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Chigliak
[Merck]
The first archaeologic excavations revealing the dub-like fossils of Adam Johnson date back to 2001. Back then, under the moniker of AJ Hunter or Cisko, he signed some club alternatives to the mutant zouk of his fellow-countryman Mr Projectile, on the label Parotic Music. Was it a postcard of "Minneapolis" and its cultural life we didn't know much about? Probably, but above all, it was the industrial breath of Berlin and the nonchalence of Cologne which then seemed to impress the artists of this American town. The magnificent Jernt, the gem of a compilation, "Expertise" on Prospect, definitely stole the show. Another track on On Records, followed by two tries on "Mas Confusion", let us think Adam was condemned to dispersion. Was he going to finally create a complete album, worthy of the hints he scattered in different compilations? The answer is called "Chigliak" and its sixteen panoramas. It's a human being's soundtrack which places his first electronic emotions when as a kid he licked a 9 Volt battery's poles to get an agreable electrocution. So that's "Chigliak", some nice ambient, almost "new-age" bands, cut with electric shocks under the name of "murderous side drums" and the likes, just to destroy the illusion of well-being that could have emanated from this high tech assemblage. Though Adam sometimes reminds us of Autechre, he's still less opaque and more appealing than the emblematic electronica geeks.
Anthony Augendre |
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