The Answer Is In The Beat

AshTreJinkins: Zone of the Enders tape (New Los Angeles, 2016)

April 24, 2016 at 8:58 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I thought this was going to be a cool tape of dusty, dirty lo-fi hip-hop breakbeats. There’s hip-hop on here, it has its beat tape moments, but it’s actually way more than that, way different. There’s lots of slow, knackered Andy Stott-like techno, lots of moments where it feels like sounds are melting off the reel. Then there’s dirty acid techno like “Home Burn”. When it does get to off-time hip-hop, as in “Next Area 1”, it feels like it’s being beamed down from a distant, shining UFO. Then there’s so many tracks that don’t have beats at all, they seem weightless, or tampered with by chemicals and slightly mutating. The longest track, “Breathe[n]”, has harsh distorted ambience and a panned hi-hat ticks in suggesting a beat, but the beat never actually comes, and it just sort of tricks your mind and takes it into a zone it wasn’t expecting. Final track “She is Gonna Be Here Soon” feels like being outside a club that’s playing trendy French house music, and you’re straining your ears to figure out what exciting things might be happening inside. A really creative, unexpected, mind-altering tape. Available on Bandcamp.

Suzi Analogue: Zonez V.1 (Never Normal, 2016)

April 24, 2016 at 8:33 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Suzi Analogue doesn’t release new music too often, but whenever she does it’s always incredibly inventive and high quality. Her newest album isn’t like her song-based R&B/hip-hop releases, it’s more instrumental, but it doesn’t sound like your average beat tape. Most noticeable off the bat is the presence of drum’n’bass on a few tracks, the bright, jumpy kind that sounds like Metalheadz or Reinforced circa 1994, but filtered through modern sampling and just a different perspective on production. The tracks that seem to lean towards R&B are filled with bizarre echoing sounds and beats which seem to bubble up and scatter and not really go in a straight line, but they’re still easy to follow and headnod to. Slow, gothy “Bottled Drizzy Tears” seems to poke fun at the whole sadboy thing without seeming like an obvious parody or joke. “Trak Girl Magic” hints toward DJ Paypal-like juke, especially with the chopped-up vibraphone sample, but somehow the jumpy beat doesn’t really feel as frantic, it almost strangely feels happy hardcore, a tiny bit. The last track “4 Yall” combines the oldschool jungle breaks with fast juke-ish vocal samples and a brief downtempo breakdown. It’s been said before, but Suzi really ought to be far more well-known than she is. Available on her Bandcamp page.

Ytamo: Mi Wo (Someone Good, 2016)

April 24, 2016 at 7:57 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Ytamo is a female solo artist from Japan who has worked with collage/abstract pop artist Oorutaichi. She’s been making music for a while, but this is her first recording available outside of Japan. Her music combines delicate vocals and acoustic instruments (woodwinds, pianos) with clicking electronic beats. It is every bit as sweet and dreamy as you would expect, with light music box melodies and soft atmospheric sounds in the background, but it’s still a bit more abstract and strange than it might seem. The beats have a bit of an 808 kick to them, and sometimes they approach being danceable, but it feels like just an incidental groove. The vocals feel the same way, they drift in and out through the songs rather than being the central focus of them. But that’s not to say that they aren’t important to the songs. The album is playful, sunny, fluttery, curious, shy, and blissful.

Housemeister: Transfer tape (Detroit Underground, 2016)

April 24, 2016 at 7:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Housemeister’s last album OP-1 was made entirely on a tiny old sampler that may as well be a toy. What could’ve been a gimmick actually turned out to be a really fun, creative album. His newest release is a hardware-only album which sounds totally different, it’s more downtempo, reflective IDM. Some of it gets sinister and a bit noisy (“Sternenwind”). Other tracks are like Kraftwerk-y electro, but a bit more roughed-up and growly (“We Are Data”). “Multiversum” is kind of both, but prettier. Definitely not what I expected after his last album, but it looks like all his albums are different and leaps in other directions. Quite impressive, this.

v/a: Tessellations (Houndstooth, 2016)

April 19, 2016 at 6:20 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The ever-intriguing Houndstooth label celebrates its 50th release with a compilation featuring new music from all of its artists so far. The first disc seems to be geared toward the label’s more abstract, downtempo, and vocal-driven side. Snow Ghosts and Soft As Snow (no relation, although Snow Ghosts is related to Throwing Snow, who also make an appearance) have the most dramatic vocal tracks, while Guy Andrews’ track is stunning, dark, and cinematic. Just steer clear of the 18+ track because, well, it’s really not good. The second disc is far more dancey, starting with a Detroit-esque track from House of Black Lanterns (who formerly recorded industrial dubstep on Ninja Tune as King Cannibal). The Akkord track is dark, evil jungle, and it’s amazing. Special Request’s track is faster darkside jungle; it’s not quite as in-your-face but it’s just as much of a headrush. The rest of the tracks are more straightforward techno, and they’re pretty decent. _Unsubscribe_ is an awesome band name (it’s actually a project of U.K. techno/electro veteran Dave Clarke), and their track is fast and frantic. The comp ends with a slower, dirty acid track from Marquis Hawkes, who uses the “I can’t stop” sample Moby sampled two decades ago for the track “Why Can’t It Stop?” released under the name Lopez.

MM Studio: Good Star Dubs (Albumlabel, 2016)

April 19, 2016 at 5:07 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Recorded in Berlin in 2007 but unreleased until now, this is a dubwise collaboration between Ann Arbor’s Tadd Mullinix (Dabrye, JTC, SK-1, etc.) and Bus member Daniel Meteo (who also runs Shitkatapult and Albumlabel). This is tripped-out digital dub modeled after ’80s dancehall rhythms and given wacky Mad Professor-like delay effects. Wicked basslines which expand and burst in a storm of echo, all set to metronomic rhythms programmed on acid house drum machines. Two of the tracks on here are presented in alternate mixes, and all of these tracks seem to draw from the same sound palette, so it doesn’t stray too much from its sound. I have no complaints about that, though; this is a type of music I can listen to for hours on end and not get sick of. “Digidubx” is 16 minutes long and I wouldn’t have a problem if it took up the entire album. The briefest track, “Other Dub Mix II”, sticks in a 4/4 beat and comes a little closer to the dub-techno of Basic Channel, but the halftime snare keeps it in the dub realm. “Dub 100” is faster and has some heavily vocodered vocals. A couple tracks near the end throw in some scratchy guitar licks. Sweet album, definitely worth the decade-long wait it took for these tracks to finally see release.