Net Decks 8
TobiasBefore we get started, I need to get off my chest how much I’m looking forward to the new Underworld album, which has now been scheduled for October. I’m a great fan of “100 days off”, the premiere Underworld work without Darren Emerson and the first signs of “Oblivion with Bells” look like this record could take a similar route. “Crocodile” is the name of the initial song premiered from the album and it combines the classic feeling of Underworld’s signature tunes off “Second Toughest in the Infants” with the sleek and dreamy atmospheric production of the last studio efforts. The same holds true for the minimal remix courtesy of Oliver Huntemann: A dark bass takes center stage, sharp percussion chains light up the sky and the chorus ges lost in a nightly vacuum – which has of course turned the track into an object of rejection for many Underworld fans. Nevertheless, the droning dance energy this piece is sure to set free needs no disco to make an impact. Listen to it on Oliver Huntemann’s MySpace account.
Back to the Netlabel scene and a release which is so hot off the release oven that it’s still steaming. Frank Molder’s “Come with Me” is an open invitation to lucid dreaming and relaxed conversations and presents an artist who sees no contradiction between cleverly arranged tracks and the tools and techniques of club-oriented music. Molder is working at the border line of Ambient, Downbeat and Electronica and his style is characterised by minimal motives in bass lines or accompaniment, which are slowly awarded the status of fully gown melodies through timbral transformation and repetition. It is an immensely harmonic music, which develops an effective forward-thrust through prominent drum programming and linear motion, yet dares to surprise with stylistic jumps and a disarming sweetness. Most importantly, however, “Come with me” is an album that lends itself for continous listening and has enough variation and inventiveness to thrill for more than just a couple of tracks. Instead, the ahimmering surfaces of the first pieces unnoticeably lead to the upbeat anthem of the title track and the pure cosmic textures of “Space Observer”. Deserves to be heard with open ears and on many different occasions.
www.1bit-wonder.com/
Even more up-to-date is Nauta’s “Frog Invasion EP”. In fact, with it having been released only a few hours ago as I write this, it has only yet managed to gather a single user vote – albeit with the perfect rating of 5/5. Expect that first number to rise and the latter to remain pretty much steady, as this uncompromising set of four hard-hitting dubstep tracks finds its way to a growing audience. Nauta comes from reggae and from a band context, having toured the world with his previous band “Radio Rebelde”, which already combined live drumming with digital grooves. As the live context of his music has lost importance, the relentless energy of his equipment has gained in strength. “Frog Invasion” is a statement of defiance in the face of soft, agreable productions, an effort to transport the raw and reduced nature of the very first dub plates to the 21st century. Echo and bass are the main ingredients, spiced up with upfront synth stabs and monotonous bass- and snaredrum marching rhythms. Short organ melodies colour up the arrangements, either as a guiding light in “Irie Garden” or more subtlely and almost hidden in the back like on “Nocturno”. The abrasive sounds and the militaristic quality of the drums lend the music an aggressive touch, as does the inclusion of drum n bass-like breaks. On the other hand, the slow tempo and the surreal melodies mean that it retains a certain easyness and laid-back atmosphere as well as a psychedelic bizareness. Way out there and full on.
www.deepindub.org/
Raul Mezcolanza may be young, but his list of achievments would not look bad on an acomplished veteran: Resident of Catalan club “La Festa” at the age of 16 (only one year after taking up DJing at all), an avid record spinner ever since and now also head of his own label “lactic” – without any doubt, Mezcolanza is going up the ladder, not down. Antiritmo are now joining in the fun by publishing Raul’s latest EP, “Loopshop”. Nomen est omen? Absolutely, as Mezcolanza juggles his patterns as though he were applying for a job at the circus and builds his tracks like flipping through a collection of postcards, with the imageries and scenes changing and morphing drastically from one second to the next. The constant movement creates a spinning sensation and the listener quickly finds himself spiralling down a narrow tunnel ever deeper into the night on a cocktail of adrenalin and home-grown endorphines. The stop-and-go flow of the music is a distinct contrast with the pure techno message – Mezcolanza is an old-school fan who enjoys the warped sci-fi aesthetics and simple structures of the genre. There is plenty of push in a piece like “Manitol”, but no mystery: The four to the floor drones, hihat clatterings and sparse, flickering strings are an end in themselves, never a metaphor for something more abstract. As such, one would expect “Loopshop” to work exclusively in a club, where these paranoid bongo lines and hyperactive moods are sure to come to full fruition. And yet, there is always something that prevents the music from turning into mere dance fodder. Maybe it’s the care which has gone into the arrangements, which build carefully, but never too sedately. Or the spacey sound effects, which come zooming in from one corner of the speaker to the other like UFOs on a cosmic Loveparade. Whatever it is, this is unmistakably a superbly crafted effort to work with known structures and turn them into something personal.
www.antiritmo.com
By Tobias Fischer
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