- Electronic music celebrating the joys and conveniences of contemporary urban life is rare - we're not about to hear a grime rendition of Petula Clark's 'Downtown' anytime soon. Pleasant recordings of the domestic realm are, not surprisingly, more commonplace. When one is sat at home, bored, with computer and microphone close to hand, it is both tempting and easy to try and make music from your immediate surroundings.
'Scattered Practices' is the latest release from New York native and Microcosm Music founder Ezekiel Honig. Taking its cue from French philosopher Michel de Certeau’s 'The Practice of Everyday Life', a 1974 text which details how individuals 'transform and thereby personalize elements of mass culture—rituals, utilitarian objects, language, street plans etc.', Honig incorporates recordings of household objects and life outside his bedroom walls into his understated ambient compositions. The most immediate antecedent to this project is Rob Ellis' 'Music for the Home', a two-volume set of pieces involving domestic sounds, electronics and simple keyboard compositions. Also brought to mind is Herbert's 'Around the House', involving similar source material but set to a house music framework. 'Scattered Practices' sits somewhere between the two, with Honig creating a backdrop of pretty, processed clatter from recorded objects over which he adds simple keyboard patterns and cushioned glitch beats.
Opener 'Going Sailing Refrain 1' acts as a formless introduction before 'Concrete and Plastic' establishes the vocabulary in use throughout the album. Against a background of tinkered domestic sounds (cutlery/fumbled dice/rattled computer keys?) and external street noise (muffled voices, strained traffic, footsteps) a regular tempo is softly tapped out and faded keyboard melodies are lazily unfurled. Tones change, dark pads rumble into the picture, conflicting lines of musique concret dance left to right and rhythms subtly alter, but the tempo remains constant (somnambulant) and there are no surprises. 'Going Sailing Refrain 2' and '3', a single piece, is for some reason spread over two tracks, and together barely exceeds three minutes. 'Books on Tape' slumps by in sleepy 4/4 alongside a prominent vocal tic and a subway screech with all edge removed. 'Fractures and Fissures' parts 1 and 2 (again two tracks) dispenses with rhythm and produces the albums highlight(s): an indistinct aqueous drone aided by chirping snatches of guitar and dying synth pads.
There is plenty of fine detail which warrants close listening (only possible on headphones), however the sounds on offer throughout are limited and each piece too monotonous to hold interest for long. The connection to de Certeau is tenuous, with field recording in today's electronica commonplace and blase. Furthermore, the restriction to using only personal objects, or 'personalized' external sounds, is indulgent, particularly when compared with the politicized sampling of Herbert or Matmos. 'Scattered Practices' drifts by effortlessly and demands little, and is easily forgotten.