Both a celebration of the label's 25th year and the 25th compilation it has released, Touch 25 in many ways perfectly sums up where the label currently is, from
Jon Wozencroft's vivid photography and wry liner notes to the downright amazing contributor's list -- any compilation featuring
Fennesz,
Rafael Toral,
Pan Sonic,
Oren Ambarchi and
Ryoji Ikeda, to name only five, is much more likely to be a success than failure. And so it proves, as the comp touches on the many forms of experimental music, acoustic and electronic, that has been the label's bread and butter over the years. Many pieces are based in environmental recordings, including the opening "Gotland" by
B.J. Nilsen, a brief but compelling cycling of wind and wave from an isolated coastline, the howling wolves of
Biosphere's "Spring Fever" and both of
Chris Watson's selections ("Conversations" capturing what he describes as "a dredger roll(ing) drunkenly up the River Clyde"). Most are more conventional studio recordings, but only in terms of means of production rather than end result.
Ambarchi's downward-spiral "Moving Violation" is both a fascinating minimal guitar piece and a subtle take on glitch electronics, while
Pan Sonic's harsh-as-heck but perfectly catchy "Slovakian Rauta" is the best industrial/not-industrial song in a while.
Fennesz's "Tree" is one of his calmest pieces -- and even more eye-opening, is mostly acoustic guitar -- and
Johan Johannsson's "Tu Non Mi Perderai Mai," the longest track on the compilation, is a gripping, haunting performance on organ, ring modulator, and violincello that is a new masterpiece of dark ambience. Nods should go to
Mark Van Hoen's piano-led "Put My Trust in You" and
Philip Jeck's "Hindquarters" as well. Seven fragmentary, uncredited pieces act as transitions between the main selections, providing gentle shading or startling diversions (such as "Safety Short," with a BBC news reader's voice briskly commenting on political arrests). ~ Ned Raggett