Another Green World

Schoster, Erik

Like the subject of my last feature, Oakland, Calif. based Blevin Blectum began her recording career orbiting the realm of breakcore. After playing a show at Mills College with Kevin Blechdom, the two teamed up as the now-defunct Blectum From Blechdom for sound-bending tongue-in-cheek dada/data riots – pushing each other outside of their creative comfort zones. With an MFA in electronic music from Mills College under her belt, Blectum has since exploded her solo career, most recently with a 2004 full length, “Magic Maple,” on Chicago’s Praemedia imprint. This live recording at San Francisco’s Hemlock Tavern is saturated in the language
Blectum articulated on “Magic Maple.” Her breakcore leanings are still present, but the shimmer of these tracks has a distinctly orchestral quality to it. Her music is dense, chaotic and frenetic, but there’s a skillful harmony to the way she sledgehammers samples of birdsong
and broken keyboards together. If I knew a little more about the concept of “strange loops” I think I’d be closer to unpacking a core element of Blectum’s music. Her music unfolds in cycles – not loops, but strange loops – rarely repeating
themselves, but also not quite developing
in linear stages, the way much cyclic music does. Blectum takes some long obscured linear jumping point, and folds it back on itself. If mirrors could be folded like origami paper, her music would make a lovely soundtrack for them. Blectum finishes out this live set with “Last Track” from “Magic Maple,” which is probably the best example of the synthesis between the energy of her older breakcore and the sheer spectral density of her newer music.
Live at Hemlock tavern can be downloaded
for free as a high-quality MP3 from the av/.o Net label at http://www.a-version.co.uk/sister/
Another Green World is a survey of nice things to see and hear on the Internet.