No UFO’s – MPC Tracks Vol. II

Konrad Jandavs has been operating his No UFO’s guise and Nice Up International imprint from 2010, but has largely remained on the fringe since No UFO’s relatively “breakout” album Soft Coast. Originally issued on cassette via NU in 2010 before being issued on wax by Spectrum Spools the next year, Soft Coast came out of nowhere as a tasteful reprise of Berlin-stock Krautrock. Now four years later, Jandavs is still plotting away at his two main projects, resurfacing here with a bizarre little tape designed (as the tape’s insert suggests) “strictly for the heads” and to be used “at the highest comfortable volume.”

Broken down into nine tracks noted only by the respective BPM (although, the digital edition comes with actual song titles attributed to each track), Jandavs deploys his MPC for an amorphous din of thoroughly distant experiments involving vinyl, tape, and “FX.” Some pieces resemble a heaving crawl of near industrial ambiance, as though playing back a field recording of a stroll through abandoned factories or nuclear power plants. Gurgles of nondescript activity appear out of the shadows while passages of blank sound trail down the dim corridor. On the eloquently titled “N.U. All-The-Way-Live At Kinda Cloudy February 2013 (Megamix)”, barely present buzzes and hums stand in for overarching melody and elevated effects, making this an exercise of bleakly kosmische minimalism. This truly is “music for the heads,” fitting in with atmospheric enthusiasts Jacob Kirkegaard or Thomas Köner. Pick up MPC Tracks Vol. II on cassette now via Nice Up directly or digitally via Midheaven.