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------Liquid
Stranger - The Invisible Conquest |
| STYLE |
|
Bass driven
atmospheric chillout. Liquid Stranger creates mostly instrumental
montages with strong rhythmic content - lumbering beats propel
much of the music, the drum tracks taking a live sound approach
although clearly with plenty of digital enhancements to keep
the grooves lively and interesting; and some gutsy dub coloured
bass lines that have no intention of sitting in the background.
In keeping with its reggae roots The Invisible Conquest features
a variety of the genre's trademark sounds - although most
have a new twist, effected, distorted, reframed - brass phrases,
gritty vocal snatches, echoing stabs and percussive flourishes.
There are plenty of ambient corners and freeform introductions
where special effects and unusual sonic juxtapositions create
some evocative moodscapes. The overall effect is one of a
heavy, prowling sound with psychedelic veils and tribal hints. |
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| MOOD |
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The
Invisible Conquest is something of a melting pot, having
the low end guts of a dub bass album and the chilled atmospheres
of psychedelic downtempo. The lively percussion is suggestive
of tribal rhythms at times, yet there is an urban aesthetic
too. Not quite dwelling fully in the crepuscular cityscapes
of some of its genre mates, this CD wanders from concrete
grey shadows to lush exotic colour and even drifts skyward
into the air during some of the lighter interludes. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Presented
in a three panel digipack The Invisible Conquest is fronted
by a rainbow coloured snake emerging from a silhouetted tangle
of black foliage. Green leaf edges bring a little more colour
to this primarily black and white composition that stretches
across to the back cover and reappears in partial form on
the remaining outer panel. Tracks are listed on the back along
with website details. Inside the remaining information is
laid out upon a backdrop of coloured planks with a subtle
overlay that echoes the front cover. Here are credits and
a generous list of thanks. |
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| OVERALL |
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Liquid
Stranger is primarily Swedish Martin Staaf who has also released
sounds under the titles Rhoca and Slugger as well as making
up half of the progressive Necton. As Liquid Stranger he has
previously appeared on a number of Interchill compilations
where the emphasis is on beaty downtempo with a tendency to
blur the boundaries and break the rules. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
If
you've enjoyed Interchill's recent bass explorations in
the form of Ashtech or Subsignals - then this might well
fuel the thirst for more shadowy urban electronic dub -
although Liquid Stranger is inclined to explore the sun
of far away vistas as well as the darkness of the streets. |
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------Kuba
- Through A Lense |
| STYLE |
|
Smooth
chillout instrumentals. Kuba bring exotic flavours, warm synths
and easy beats together to create an optimistic downbeat sound
with a subtle tropical edge. International voices and choirs
float in selected snippets across a sound canvas of peaceful
electronic waves, guitars and various organic samples. Breathy
Indian flutes, sinewy ethnic strings and various global percussives
join environmental sounds and a sprinkling of bright effects
that combine to maintain a blissful sense of gentle heat.
Delicate pianos leads intertwine warbling synthesiser arpeggios
- the odd spoken voice sample wafts through the air as the
music caresses the ear, lulls the mind into reverie. The tone
is one of sunny tranquillity suggestive of warm beaches and
an orange evening glow. |
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| ARTWORK |
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I
have only a part of the artwork with this promo version of
the release - a lush sleeve insert montage thick with orange,
russet and copper hues. Angel wings and an angel statue catch
the eye among a tangled blossoming of curlicues and floral
shapes. Inside text is kept to a minimum - a track list with
times alongside and simple credits. |
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| OVERALL |
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This
is Kuba's second album - follow up to the 2006 release Inside
Out. This time round Laurence Harvey's project appears through
the German ambient downtempo label Chillcode. The sound is
somewhat more refined now with a stronger centre and higher
degree of polish, through A Lense being a consistently positive
listening experience from start to finish. This CD fits perfectly
among the label's high quality back catalogue alongside acts
such as Entheogenic, Human Blue and Matenda. If you're after
something truly soothing and warming in the chillout field
this could be just what the doctor ordered. |
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------Blind
Divine - Desire To Destroy |
| STYLE |
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Hauntingly
beautiful female vocals and trip hop instrumentation. Delicious
electro-organic textures scratch and shimmer in the background
whilst a delicately dark montage of pianos, chimes, guitars
and synths support Paula Catherine Valencia's vocals. Desire
To Destroy has a powerful balance of interesting noises
and effected recordings against layered melodic patterns.
