We have always preferred Yokota's ambient works to his more danceable efforts. It's hard to beat the sublime and playful shimmer of Symbol or the delicate kosmiche vibe of Sakura. On Wonder Waltz, Yokota tries to bridge these two worlds that orbit each other but it never quite touches down. The results are mixed. With too many ideas, and too many female guest vocalists (Kahimi Karie among others), the music tries too hard for likeability. While there is some really pretty stuff here, a lot of it ends up sounding like music for upscale car commercials.
We're all big time Radiohead fans, and thus were pretty into RH frontman Thom Yorke's Eraser record, what could very well have been a proper Radiohead record, but instead turned out a more electronic stripped down gem, lush and dark and dreamy, his voice drifting ethereally over all manner of drift and buzz and skitter.
It seemed inevitable that some of the tracks would get remixed, and whattayaknow, soon there was indeed a serious of remix 12"s, and lo and behold, the remixes were almost better than the originals, the lineup of remixers featuring a who's who of aQ faves: Burial, The Bug, FourTet, The Field and more.
It's worth it for the Burial remix alone - murky and dark, the rhythms skittery and mechanical, plenty of distant whir and drone, thick squalls of buzzing dubstep bass. It has us wondering what that second Burial record would have sounded like had Yorke been picked to contribute all the vocals. Pretty amazing we'd guess. And yeah, while we can barely get ourselves to stop playing the Burial remix over and over, the rest of the disc is pretty excellent as well. Surgeon adds a thick glitchy house-y groove, and makes Yorke's mysterious humming the main melodic component. The Bug doesn't go all ragga like we expected, instead taking the 'hit' from that record, adding plenty of record crackle, and a super spare beat, rife with all sorts of old school filigree and lots of heavy crunchy bass. FourTet add all sorts of tribal rhythms, adding soft swoops of backwards melody, and a lush glimmering gauze over the whole song, letting the vocals soar WAY up top over the mix, the instrumental mix reminding us a bit of vintage Tortoise. The Field totally reinvent "Cymbal Rush" chopping it up into a gorgeous Oval like stuttery soft house, dizzying washed out and melodic, total Kompakt bliss, the original barely recognizable unless you know to listen for it, so good. Christian Vogel adds a heavy motorik beat, and a thick backdrop of processed chiming guitars, dipping the vocals in effects, the result very looped and lush and hypnotic. Modeselektor pull their track totally apart and reassemble it into a strange jagged stutterscape, glitchy and skittery, with warm fuzzy bass, super processed vocals, and some seriously twisted arrangements, quickly becoming another favorite mix. The Various remix finds the original chopped and looped, so it almost sounds like the signal is dropping out over and over, creating a woozy moody pulse, the melody fragmented and abstract. And finally, Christian Vogel has another go on the same track he remixed earlier, crafting a whole array of new beats, using just the barest bits of the original song for texture and melody, a killer choppy groove, with little flurries of glitchy skitter, bit for the most part, pretty minimal and hypnotic.
Definitely essential for the Burial mix, and The Field mix, but dig into all of these reimagined versions, and enjoy one of the very few remix records that is the perfect compliment to the original, as well being a fantastic record in its own right, one that just might be better than the original.
SKWEEE!!!!
Avid readers of the aQ list will no doubt remember our obsession with Chicago's Footwork scene, also known as 'jukin', we've reviewed records by DJ Nate, DJ Roc, as well as that kick ass Bangs & Works comp, and we played those records to death in the store, each a brilliantly twisted collection of footwork jams, which for the uninitiated is a mutant strain of hip hop that is weirdly skittery and maddeningly repetitive, the music a nonstop barrage of layered loops and repeated vocal fragments, skeletal 808 rhythms, stuttery handclaps, definitely the sort of thing that has some people nodding along and shaking it, while others are tearing their hair out. It's obviously designed for the dancefloor, so stereo listening is a whole different experience, but like those DJ Nate and DJ Roc records, there's definitely something to this stuff that transcends the dancefloor. Never more so than on Space Zone, the debut from 18 year old Young Smoke aka David Davis, who doesn't rely so much on sampling old spacey funk jams, but instead creates his own spaced out atmosphere using a bunch of self made samples from a battery of synths, and has created a seriously futuristic slab of footwork, channeling old cheesy soundtracks, John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, all sorts of retro futurism into his twisted spaced out sound. On the surface, there's definitely a similarity to those other footwork jams we've reviewed in the past, but Young Smoke's sound is definitely much more composed and musical, still repetitive, and looped, each song essentially a single melody, and a single beat, looped and layered, but check out the opener, the title track, which is a dreamy chunk of almost bubblegum electro, with vocodered vox crooning "Welcome to the space zone" over lazer beam blurts and sci-fi squiggles, all wrapped around a groovy 8 bit skitter. It's the perfect introduction for sure, but it's not all bubblegummy, the second track "Warning", begins with a cascade of kosmische synths, which gives way to a buzzing klaxon, and a robotic voice repeating the word "Warning", while all around, booming bass and stuttering beats swarm around dense swirls of tangled almost psychedelic synth melodies, which leads right into "Futuristic Musick", which wraps a tinkling ghostly melody and shortwave squelch around a churning muted pulse, soon adding some swoonsome synth swells, the drums tribal and abstract, very cosmic and cinematic, and check out the closer, "Heat Impact" which sounds like some eighties action flick theme sliced and diced and transformed into a wild blast of alien hypno-groove stutter-funk.
