Bleep

Baltimore’s Matt Papich is an established member of the international experimental and noise music communities – he was formerly been a part of improvisational drone trio Ecstatic Sunshine and, more recently, he released an album with Max D on PAN under the name Lifted. But it’s his solo work as Co La that Papich’s music has been at its most exciting and freeform. Since 2011, Papich has put out a series of cassettes, LPs, and mini-albums for labels like NNA Tapes and Hands In The Dark, which culminated in the release of the album Moody Coup through the Software label (run by Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never) in 2013. Co La is now issuing his second album for Software, No No. No No manages to be ecstatic but absurd, creepy but cute, and obscure but accessible – usually all at the same time. Papich takes a mixture of hyper-clean sounds, including both synthesized noises and field recordings, and transplants them onto bouncing, energetic club rhythms. Every sound has a recognisable material property in the real world (bubbles popping, doors squeaking, babies crying, etc.), but they’re utilised in unfamiliar and unconventional ways. Everything is layered relentlessly, piling up like unread stories on a news feed; often, these sounds threaten to overwhelm the listener (as on ‘Gush’, which is full of Felicita-esque cut-ups of chattering voices). But more often than not it’s totally clean and direct, with tracks like ‘Crank’ (best described as a dancehall banger that’s in the process of melting) making up some of the more immediate and visceral material on the album. A weird, wild, and totally unique record.

All vinyl orders include Edge Harmonics CD.