Archiv 1.1

You need first to know that “ton” is “sound” in German so “noton” is sort of a Deutschlish word for “no sound”. So then, raster-noton is a label that specializes in what is elsewhere referred to as “microscopic sound” for its small impression on your eardrums – high pitched, often sparse, rarely melodic, and yet elsewhere as “glitch”, whereby already minimal beats (not to say anything of a chord anywhere in earshot) are rejiggered via software. The result is often a sort of ambient dub that wants nothing to do with the world and would prefer to be just left alone, thank you very much. This coyness or surliness makes it all the more attractive – you want to get inside its shell and see if there’s something inside. But if you’ll just enjoy that cold, sterile shell, you’ll soon turn into an antisocial nerd, er, lover of small music. I am! Nice tunes here, some of them reminiscent of dub minus the stringed instruments and the live drums. Fans of Panasonic (the band, not the brand), the German and Austrian glitch purveyors, and Ryoji Ikeda need to check this out. All tracks recommended.

1. Short track of rude noises
2. Ambient metallic drone
3. Slow, low digital dub with blippy effects
4. Simple, deep 1-2 beat with polite bursts of static
5. Simple melody with snippets of female vocals
6. Digital orchestra tuning up – several lines overlapping and intersecting
7. Pretty, tweaked short melodic bits played over a constant electronic thump-thump
8. Lumbering funk backbeat with Doppler effects
9. Gentle bass throb
10. The best track – multiple frequencies of humming from pod bay doors, tape drives on Univacs, sonar bleeps
11. Digital glitch dub with a bass-ic foundation and just a smidgen of paper crumpling
12. Funky bassline with synthesizer buzz
13. Some development, almost as if it were a song
14. Electronic lullaby
15. Dark alley soundtrack