Freiband & Machinefabriek, Oahu (CD)

Oahu features two Dutch electronic musicians collaborating to process a lap steel recording. Freiband is Frans de Waard of Kapotte Musiek and Beequeen, while Rutger Zuydervelt seemed incredibly prolific in 2008 (when Oahu came out) making music as Machinefabriek. The music here is typical of their work—it floats slowly with drones and electronic glitches intersecting to create something of a narrative flow. There are occasionally harsh sounds, but it's mostly beautiful. The acoustic recording rarely turns up recognizably in the remixes, so its rare appearances are a jarring break from sounds that are generally far detached from the original source. The sound quality is generally clean without any purposeful use of digital artifact, and the Digipak looks nice, with some gently doctored nature photos.