If Markus Popp is misunderstood, he has no one but himself to blame. When your interviews include answers like, "My music is embedded in a very concrete, completely tangible, everyday workflow far less occupied with theoretical notions of debatable authorship and digital discourse," to questions like, "Dude, did you, like, work out the songs beforehand or pretty much put this album together in the studio?" you can expect people to miss where you're coming from.
Two misperceptions about Popp are that he makes ambient music and all his work sounds the same. In the watershed year 1994, the ambient label almost applied, due in part to Oval's composition process at the time. That year, Popp, along with then-collaborators Sebastian Oschatz and Frank Metzger, decided to take copies of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, apply a magic marker to the CD surface, and record and manipulate the ensuing tracking errors. This resulted in a beautiful audio object called Systemische, a record that proved hugely influential in the experimental electronic community. And yes, it was generally placid enough to be categorized alongside Music for Airports.
But I defy anyone to listen to Ovalcommers' first track and think of Brian Eno. It begins with a two-note riff that prudent car alarm manufacturers should consider licensing, and then slides into a massive pit of raging black sound, full of bassed-out distortion and explosions of static. The opening siren continues to wail and actually takes on a pathetic quality as it drowns inside the din; you begin to feel sorry for that annoying little sound, so overwhelming is the clamor surrounding it.
Though every Oval record has a unique flavor, Ovalcommers is the most radical shift yet, one that easily dispels the second misperception. We saw glimmers of this development in 1999 with Szenariodisk, a gorgeous EP (my favorite Oval record next to 94diskont) that found Oval cutting exceptionally detailed sound figurines out of slabs of sonic chaos. At that point, Oval's sources began to acquire a prickly edge, as an increasing amount of information being stuffed through an ever-narrowing pipe had caused the protective coating to fray. Still, on Szenariodisk, controlled, icy beauty was the order of the day. On the full-length follow-up, Ovalprocess, Popp reigned in the discord and experimented with conventional sounds (the album is filled with organ chords), creating a warm, enveloping environment that throughout could still be called "pretty." The adjective seldom applies to Ovalcommers.
On this record, every sound is in constant danger of being shoved into the red. The most common elements-- sampled guitar plucks, an organ-like synth patch laced with static, modem transmissions, assorted drones-- appear and reappear over the course of the record, yet they remain in constant motion. Any complaints I've had recently about the "grid" that rules over time in computer-generated music do not apply here; the patterns of Ovalprocess would take years for me to understand completely. Loops are used as accent, not to drive composition.
Most prominent of these is the thing that set Oval apart initially: the now ubiquitous CD skip. It seems a relief when it first appears on Ovalcommers as Track 1 becomes Track 2 (the idea of Popp naming his pieces now seems silly) and the initial blast slips down to a manageable level. The CD skip has been incorporated into every past record except for Dok (a strange release that now sticks out of the catalog like a sore thumb), and Ovalcommers is no exception. People are tiring of the sound and I can relate. If nothing else, it's puzzling. Why has it stayed around so long, even outside of Oval? Why didn't Christian Marclay's memes multiply in the same way? Despite it all, for me, an Oval record without the trademark skip is like a Built to Spill album sans guitar.
Most of those who've run with the glitch have used it in a minimal context, but Oval is moving in the other direction. This is an album packed with abrasive tones of unimaginable density and uncertain origin. Oval shares with Autechre the ability to craft sounds that defy explanation. The human hearing system simply was not built with this record in mind. It's like trying to graph the emotional intent of a tropical storm. The listener has to fight a million years of evolution just to pay close attention, and when he does, there is no system of classification in place to describe it. It's clear that Oval has left pastures of beauty behind and is ready to ride wild and free in Merzbow country. Calling this album ambient is a joke; with Ovalcommers, Popp brings the noise.
