Ital
Hive Mind
Release Date: Feb 13, 2012
Genre(s): Electronic, Club/Dance
Record label: Planet Mu
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Album Review: Hive Mind by Ital
Great, Based on 9 Critics
Based on rating 81%%
ItalHive Mind[Planet Mu; 2012]By Will Ryan; February 24, 2012Purchase at: Insound (Vinyl) | Amazon (MP3 & CD) | iTunes | MOGTweetDaniel Martin-McCormick's background is work within intensive genres with a tendency to overwhelm. Most recognizable with his mutant disco outfit Mi Ami and DC millennial post-hardcore group Black Eyes, McCormick's house music moniker, Ital, arrived last year with a suite of 12"s on the newly-christened 100% Silk. McCormick's past work casts a potentially interesting light on his Ital project.
Based on rating 4.0/5
Daniel Martin-McCormick's already established himself as a ubiquitous presence on the experimental music scene. From his spot in defunct DC hardcore band Black Eyes, throaty disco-punkers Mi Ami or with the weirdo glam of Sex Worker, Martin-McCormick's seemingly already made a virtual tour of musical niches, nooks and crannies. Beginning last year though, Martin-McCormick began releasing long, unspooling FX-laden house as Ital.
Based on rating 8/10
Of late, it seems that the retro stylings which have overshadowed so much of the past ten years’ musical output have blossomed uncontrollably into full-on idolatry. Artists have always drawn influence from what came before them and what was happening around them, but there’s something creepy about some of the newer strains of retronica that’s seeping out into the market: it’s like walking in to find your younger sister draped in your mother’s old clothes, gaudy lipstick and outrageous eye-liner daubed and smeared all over a pretty young face. Faded glamour and out of date glitz collide horrifically with the bright new hopes of new music.
Based on rating 8.0/10
Daniel Martin-McCormick is unconcerned with neatness. Throughout his work with Mi Ami, Sex Worker, and Black Eyes, and now as Ital, his music betrays an intentional, fuck-all messiness he uses to explore the carnal and sinister. Ital is Martin-McCormick's house-music project, or more accurately, the project in which he jumbles up house signifiers until they represent something sloppy and shaggy.
Based on rating 3.5/5
Apparently, it doesn’t matter if you love him. At least that’s what I’m told, incessantly, as I begin listening to Ital’s new record Hive Mind, released on Planet Mu. The fractured reiteration of the sentiment (sampled from Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”) gestures a striking nod toward Chicago and its seasoned footwork/juke scene, almost bordering on appropriation.
Based on rating 5.5/10
Not much has changed in Daniel Martin-McCormick's approach to music with his latest project Ital. Like his past work, from the noisy free-punk of Black Eyes to the post-PiL jamming of Mi Ami, Hive Mind is loose, experimental and low-budget (much of it was put together via Audacity). This time around the style of choice, though, is dance-music or some loose techno cousin of it, at least.
Opinion: Excellent
The point of music, perhaps, is that genres matter little, if any. Before, you could get away with calling music electronic, but now there has to be a specific, neat and tidy label for every sound under the sun. Or does there? As Ital, Daniel Martin-McCormick is unconcerned with the tidiness of labels and more into the dynamics behind his own, creative blend of music.
Opinion: Very Good
Doesn't Matter (If You Love Him)" has garnered much chatter over the Internet, alas not the type worth advertising. The opening track from Ital's debut EP, Hive Mind, "Doesn't Matter (If You Love Him)," a noise manifesto defined by a six-word sample repeated, chopped and spun over a popping drum beat, has been met with waves of vitriol and revulsion, but never indifference. Abducting listeners from comfort zones within its first eight minutes, Hive Mind settles into a groove as "Floridian Void" and "First Wave" utilize minimal sequenced beats, crafting Giorgio Moroder-ian valleys and peaks while allowing jagged and dynamic rhythms to emerge.
Opinion: Very Good
Snaking its way around gently pastoral synth textures and the rattling of digi-bongo rolls in the opening to 'Israel' is a monologue. It's difficult to pick out coherent sentences - lashings of reverb and a fuggy, indistinct mix suggest that clarity isn't of the utmost concern here - but it gradually becomes apparent that we're hearing some kind of speech or sermon. The speaker is impassioned and authoritative; at one point, an opportune lull in the music reveals the phrase, "the internet has become this place for evil.