Num.Lock is the latest producer to share his music via the Aa3 Recordings label and you can check out the confounding EP, entitled ##1, in its entirety above.
Aa3 Recordings was formed by two affiliates of the Stray Landings blog which covers experimental electronic music ranging from Peder Mannerfelt to Mark Fell. The recently founded label puts out similarly unconventional music, Num.Lock being the latest act to be associated with the project.
Operating as a distinctly internet age artist, Num.Lock, aka Theo Darton-Moore, creates tracks from deconstructed YouTube videos. With the possible dilemma of choosing from the wealth of sound sources out there, Num.Lock has decided to utilise the sounds of one video per track. By allowing no other sounds outside of their chosen video, it has forced the project to come up with new ways of generating traditional musical structures such as rhythm.
After this process of limitation, the sound sources which are unearthed are then warped beyond possible recognition. The project is said to be "attempting to explore the limits of the potential to recycle and re-contextualise sounds." The technique brings to mind the work of acts like Oval who experimented with the CD format back in the 90s.
##1 follows on from a release last month by Darton-Moore under the name of Stavrogin on Australian label 3BS. You can find out more about that EP, entitled Lost In Systems, here.
