Israel Martinez – The Minutes

Comprised of field recordings and samples gathered by Martinez in Mexico and looped, arranged and mutated into a series of ambient reflections on space, motion and time, The Minutes is a rich and rewarding album by the minimalist standards of the noise genre.

It has structure, leant by Martinez's occasional intrusions into the Mexican miasma of footsteps, overheard conversation, creaking doors, and cars passing by with delicate synth washes and pulsing electronic tones. The effect created varies in tone and warmth, alternating between sparse, alienated beatless drones and warm, almost melodic synth patterns.

Fans of abstract noise will find much to like about the album, and even without liner notes, the cadences of the sampled speech and sounds do give a flavour of Mexico. For those who prefer their music with more structure, however, The Minutes will feel, much like most abstract noise art, incredibly bare.