The Answer Is In The Beat

v/a: Gradients Volume 2 3xLP (Astrophonica, 2018)

January 27, 2019 at 1:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

More ~160-BPM hybrid bass futurism from Fracture & Neptune’s label. The duo throw Bollywood into the jungle-garage mix with their “Chal Dub”. Teklife’s Taso also teams up with Fracture, combining US and UK future bass styles. BSN Posse’s track is relatively mellow, but then there’s the ferocious bass conquering of Moresounds’ “Shut Up”. FaltyDL’s “A Day at the Races” is one of the more faithful hardcore jungle tracks here. Proc Fiskal’s “Soundwise” demonstrates that his take on jungle is equally bizarre and unconventional as his vision of grime. Dream Continuum (Om Unit and Machinedrum) make an unexpected, welcome return, and OnHell & Sigrah’s “On Sight” storms out of nowhere and ends up being one of the best tracks on the comp. Sully’s “Qualia” shuts everything down with an overload of both intelligence and emotion.

The Higher: The Core 12″ EP (XL, 2018)

January 27, 2019 at 1:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Shed’s newest alias appears on XL with some of his nuttiest rave deconstructions yet. “The Core” is an extremely difficult track which knocks the beat sideways, yet still ends up being a total anthem. “Stick 3” is more of a hardcore headrush, made all the more manic by stuck-in-the-machine stutters. Two “Submarine” tracks are separated by year, with “’99” being a little darker and tenser, and “’95” actually being the stranger and more complex of the two. Neither particularly sound like the years indicated by the titles, but it’s hard to imagine what year they could’ve come from.

Precipitation: Earth/Sky tape (100% Silk, 2018)

January 27, 2019 at 1:14 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

A different, refreshing take on ambient house. The “Earth” side has two lengthy tracks with fragile, somewhat shivering synths and minimal beats which set it in motion. Super misty, but not heavy and doesn’t soak you to the bone — this is precipitation, not a storm. Following the steady ambient techo vibes, the “Sky” side is strictly beatless, removing the sense of forward motion, but carrying the same feeling out into the stratosphere. You begin to miss the beats after a while, it does make you feel like you’re being taken far away from home.

Catdog & frank angotti is dead: ADHD (IndustrieStandard Records, 2018)

January 27, 2019 at 12:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Catdog’s tracks on this split range from the usual terror-mashcore (“Move Your Feet”) to somewhat subtler experiments like the Bowie-sampling “Unfocused”. “No Ones Going to Like It” is a footwork-gabber hybrid which samples an old Delta 9/Lenny Dee classic. frank angotti is dead starts out with noisy industrial techno but his other tracks are stranger, more abstract breakcore, with “Not Done Yet” being the most collage-like. The music is fun on its own, but the fact that Longmont Potion Castle designed the artwork puts this one over the edge. Available from Bandcamp (free DL).

Tomat Petrella: Kepler (!K7, 2018)

January 26, 2019 at 2:18 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Davide Tomat and Gianluca Petrella reach for the stars on this magnificent collaboration. Though partially coming from a jazz background, this is closer to advanced, haunting sound design, with Petrella’s trombone inventively weaved throughout Tomat’s wave-like textures and sporadic yet hard-hitting beats. “Proxima Centauri B” starts out somewhat like Lee Gamble’s inverted jungle flashbacks, never arriving at beats and clearing the way for solemn trombone playing. “Trappist 1 E” is more fractured and turbulent, recalling Roly Porter or the Haxan Cloak, harshly sputtering but briefly pausing for breath and ending up much calmer and resolved. “Hd 40307 G” is riddled with crackling which will make you think something’s wrong with the speakers. “Gliese 667 CC” is filled with doomy, semi-industrial beats. “Tau Ceti E” has sporadic clusters of beats (Second Woman-style) with the trombone gradually peering out over them. “Kepler 186 F” is a 10-minute epic which grows slow, trudging beats and phasing effects, to disorienting yet fascinating effect. Kepler is a truly original album which makes you reconsider the idea of space music.

Magela Herrera: Explicaciones (Brontosaurus Records, 2019)

January 25, 2019 at 9:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Magela Herrera is a Cuban composer/flautist based in Miami, and her first solo album is an absolute knockout. Her arrangements are complex and dynamic, yet it never feels like she’s stuffing too many notes onto the page. It all goes down easily, but not blandly smooth. She seamlessly blends Afro-Cuban, European jazz (she lived in Norway for a while) and fusion styles, and while all the songs are different, it’s all recognizable as her style. Likewise, the tunes are a mix of original compositions, childhood favorites, and standards, all of which fit together perfectly. She also sings on a few occasions, and her voice is just as stunning and gorgeous as her flute playing. “Danzon Para Papa” is the most traditional-sounding Cuban tune and there’s also a rendition of “Besame Mucho”. Cheers all around.

Kittin: Cosmos LP (Dark Entries, 2018)

January 20, 2019 at 4:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Reverting to her preferred moniker, the artist usually referred to as Miss Kittin steps away from electro, not to mention the surface of this planet, on this album of outer-space ruminations. The whole album sounds like it was made on a satellite floating thousands of miles away from Earth, with Kittin staring at the pale blue dot and picking apart the very fabric of its existence. Much of it is weightless space ballads, but there’s also the crash-zap IDM of “Question Everything”, and other tracks have more aggressive yet forcefully rigid beats. Some of the lyrics are minimal, just reciting names (“Atoms” is self-explanatory, “Multiverse” is a recitation of stars, etc.), but even that seems like a powerful enough declaration of existence. And then “Last Day on Earth” asks “what you gonna do on your last day?” over soft-jungle synths, breaking from the harsh, factory-like clanging. The album ends with a song called “Utopia”, where Kittin laments “I don’t want to leave that place”, assuredly meaning her distant part of the universe. This album has far more in common with the scientific explorations of Dopplereffekt, Der Zyklus, and related projects than the trendy, club-geared electroclash most people probably still associate Kittin with, and it’s a powerful, magnificent work.