8, 2017, a release date for the album's Japan-only CD release yet to be announced. [5] The album was critically well-received upon its distribution. As Raven wrote in his review for Pitchfork , "though less memorable than its predecessor, Lex succeeds when it is heard as intended: as a conceptual companion to Reassemblage’s opaque experimentation." [2] The 405 praised the album as "well-mannered, fun experimentalism with a winning spirit," and "if it doesn't break any tonal boundaries, it firmly establishes its composers' place at least in sight of the bleeding edge. And it opens the door to all manner of discoveries." [6] The Skinny stated it was successful in presenting its concept, reasoning that it sounds "consistently otherworldly, but still retain[s] enough humanity to make it effective." [8]

Track listing

Derived from the RVNG Intl. website. [5]

Lex – Standard version
No.TitleLength
1."Wheel"3:35
2."Frame"2:36
3."Transient"2:15
4."Keys"2:23
5."Lex"2:06
6."World"14:18
Total length:27:13

Personnel

Derived from the liner notes of Lex. [10]

Release history

RegionDateFormat(s)Label
Worldwide [5] December 8, 2017
 RVNG Intl.
Japan [5] TBA CD

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Beta, Andy (December 7, 2017). "Visible Cloaks – Lex". Resident Advisor . Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ravens, Chal (December 9, 2017). "Visible Cloaks: Lex Album Review". Pitchfork . Conde Nast. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  3. ↑ Eede, Christian (16 October 2017). "Global Village: Visible Cloaks Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Eede, Christian (October 16, 2017). "Global Village: Visible Cloaks Interviewed". The Quietus . Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Visible Cloaks – Lex". RVNG Intl. Official Website. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 Glover, Nicholas (December 12, 2017). "Review: Lex exists in the same space as its predecessor, proving Visible Cloaks a force to be reckoned with". The 405. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  7. ↑ Wilson, Scott (February 22, 2017). "Visible Cloaks are the Portland duo bridging the gap between Ryuichi Sakamoto and 0PN". Fact . The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Wade, Lewis (December 5, 2017). "Visible Cloaks – Lex". The Skinny . Radge Media. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Visible Cloaks & Brenna Murphy – Permutate Lex (Kabinett)". RVNG Intl. Official Website. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  10. ↑ Lex (2017). Visible Cloaks. RVNG Intl. 2017. RVNGNL44.
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