By now it should be apparent, that this stuff is not all that far removed from all the retro-futurism and kosmische synthscapery that's all the rave these days, give a listen to the samples and you'll see what we mean, it's just that here, it's funked up a bit, wedded to hip hop skitter and electro-alien-stutter, which makes for some serious future dancefloor destruction, but also some big time headphone bliss out.
One of the more refreshing Ninja Tune outings in quite a while. Yppah is the work of Joe Corrales, a young man from Texas, who like many in his generation, has come of age at a time where shoegaze guitars and emotive laptops have found a special place in his heart. He's found a way to bring those influences together as he integrates his guitar playing through massive delays into the mix of the nice electronica he creates which most definitely recalls the honey soaked nostalgia of early Four Tet. Cinematic and wide eyed, it's also easy to start hearing how the latest M83 might have sounded without vocals or what Tristeza would sound like if they leaned away from post-rock and more towards electronica. Quite nice.
Apartment B (loose affiliates with Lucky Kitchen in the mutant corners of electronica) has given a proper release to this album from Nick Zammuto after its original release as a cdr. With a number of post-rock starting points (multiple bass harmonics, motorik pulse hypnosis, lust for 70s German electronics), Zammuto constructs a rhythmically bubbling sound by broadcasting these sounds through a construction of PVC pipes, and sampled the results for hard-disc editing. As if Fridge's percussive grooves and Noto's slow constructions of sine wave oscillation had a meeting of minds. Hrvatski endorsed.
Here's an album that we had heard about a while back, but had never been able to track down until now. Anna Zaradny is a Polish sound artist, specializing in harmonically challenging drones that slide out of electrical pulses and glass-shattering digital errata. She seems to have had something of a similar background as Gunter Muller or Jason Kahn (well, without Kahn's hardcore exploits in the US during the '80s), as she began her career in the realm of improv and has worked into a powerful and complex aesthetic for pierced minimalism, bristling with psychoacoustic intensity. Mauve Cycles features two lengthy pieces, the first being a zonked crucible of lazer-shot tones and frequencies which slowly melds into a mosaic of skittering rhythmic pulsations, pure tone dissonance, and seasickening sequences. We're not alone in finding parallels between this track and some of the more abstracted rhythmic constructs from Mika Vainio. As Zaradny smooths those rhythms into sustained vibration, this track begins to allude more to the classic electronic minimalists, with that strategy being furthered on the alluring second piece of pure dronescaping. Zaradny spatializes fizzes and crunched pixelations into complex constructions for oscillator tones slipping to toxic phase shifts from time to time. The overall feel of her work falls somewhere between recent John Duncan, feedback-era Eliane Radigue, the narcoleptic sounds of Mika Vainio, and a polite Florian Hecker. Intense!
About a year ago we were completely floored by the cd release of a cassette recording made in Jerusalem circa 1980 of the intense and trance inducing zorna playing of Zadik Zecharia. His Kurdish Melodies On Zorna had the kind of fire and intensity that appealed not only to Middle Eastern music aficionados, but also noise freaks, drone lovers and experimental music-heads of all stripes. So when we heard that the Israeli label Something On The Road had compiled a remix cd of Zacharia's masterful record we were both intrigued and a little skeptical. We'll be the first to admit that most remix records tend to miss the mark, adding generic beats and kind of killing the original spirit of a work that we love. And the first couple tracks on this collection while ok weren't totally doing it for us but then...oh my god!!! after a few tracks things started to heat up FAST! While most records, especially compilations and remix albums, tend to be top heavy, this is in many ways quite the opposite. Things start off with a nice smoky Planet Mu almost dubstep kind of vibe and then as the record goes on the beats start to diminish in favor of drone and noise and buzz. We love how Something On The Road have such a good sense of continuity, mood and pacing, something most remix records completely ignore. We weren't familiar with most of the Israeli bands and DJ's involved in this record but now we will for sure try to seek out more music by the likes of Nemoi, Gal Tushia and David Ovadia. The one artist we were familiar with was Poochlatz an amazingly bleak and primitive noise project out of Israel who always whip up beautiful and chaotic doom & gloom! We love the tidal wave that erupts as this remix record unfolds. Like the best moments of Muslimgauze, this is Middle Eastern experimental electronica that resonates so strongly and does it's source material proud!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Review courtesy of AQ pal / Soft Pink Truth mastermind / Matmos co-mastermind Mr. Drew Daniel:
