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Music

Pulse Emitter and Brett Naucke's New Split Is a Dose of Digitalist Bliss

'Mugen Vol. 9' is the drifting sound of two synth composers spacing out.
Album cover of 'Mugen Vol. 9: Pulse Emitter/Brett Naucke'

Chicago label Hausu Mountain's Mugen series of releases offers a special sort of curatorial sorcery. The main slate of their tapes and LPs has already demonstrated their commitment to boundary-pushing electronics. Their releases jump from creeping noise rock to warped synth-pop to other abstract beat-making—one of their most recent cassettes roped in a few black metal screeches for good measure. It's a catalog that's demonstrative of the wonderful disjunct that this world can provide, but to my ears, Mugen's a little more harmonious.

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Over the last four years they've used the series to pair up similarly minded artists for split cassettes of "solo sessions recorded live…no overdubs." There's something about the series—whether its label heads Max Allison and Doug Kaplan's curatorial sensibilities or the fact that all of these were recorded in one go—that makes even the most anxious moments feel in tune with one another, connected and melodious despite the fact that they're made by very different artists.

Tomorrow, February 24, Hausu Mountain will release Mugen Vol. 9, this time culled from solo sessions by the prolific Portland composer Pulse Emitter and the Chicago experimentalist Brett Naucke. Each have used their solo work to explore the interstellar realms of synthesis, but for their Mugen pieces each chose to go a little more earthbound. Pulse Emitter's three pieces move with the glassine energy of Hiroshi Yoshimura's best works, while Naucke's single 15 minute piece is more twitchy and anxious, with watery patches around percussive sequences that feel as slick and solid as mossy gravel. Both pieces feel concrete, weighty, and simple, the sort of thing you might play when you feel like you're floating away.

It's one of the best in the Mugen series and you can listen to it right here, or pre-order over at the Hausu Mountain site. While you're at it check the rest of the Mugen series, you might find a new favorite (or two).

Chicago label Hausu Mountain's Mugen series of releases offers a special sort of curatorial sorcery. The main slate of their tapes and LPs has already demonstrated their commitment to boundary-pushing electronics. Their releases jump from creeping noise rock to warped synth-pop to other abstract beat-making—one of their most recent cassettes roped in a few black metal screeches for good measure. It's a catalog that's demonstrative of the wonderful disjunct that this world can provide, but to my ears, Mugen's a little more harmonious.

Over the last four years they've used the series to pair up similarly minded artists for split cassettes of "solo sessions recorded live...no overdubs." There's something about the series—whether its label heads Max Allison and Doug Kaplan's curatorial sensibilities or the fact that all of these were recorded in one go—that makes even the most anxious moments feel in tune with one another, connected and melodious despite the fact that they're made by very different artists.

Tomorrow, February 24, Hausu Mountain will release Mugen Vol. 9, this time culled from solo sessions by the prolific Portland composer Pulse Emitter and the Chicago experimentalist Brett Naucke. Each have used their solo work to explore the interstellar realms of synthesis, but for their Mugen pieces each chose to go a little more earthbound. Pulse Emitter's three pieces move with the glassine energy of Hiroshi Yoshimura's best works, while Naucke's single 15 minute piece is more twitchy and anxious, with watery patches around percussive sequences that feel as slick and solid as mossy gravel. Both pieces feel concrete, weighty, and simple, the sort of thing you might play when you feel like you're floating away.

It's one of the best in the Mugen series and you can listen to it right here, or pre-order over at the Hausu Mountain site. While you're at it check the rest of the Mugen series, you might find a new favorite (or two).