Matthew Atkins, also known as Platform, has released a couple of CDRs in a relatively short time span, teams up here with a drummer, Paul May. May has half of Ladywoodsman, and has played on albums by Alexander Tucker, Duke Garwood, Carolyn Hume and Barkingside. He's an improvisation drummer. They know eachother for fifteen years, but this is the first time they worked together. May has supplied a tape of his percussive work to Atkins who has transformed the material. Atkins stays close to original rhythm tapes, adding sparsely electronics, and occasionally creating loops of the drums. This all makes great sense as the four pieces on this CDR (lasting almost twenty-one minutes) have a great vibrant feeling. Electro-acoustic manipulation meets up with the improvised playing that has a slight jazzy touch to it. From all the discs I received from Platform in the past months, I think this is the best release. Playful, skilled manipulation of the material, reminding me of the Steven
Hess/Robert Hampson (Main) collaboration. Maybe Platform should seek the collaboration more?
(Vital Weekly)
Drummer Paul May and electronic artist Matt Atkins (aka Platform) combine forces here for an utterly compelling journey into the world of experimental sound. Using recordings of Paul's improv percussion skills and then getting to work on processing and treating them, Platform delivers a totally coherent, intriguing and amazingly lovely series of tracks. What I enjoyed the most was the variety with the work - one minute you get freeform, almost jazz-like sections, which then cunningly work their way into a melodic and, it must be said, almost 12k-esque chord-led feel. Coupled with the frankly out-there final track that uses a 4/4 kick to up the tempo somewhat you've got yourself an engaging, beautifully produced work that, in my opinion, is the finest release on the label so far. What a great way to start 2009!
(SmallFish)
Paul May + Platform arrive in my lugholes next, brandishing a bag of tools, an old drum kit made of plumbing & biscuit tins and possibly an eerie glockenspiel /theramin set up. And an echo machine. They then proceed to take all this dubious musical instrumentation into a pitch black dark shed and quietly stagger around in a meditative fashion, brandishing their sticks and bits of sound manipulating trickery like two pissed zen warriors searching for the new sound. As far as de- constructive avant-garde gear goes, I love the dub/echo chamber effects on 'Broken Hulk Display' and have to admit as a display of electro acoustic and experimental percussive sound, this CD is quite the cookie. I'm feeling utterly relaxed considering the jarring unpredictability of it all. If yr a bit of a Wire reading beardy-weirdy you'll love this. Me, I haven't a shelf big enough to hold a dictionary containing all the words that they use, I'm well archaic. This is a very absorbing listening though!
(Norman Records)
This neat little CDR features Platform reconfiguring the percussive subtlety of one Paul May, in a release that, from the outset, grabs the attention, and never lets go until the final flourish. Although essentially minimalist in feel, the sonic pallette here is full of invigorating and exciting gestures, with Platform deforming May’s percussive structures, layering them with slap-echo, or muscular reverb, to form an active fabric of rhythmic elements, fractured and spliced with subtle organic tonalities. At times, there is a loose free-jazz feel to the whole proceedings, a bit like Billy Cobham on a minimalist holiday with Keith Jarrett..this is a nice appetiser for what I would hope would be a more protracted foray with this successful pairing at some point in the future.Clocking in at a mere 20 or so minutes..I would have loved to have heard more.. BGN
(White_Line Editions)
Ecstatic free jazz percussion is the premise here, but with chalky, scraping electronic contrasts and mid-range harmonics. Tapes of Paul May’s percussion work, which accelerate and decelerate with wild abandon, have their malicious residues renewed and reconfigured by Platform’s active and gestural programming.
To May’s passion and high energy, Platform often adds lighter, more edgy textures, creating the sense of high energy contained through concerted self-restraint. “The Last Barber” accomplishes this most plainly: the bristling electricity of May’s looped scrawl and scribble is matched with the feral, almost tidal motion of Platform’s textures and solitary keyboard strokes. It’s far from the only penetrating moment here, however, as each and every one of the discs twenty minutes possesses clarity in its restraint and an astringency and head-rinsing litheness of touch that is almost cleansing
(Cyclic Defrost)
This is some strange electronic peculiarity here, something that we were sent ages ago but I could never find anyone to review it so I thought I'd take it upon myself. The label it is out on is called Minimal Resource Manipulation, and that is about right. This is some very un-settling stuff, strange noises and instrumentation pops and whizzes into earshot over the top of ambient sound. Paul May does some free jazz drumming, or hits random parts of a drum kit at least. Mr. May provided this percussion to Platform who then made noises over it. The second track introduces some warm and gentle droning to spice things up, this goes really well with the fizzing and the abstract drumming. I am pretty sure this kind of thing has a fairly limited audience, so I appreciate that the label sent a copy to us of all places for review. I think if you enjoy improvisation, oddball percussion and curious electronica, then you should investigate this CD as there is likely to be something here for you, even if it is only 20 minutes long.
(Collective Zine)
credits
released January 1, 2009
Paul May - Drums and Percussion
Matthew Atkins - Processing and Electronics
MRMCDR07
MRM is a DIY label for experimental music curated by Matt
Atkins, a London based sound and visual artist whose principle interests are reductionism, chance, repetition and texture. He uses objects, percussion instruments, occasionally a laptop and cassette recorders to create sound collages in both the recorded medium and live....more
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