The Details: Eleh, Location Momentum (Touch, 2010)
A Quick Review: So we saw this sound installation the other day, one that featured nothing but a blinking light bulb and varying frequencies of ambient noise. As you might imagine, it made us want to scream “bullshit!” and smash the room’s sole light source at first. But then something happened a few minutes in–something strange. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, we suddenly felt like a dog who’d been blasted with a bunch of ultrasonic whistles.
If you listen to it on a decent stereo, Eleh’s first proper CD has the same effect: an overwhelming sense of being duped by pretentious drivel (“What? You don’t get it? Of course you don’t.”) eventually gives way to something transcendent and intangible. It did for us at least. And no, we weren’t high. Although that certainly wouldn’t hurt here. After all, you might just think it sounds like a hearing test with a couple subtle, steam-pressed beats and alarm clock samples.