The drum tracks are inventive restless, dreamy downtempo
affairs that frequently shift from the full tonal range
to crunchy muted manipulations - languid, shadowy. Paula's
vocals are laid down in elegant restraint - for the most
part low key, sensual, vulnerable - the perfect counterpoint
to the music. At times, however, this interesting singer
shrugs off the fetters and allows her voice to soar, bringing
a fragile angelic quality to the mix. There spoken passages,
multilayered sections, ethereal vocalising, up-close intimacy
almost whispered. There's a classy range of intensity spread
across the album too - at times thickening into a prowling
gloom, then dissipating into thin airiness, warm washes
or gentle bliss. Beatless piano and vocal arrangements,
touched by attractive strings and textures leave the listener
almost floating. |
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| MOOD |
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Blind
Divine's music has come to inhabit that appealingly dusky
attic world of the imagination where heavy skies, collected
ephemera and romantic painted landscapes are given the timeless
treatment - everything has fresh antique texture and sepia/grey
hues, very modern yet bathed in nostalgia. Possessed of that
same gothic aesthetic that presents broken dolls, dramatic
architecture and old films in a fresh context - Desire To
Destroy manages to bend assorted sounds and words to its own
purpose and vision. |
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| ARTWORK |
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The
band has a dark image that combines diverse motifs and graphic
swirls with photographic content. An aged monochrome portrait
fills an oval vignette on the front cover laid upon an antique
texture that imitates worn edges and cracked spines. This
is digipack that opens into three sections - inside one section
contains lyrics and credits in black lettering on red background
- the next section is given over entirely to one of Daniel
Martin Diaz' artworks - the third carries the disc itself.. |
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| OVERALL |
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Blind
Divine have matured wonderfully since their previous 2005
release Devouring The Beautiful - their crepuscular trip hop
now possessed of a classy grace that lifts this album way
above the crowd. The musical elements have a cinematic quality
that has led to their tracks being used in a number of film
and TV projects. The guitars are still present from earlier
material, but now much reduced - here they form just another
colour in Daniel's rich sound palette. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This
is an album to listen to if you enjoy tasteful electronica
and female vocals - if you're in doubt, try the samples on
the band's
website. I think fans of Delerium's more moody pieces,
Shelly Harland and Falling You will love this music. |
|
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------Various
- Bioluminescence |
| STYLE |
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Chilled
digital dub. The latest compilation from Native State is a
flowing collection of lucid downtempo tracks that have a common
dub thread running through them, however, this is a subtle
connection with many of the tracks leaning close to glitchy
ambient or sparse psychedelic chill. The album is quite minimal
in places with airy pads, passages of sonic turbulence or
echoing tonal touches set against crisp beats that rise and
fall in intensity, often dropping away into insubstantial
flickerings. This is a rhythmic album, yet one where the beats
and sequences are light, fragmenting, restrained - dreamy
and ambient rather than tribal or mechanical. Along with Ultimae
and Aleph-Zero, Native State are exploring the serene realms
of electro-organic soundscapes at their most buoyant, soporific
and floatational. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Bioluminescence
comes in a gorgeously presented jewelcase - fronted by a glowing
jellyfish and ocean elements montage. Hues of purple, indigo,
violet and blue blend photoimagery with lush graphics into
a rich submarine fanstasy that recurs throughout the package.
On the reverse is a tastefully presented tracklist that is
expanded somewhat inside where credits and websites accompany
each entry. The innermost section is a contrasting magenta/violet
colour, once again adorned with undersea assemblages. Generous
thanks can be found here and contact details (thanks for the
mention there guys). |
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| OVERALL |
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Bioluminescence
is Naasko's latest compilation for Native State Records, delivering
a coherent selection of like-minded musicians both new and
established in the genre. Bluetech, Adham Shaikh and Shen
are among the regulars along with krill.minima who have their
own release Nautica out this December. The album maintains
the label's high standard of graceful electronic mood music
- some of these tracks are excellent soundtracks to the imagination,
suggestive of curious lifeforms and peculiar environments.
