EP, Zvukoprocessor, 2006
www.zvukoprocessor.com
Coming from Tel Aviv´s Zvukoprocessor stable, this new EP from Seventeen Migs Of Spring is a numbered, limited edition three-track release in a nicely designed translucent sleeve. How many copies are in the run is anyone´s guess though, as it doesn´t yet seem to be listed on the band´s website or the label´s. This is ambient music from the least fluffy end of the spectrum, being somewhat cold and sharp-edged soundscapes in the tradition of the experimentalists of the post-war, pre-synthesiser era.
Part one is highly pointilist in structure, exploring the tonal space available through clusters of chromatic plucks and twangs that leave the listener unsure of the provenance of the sound. There is an ambiguity as to whether real instruments, samples or electronics are in use, and as in many of Nurse With Wound´s less jazzy numbers, this uncertainty is a distinct advantage rather than a discouraging factor. Parts two and three are smoother, with the former, sparser piece using sweeping and gliding oscillator sounds, and the latter instead relying mostly on dissonant, atonal chords and trills before coming to a somewhat abrupt end.
It´s all perfectly competent, although somewhat unsuprising and lacking in emotional dynamics, and while one should doubtless be glad that such commercially challenging compositional styles are still being supported at the grass-roots level, there is little here that has not been heard before. In a sense this is a conservative rather than genuinely avant-garde work, an atavistic nod to the very early history of electronic music.
[5/10]
— Andrew Clegg