San Diego-based modern music-makers Aspects of Physics are not, as the name might (to some) imply, fixated on considerations of said field of science. No. “Physics” here refers to the SD group of seven years (fore)running, formed in 1993, that exhibited a distinct unhurried minimalism, blending organic rock tropes and electronic elements in a slew of slow-cooked stews.
Comparisons to storied Krautrock acts were inevitably drawn but Physics was its own beast, at once loud and subtle, lumbering on to the new millennium with both membership modifications — e.g., the still-mourned 1994 demise of sensitive soul Denver Lucas — and constants. (Rob Crow [Pinback, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours, Thingy, Heavy Vegetable et al.] is said to have never really been officially enlisted, but when he consistently showed up guitar-in-hand to make valued contributions at his Physics pals’ gatherings, he became an assumed, enduring part of the equation.)
MIF3 is the final album in a 3-part series by Aspects of Physics — spanning 5 years, 7 members, and countless pieces of individual audio bits and bytes painstakingly pieced together to form the cohesive Marginalized Information Forms series. Whereas part one in the series represented the marriage of electronic and rock sensibilities and part two focused more on their electronic leanings, part three shifts towards the more organic live-rock-band side of the equation. Children of the post-rock age, MIF3 returns Aspects of Physics back to their roots of amp stacks, drum kits, and crowded rock clubs. Taken as a whole, the MIF series runs the gamut from the bleeps and bloops of synths and computers to the distortion and dynamics of guitars and the human condition. For fans of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Battles, Can, Four Tet, Fridge, Kraftwerk, Mogwai, Physics, Slint, Squarepusher, Stockhausen, Tortoise, etc.
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