TRICK037
UPLAND Obliterated
IDM/electronica
Released November 2004
UPLAND Obliterated
IDM/electronica
Released November 2004
Release info/Press release
We must admit to having a faded interest in the electronica/glitch/idm/noise ongoings these days. Every middle class rebel with a cubase and some downloaded plugins does the discs. The cutting edge has become a blunt blade.
Then Knut Ruud aka UPLAND approached us with his 2nd album, Obliterated. And we were hauled back under the knife.
Where UPLAND's first album was about clockwork this second is about time. Thousands of ticks and clicks pieced together with msec. precision. But there's more to this than mere mathematics. Obliterated is mechanical by nature, cold to touch and hard at heart. Music becoming microbiology.
Are you clear for the cut? A sharp and professionally executed incision.
Cut press:
[...] "a watchmaker's attention to detail, capturing, taming and framing an infinity of digital fragments, pinning each into its allotted space on the sequencer's remorseless timeline. Perhaps it's because Ruud is so focused on the minutiae of his music that the bigger picture creeps up unnoticed — shadowy, inchoate emotions that loom, ghostlike, between and beyond the meticulous precision of the beats." - The Wire
"A brutal attack of mechanical beats consisting of heavily distorted, erratic clicks and explosions, not unlike sounds we’ve heard from Autechre, Venetian Snares and mainly Einóma, Upland’s closest sonic relative. However, Upland’s convincing sleight of hand — inserting minor shifts in emphasis within the beats, exchanging spastically fast hundred-hand-slaps for stately rigid funk — has you inquisitively finding an internal logic to every loop. This isn’t some academic exercise however; there remains throughout an intensity that never falls into pointlessly complex onanism. It’s pretty rocking, quite frankly..." - Musical Bear
"Upland’s sophomore release Obliterated was quite an eye-opening experience. Not content to be relegated to background music status, Upland instead opts for some of, if not the most, obtrusive music I’ve ever encountered. Like ‘a robot zombie parade’ or better yet ‘R2D2 packed full of ball bearings and hurtling wildly down a spiral staircase’. I must strongly urge anyone interested in being part of a completely mind bending aural experience to seek out Upland’s Obliterated." - Delusions of Adequacy
We must admit to having a faded interest in the electronica/glitch/idm/noise ongoings these days. Every middle class rebel with a cubase and some downloaded plugins does the discs. The cutting edge has become a blunt blade.
Then Knut Ruud aka UPLAND approached us with his 2nd album, Obliterated. And we were hauled back under the knife.
Where UPLAND's first album was about clockwork this second is about time. Thousands of ticks and clicks pieced together with msec. precision. But there's more to this than mere mathematics. Obliterated is mechanical by nature, cold to touch and hard at heart. Music becoming microbiology.
Are you clear for the cut? A sharp and professionally executed incision.
Cut press:
[...] "a watchmaker's attention to detail, capturing, taming and framing an infinity of digital fragments, pinning each into its allotted space on the sequencer's remorseless timeline. Perhaps it's because Ruud is so focused on the minutiae of his music that the bigger picture creeps up unnoticed — shadowy, inchoate emotions that loom, ghostlike, between and beyond the meticulous precision of the beats." - The Wire
"A brutal attack of mechanical beats consisting of heavily distorted, erratic clicks and explosions, not unlike sounds we’ve heard from Autechre, Venetian Snares and mainly Einóma, Upland’s closest sonic relative. However, Upland’s convincing sleight of hand — inserting minor shifts in emphasis within the beats, exchanging spastically fast hundred-hand-slaps for stately rigid funk — has you inquisitively finding an internal logic to every loop. This isn’t some academic exercise however; there remains throughout an intensity that never falls into pointlessly complex onanism. It’s pretty rocking, quite frankly..." - Musical Bear
"Upland’s sophomore release Obliterated was quite an eye-opening experience. Not content to be relegated to background music status, Upland instead opts for some of, if not the most, obtrusive music I’ve ever encountered. Like ‘a robot zombie parade’ or better yet ‘R2D2 packed full of ball bearings and hurtling wildly down a spiral staircase’. I must strongly urge anyone interested in being part of a completely mind bending aural experience to seek out Upland’s Obliterated." - Delusions of Adequacy
Reviews
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Gridface December 2004
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The Milk Factoy February 2005
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Aquarius February 2005
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Delusions of Adequacy March 2005
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Dead Angel July 2005
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Global Domination April 2006
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SSMT February 2010