Madalyn Merkey - 2010 - Please Don't Keep Me Waiting

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

This EP length platter of engroovied, hissing analog electronics are as if Moog pioneers Perrey and Kingsley had been down with Brian Eno oblique strategies instead of betraying their background in showtunes with tracks like "Baroque Hoedown." The music seems to exist just outside of our dimension, with the prominent tape hiss subtly mangling the music and practically serving as another instrument.  The sound is minimalist, yet impressionistic and of a decidedly different percolating flavor than the typical experiental electronic cassette.

The two sides both clock in a ten minutes and thirty seconds, as if Merkey is working under the clock.  The first half is a gently pulsing Berlin sequence, being forced and warped out of shape by the whims of a mad scientist.  It's almost like a snippet of a Boards of Canada track getting disintigration looped.  Side B is like a tiny tone generator from the 60's, wishing to be synth pop, but in fact busily shorting out along side its primordial rhythm machine and ghostly, phasing vocals.

Coming all the way back from 2010 spans several eternities in the piledriving, bandcamp present.  This means a lot of music gets unduly buried, and this is a winner for the sonic travelers looking for a jaunt through the "Logan's Run" filtered retro future.