RECORDED: Reviews of Ian Nagoski's "Effortless Battle"

"a weighty mass of, for want of a more perspicacious term, drones which fluctuate subtly, sounding out angel-sigh tones that shiver with mysterious energy, like a bank of humming harmoniums heard through the never-ending cycle of an electric fan. [...] Effortless Battle shifts through several distinct zones. An opening gambit posits a sweeping electronic tone that phases in increasing speed, before it is subsumed under the weight of Nagoski’s dense processing hum. As the piece gathers momentum it fires off rounds of warm electronics that are imbued with an emotional depth that transcends the sterility of so many similar productions. The ace up Nagoski’s sleeve may well be his ability to create works that are rich in formal qualities, yet which never obfuscate emotional content. " -Jon Dale, Dusted

"Effortless Battle begins with the disc's thirty-one minute title track, the soundtrack to a Catherine Pancake film of the same name. It begins with a very subdued, but dense fluttering, but nearly five minutes in, Nagoski utilizes a buzz which pans from left to right so vigorously that its circular motion seems almost baroque (by Nagoski's standards, of course). Slowly, though, a more constant tone takes control, a sound that makes up the majority of the rest of the track. Vaporous sounds slowly emerge from below, and the music swells in intensity. What follows is a gelatinous ebb and flow of tones, a woven ribbon of sound in constant, but subtle, movement. For upwards of twenty minutes, 'Effortless Battle' twists and turns ever so slightly, shifting the focus smoothly from one thread of sound to another. As the end of the track nears, the music becomes a cloudy haze that only relents as the end of the track nears and a more placid tone returns, one with the hidden vestiges of a melody of which only hints can be heard through the rest of the viscous mass. 'Ripped Steam Hinterland,' the CD's second track, is a product of Daniel Conrad's Wild Wave. Conrad, usually known as a purveyor of light-based visual art, created the Wild Wave by building tone generators which, when activated, set the instruments' metal plates to vibrating. Fifteen minutes long, the track slowly swells from near silence to an insistent but unobtrusive, thickly layered, hum. Almost completely static at first listen, it's easily comparable to the surprisingly ornate ambient sounds created by appliances or transformers. What sounds like a constant hum contains, like an anthill, a great deal of unseen activity, and close listening reveals undulations and ghostly vibrations that might otherwise go unnoticed. There's a whole world of organic warmth, buzzing activity, and ethereal beauty in Effortless Battle, one must simply be willing to immerse themselves deep enough into the music to experience it fully. Those who do will be well rewarded. " -Adam Stohm, fakejazz

"A truly amazing ride through plains of electrified drift and squirm. Creeping along at an incremental pace, this really gives you plenty of time to soak in the scenery. Its fantastic how something so slow can make an hour pass so quickly." -Campbell Keale, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon

"When track 1 gets up there to full volume (around the 10-minute mark) it's pretty powerful. Not unlike Kevin Drumm's Lurches, though a slightly softer and more orchestral texture of death-drone. I have a feeling this would be good really really loud, louder than I'll probably ever be able to play it in this apartment." -Bobby Brown, Blastitude

"Nagoski coaxes a pretty amazing set of timbral drones that slowly progress over the two extended pieces on Effortless Battle, music that comprised the soundtrack to a video by Catherine Pancake. [...] Nagoski pushes the subtle overtones to steadily make their presence known and eventually replace the lower frequencies with glistening patterns of ever-shifting vibrato." -Jim Haynes, Aquarius Records