Cornel Wilczek has a background in design, and he is responsible for the beautiful cover to the Qua album as well as the music. This is, with some misgivings, one of the most exciting local releases I’ve heard since the Pretty Boy Crossover album. Qua’s music belongs firmly in the growing borderland between analogue and digital, using acoustic instruments and found sounds but treating them with granular synthesis techniques and glitchy cut-ups, and sitting them alongside electronic sounds. Qua is to some extent following in the footsteps of overseas groups like Dntel, Kim Hiorthøy, Matmos, Savath + Savalas or even Christian Fennesz; and one does get the sense of the ghost of Mouse on Mars’ squelchy organs overly infecting some of these tracks. Nevertheless, Qua’s music is all his own, in the way the disparate elements are brought together. Some of the sounds are truly delicious – strumming acoustic guitar, crunchy textures… Occasionally something enters that’s just a bit jarring – like the slide guitars at the beginning of “Duet for Guitar and Fridge”, or the use of crappy drum machines. “800x600” transforms from an unpromising drum-machinic beginning into a very satisfying distorted clatter. The crackly “Sys_Environment” is completely spot-on, as is the evocative “The Air Is Thin in Here”. With forgetabout, Qua has brought a new level of craftsmanship to Australian electronica. - Cyclic Defrost
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