The label describes the collection as "conjuring light
from the depths - an outstanding collection of hypnotic digi-dub
grooves". Go for this one if you like chillout dub music
stripped down to its sleepiest. |
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------Nathan
Youngblood - Asunder |
| STYLE |
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Asunder
is, for the most part, a cold, moody set of tone zones. The
pieces are strongly environmental - with immense, steady drones
painting vast windswept horizons - sustained and turning so
gradually that the impression is often one of sound almost
drained of musical tone. Like the monumental movement of huge
bodies of vapour or the imperceptible progress of glacial
ice, Asunder ebbs and flows in aching mass. The temperature
warms a little on Flume - here the drones lighten notably
as if bathed in pale sunlight, the weight drops away and the
listener begins to float. Flume is introduced by the tranquil
movement of water as if the cold were melting away - this
softer tone holds into the final piece Underland, a cloud
of velvety haze that is ruffled infrequently by static, low
rumblings and delicate synthetic strains. At points during
the CD peripheral elements dot the expanse - environmental
recordings and instrumental suggestions from such sources
as synths, guitars, bowls, electronics and small objects.
These can be heard as distant shiftings or reverberating sonic
turbulence, small presences or peculiar fluctuations deep
within the mix. |
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| ARTWORK |
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This
album comes in a jewel case with artwork created by the artist
himself and layout design from Projekt's Sam Rosenthal. The
front cover image is that of an abstracted landscape - broken
bands of earthy hues that appear almost like a cross section
cut into the soil - the sky above is featureless - white.
This image is picked up and echoed throughout the package.
On the rear is a timed tracklist. Inside is a two panel insert
that opens out to deliver a simple gear list, credits, thanks
and website info. |
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| OVERALL |
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Asunder
is the debut release by Nathan Youngblood with input from
ambient master Steve Roach providing drone and wave contributions
on two tracks as well as being credited with production
and with mastering. The CD is released via Steve's website
and selected excerpts can be heard on Nathan's
Myspace page. The label's promotional material describes
the release as "carved from dense harmonically rich
acoustic and electronic material, this set of tone zones
move at glacial speed, hovering very close to the Earth's
surface for the duration". The six tracks range from
just over six minutes up to almost twenty on the relentless
isolation of Shearwave.
|
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------Zer0
0ne - oz0ne |
| STYLE |
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Clean,
spacey electronic instrumentals. oz0ne is a bright collection
of downtempo synthetics that combine layered melodic lines
and phrases with programmed beats and a variety of effects
and supporting sounds. Guitar chords, disembodied voices
- spoken words or strongly effected songs, manipulated samples.
The album conveys a sense of liquid simplicity - with uncluttered
arrangements, each sound clear and rhythms unhurried. There
are jazzy touches, notably track five Flashback, where a
lolling bassline and wah wah chords underpin some distinctly
un-spacey keyboard improvisations. Beats are lively and
varied across this disc - with no attempt to imitate a live
sound - peculiar blips and hits woven among more usual percussives
- at times fragmenting or muted - constantly shifting. |
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| MOOD |
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oz0ne
maintains the polished techno downtempo tone set up on previous
zer0 0ne albums - pure electronic warmth. There is a strongly
computerised mood - programmed structures, electrified effects,
digitised voices. The suggestion is one of space age exploration,
molecular meandering, cyber travel - at times almost isolationist,
the listener left alone with the glow of blinking LEDs and
the flicker of screens. The strongly rhythmic content harks
back to Berlin synth music - but the style is quite different,
less European. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Coming
in a sharp digipack, oz0ne is fronted by a blend of techno-organic
imagery and binary digits. The figures 0 and 1 run in a broad
band across the left hand side of the cover, overlaying a
hexagonal grid that works as a window revealing a cluster
of three glowing spheres. On the reverse is a timed tracklist
laid out on a similar honeycomb design. Opening out into three
section we find an inner display that has a repetition of
the tracklist on the left; the disc itself central; thanks,
credits and label details on the right. |
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| OVERALL |
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Zer0
0ne delivers a set of eleven digital wonders that show a clear
progression of sound from his three previous releases. Having
departed briefly for the release of pSy-fI via Spiralight,
Kevin Dooley is back with Waveform once more making this his
third album with Forest's US based centre of 'exotic electronica'
. The approach is familiar - gentle ambient groove with a
computerised, spacey aesthetic - previous fans will not be
disappointed with this maturing evolution. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This
vibrant album will suit fans of rhythmic synth music - if
you enjoy digital electronica with strident melodies and
liquid clarity this might well appeal to you. Why not try
the samples on the web
site. |
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