Sound artisan Novak’s been making quite a splash this past year or two in and about the Seattle vacuum. In fact, the Pacific Northwest’s been gesticulating so vibrantly, theirs is installation art with a vengeance: we’re not talking ear canal assault per se, but Novak, his label and their roster of artists are, if anything, shaking the foundations. Quietly so, though; a good portion of the music released across the Dragon’s Eye bandwidth investigates the microplasma of sound, the ensuing “melee” echoes of determined folks proceeding apace in the urban moderne surrounding the Space Needle.

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A Rose by any other name surely won’t sound as sweet, evidenced further by Sadeghi’s atomizing contribution to the label’s Paper com, “Reunion,” which finds the composer’s strangulated noise loops spiralling ever upward in angelic, concentric circles. He’s in fine form here, as are fellow label entrees Wyndel Hunt (EKG beeps lost in bell trills), Yann Novak (low-key hushush ancient ambience), Tyler Potts (superstring loops cascading over Photoshopped waterfalls), Heavy Lids (crippled bloops dripping amongst Minamo-esque un-guitars) and Ear Venom, who finish the collection off with “Smasher & the Harar Horse,” forcefeeding enough “medieval” scrim and forestral ambulatory distortion to soundtrack an old Sam Raimi zombie pic. Soft (and stealthly) come the Dragons, indeed.
– Darren Bergstein