data.index	01:39
data.simplex	01:02
data.duplex	00:53
data.triplex	01:45
data.multiplex	01:50
data.complex	00:49
data.hypercomplex	01:20
data.googolplex	00:51
data.microhelix	03:13
data.superhelix	02:28
data.minimax	03:09
data.syntax	04:17
data.telex	01:06
data.flex	02:28
data.reflex	04:16
data.convex	01:29
data.vertex	02:06
data.vortex	05:49
data.matrix	10:01
data.adaplex	05:00

dataplex is the much-anticipated new release from leading japanese electronic composer ryoji ikeda. since the mid 1990s, ikeda has pioneered a radical and highly influential minimalist approach in the worlds of electronic and contemporary music. his seventh solo album and the first musical composition in the datamatics series - a new body of work across various media that uses data as both its material and its theme - dataplex presents a significant and stunning progression in ikeda's career.

aside from demonstrating ikeda's unrivalled standards of technical precision, minute sound construction and engineering, the album also introduces an extraordinary and fascinating overall structure.

the first eight tracks of dataplex consist mostly of high-frequency raw data. their structures are located clearly outside the cosmos of music. instead, these linear tracks seem to be source code transformed into an audible medium; a constant stream of data, they represent the basic material of the album.

the following pieces become longer, increasingly complex and distinctly inter-related, before the rhythmic structure itself metamorphoses. rhythms and tones are refracted progressively, until, with track 18, data.vortex, ikeda opens up an apparently infinite acoustic space with an expansive piece that contrasts dramatically with all that precedes it.

and following this caesura the album almost ends in the way it started, sinking back into the data flow. the last track (data.adaplex) contains specific waveform data that subtly reveals the tolerances involved in processing digital signals. it will cause some cd players to experience unpredictable playback errors; this will not damage equipment in any way.

through meticulous attention to detail and the most minimal of gestures, ikeda succeeds in expanding and enhancing his sound design to reveal a new universe to the listener. dataplex opens up avenues of pure musical abstraction whilst simultaneously embracing complex, unique and elegant individual composition.

in its entirety, dataplex remains inscrutable; a mystery whose secrets require individual investigation and discovery. its defiance of appropriate definition, description or comparison, ultimately underpins the pioneering nature of this long-awaited release.

datamatics

dataplex is the first musical composition in the datamatics series, a new body of works by ryoji ikeda that explores the aesthetic potentials of data by using data itself - from its transparency to its materiality, from its ultra-speed to hyper-diffusion. the project derives the hidden constants of data-ness from the vast data ocean that ranges from DNA and the everyday world to the universe and pure mathematics.

compact disc

http://www.ryojiikeda.com

The Wire, Issue 265, March 2006:

This is high-concept, high-definition and high-quality audio manipulation from minimalist master Ryoji Ikeda. The high concept being 'data' - the unremitting flow of zeros and ones that surrounds our modern lives like an invisible sandstorm; in Dataplex, Ikeda sets out to bend this mercurial phenomenon to his meticulous will.

The CD opens with eight tracks of abstract digital noise. These bristling, wayward streams of raw data are far from easy listening; at one point - and this is true - they had the IT manager in the office next door to mine rushing in to ask if something had gone wrong with his server. But, it transpires, they are the artist's palette, a rich trove of source material. And, as the rest of Dataplex progresses, Ikeda gradually gets to work on it - with extreme economy movement, he coaxes fluid rhythms and healing patterns into being, somehow taming those jagged, high-frequency signal peaks and transforming them into the digital equivalent of a fine, needlejet head massage.

And crucially, he devotes loving attention to the bottom reaches of the mix as well - as soon as track nine ("Data.Microhelix'') kicks in, casting aside a blur of mains hum, it's clear that, far from being simply an exercise in theoretical abstraction, Dataplex in fact supplies generous closes of low-end stimulation - immaculate sonic surgery this may be, but it's also funky as all hell. The record progresses with inexorable logic, gradually increasing in complexity - but it never stops eliciting a physical response alongside an intellectual one. For evidence, listen to the perfect timing with which the muted flutter of "Data.Minimax" makes way for the sudden, peremptory sub-bass of "Data.Syntax". As an example of sheer less-is-more impact, it's breathtaking.

Towards the end of the record, Ikeda relaxes the bpm count to deliver the lazy, cybernetic dub pulse of "Data.Vertex", and then follows it with the album's emotional heart: "Data.Vortex", a magisterial pool of brushed steel stasis surrounded by slowly orbiting shards of sound. The track gradually thickens and quickens, describing an implacable luminous ascent to arrive at a celebratory climax which utterly redeems the music's inhuman source material. It's flawless, assured and genuinely thrilling - as is Dataplex as a whole.