scissors
Album: Darkness, Emptiness, Silence
Artiste: Re-format, side project of AIFF
E-mail: aiff@rocketmail.com
Place of purchase: Roxy Records at Funan Centre
Price: $6.50
Unlike Digital Rain, 'Darkness, Emptiness, Silence' is a more abstract
album. Cindy of AIFF claims it is ambient music which in this case is
an
instrumental EP.
'Anger' is a bizarre track layered with cries and stinging synth
sounds.
Then when you least expect it, she puts 'H2O' which is supposed to
soothe
one down. This is hard to swallow as it resembles a clear repetition of
noises that she claims what life sounds like in deep water. On careful
hearing however, it is a much more subtle piece of music with ghostly
effects and ringing tones. 'Darkness, Emptiness, Silence' continues to
placate using the same techniques to create the former piece. It is
however
less intense and howls like hollow air.
A disruption created by 'Planet Landfill' is a repetition of sounds of
glass bottles being dumped. It soon escalates into drumbeats and some
sample vocals which is more interesting than the previous 2 tracks. The
most twisted has to be 'Trampolin'. It transports one back to fantasy
though the sleeve says it is more about "up and down life experience".
Clearly confused. The ending track is "Outro". This track is purely
synth
at work coming across as monotonous.
Strictly for fans and people into bizzare, experimental synth sound
which
sadly, bands of 80s have never explored fully.
**Re-feature**
This review appeared in the February issue of Scissors.
Album: Digital Rain
Artiste: AIFF
A home produced EP cassette demo with 6 tracks that are all single
words,
Digital Rain is an album that will appeal only to the most bizarre
listener
with an acute sense of hearing. Considering themselves an electronic
pop
act, their music is best listened with heavy bass.
"Progress", the first track is a progressive track with space like
ambience
and thumping beats that goes on and on before stumbling into "Why",
also
featured on Bigo Singles Club CD 5. A sombre number questioning about
death
for Shasha and Religion for Tong. Morbid. But darkness spreads further
with
"Withering", the other track with vocals and lyrics by Emily Bronte.
Beautiful.
Side B starts with "Seven", presumably as asked by Michelle Chang in On
the
Fringe has a religious connotation. "Self-Love" as suggested by title
is a
self-indulgence, plastered with samples, samples and samples... ... It
ends
with "Rain" which brings us back to where we were initially- a
"Progress"
like instrumental music.
Perhaps it is not the best but by an only (electronic) and up and
coming
local duo of Shasha and Cindy Tong (who studied jazz and pop at
Berklee),
aspiring to be the next Singapore Mono, it is worth listening. Who
knows,
you might end up like me, playing their songs almost every night before
going to sleep when I first bought the demo.
***
It is available at Roxy Records at $5 or check out their website at
https://members.tripod.com/~AIFF , complete with whole songs in
RealAudio.