I've never seen an honest to God minstrel show in which white people dress up and perform as stereotypical black people. But the last show I saw by Zeigenbock Kopf was the queer equivalent. Ostensibly straight scenester cutie-pie John Dwyer (also of Coachwhips, ex-Pink and Brown, etc.) kitted out as Hans Bunschlapen in mustache and mirrorshades and backed up by shirtless go go dancers, pretended to be a gay German clone of the 70s, barking sadomasochistic slogans over superdistorted electronic chugging courtesy of bandmates Ulrich Bunschlapen and beatmaker Detlef. When Dwyer stays in character as Hans, Zeigenbock Kopf is some funny shit: imagine the "Sprockets" guy in leather chaps pulling a train on a Munich motorcycle gang after too much coke. To give Dwyer and co. their due, 70s gay clone culture and chilly German electro posturing *are* kinda silly, no doubt; the first Zeigenbock Kopf cassette "The Architecture of Dark Dance" ran with these clich�s as far as they could feasibly go, and rocked to boot with hard, dark synth/gabber minimalism overdriven into Incapacitants territory. Funny and disturbing in equal measure, that cassette entered this particular fag's select pantheon of uncomfortably indeterminate queer-baiting comedy along with The Meatmen's "Tooling for Anus", The Angry Samoans "Homosexual" and The Frogs' "It's Only Right and Natural".
A joke band's only job is to be funny, but woe to the joke band that isn't funny anymore. On this release, Zeigenbock Kopf teeter on that brink, but at 23 minutes total they cut things off before it wears out completely. The motto this time around seems to be: darker, harder, dumber, and when Z. K. decide that just saying the words "I Dig Men" is, like, totally hilarious, the shtick threatens to wear thin, curdling into something just perfect for "Skit Night" at the frat house. I guess straight white male privilege and the appropriation of funny/"exotic" otherness go together like Crisco and fisting. If you can bracket the creepy/phony aspect of this project, the saving grace is that the music still rocks like a bastard: Whitehouse-ish scree spurts and Esplendor Geometrico-ish crunched beats and DJ Scud-ish breakcore and Suicide-ish synths and basslines fight for attention while Dwyer spits tuff, horny nonsense about what a hair-pulling, ass-slapping queer stud he is. Maybe when the penny drops and he comes out of the closet we can look forward to his "comedy straight guy" band in which he emotes about downloading Catholic schoolgirl web porn, fixed rate mortgages, and finding the right babysitter over bland MOR rock. Heaven help us . . .
Zeigenbock Kopf began as a joke to see if a legitimate techno / house label would put out a cheap imitation of 'gay disco' pseudonymously recorded by a giggling San Francisco rocker boy. Yet, the joke -- complete with S/M stage antics, ditzy sketches, and really clumsy music -- has been dragged out through three releases, unintentionally sparking a firestorm of public outrage and invoking a wide range of discourses on identity politics and cultural appropriation. Zeigenbock Kopf should really just stop these shenanigans, not because of the perceived insult to certain elements of the gay community, but because the musical well has run dry. Overdriving clunky, slightly off-kilter rhythms through distortion pedals, ZK comes across as second or third rate, post-Industrial knock-off of Hunting Lodge or Sleep Chamber, two bands who were mediocre at best. The vocals which monotonously slur through a cheap German accent have lost the ability to carry the joke and now come across as another boring dose of disinterested post-irony which this city has been subjected to for far too long from all of the arts, not just music.
MPEG Download: "Boom Car Boys 2" [/audio/zeigenbockkopfboomcar.mp3]
Of all of the many Zeitkratzer collaborations that have appeared to date, this one seemed the most unlikely. Sure, the amplified horns and screeching strings that came out of Zeitkratzer's orchestral interpretation of Metal Machine Music worked well in the sheer audacity of the project; but Zeitkratzer's polyphonous tonalities had mustered an engaging re-interpretation of John Duncan's work with a balance between grace and force. So, when taking on a collaboration with Carsten Nicolai, who is best known for his swaggering rhythms for pure tone and minuscule glitches as Alva Noto, we had to ask how this would work. Well, essentially, Nicolai has adapted his sound for Zeitkratzer, not the other way around, which might have been a real challenge for Zeitkratzer to attempt to adopt the thud and rumble of something like the Transall series. Instead, Nicolai and Zeitkratzer pursue long-form compositions, mostly for electronics, but occasionally with the assistance of a particular instrumental coloring from say a clarinet, a cello, or a piano. Each of the three pieces here were performed live, commissioned for this sound art festival or that in Europe. The first of which swarms around static-laden drones and crackling hiss which spirals around a Niblockian drone from a sustained clarinet, eventually a rhythmic undercarriage from a softly tapped piano ebbs against the slow-building arc of sound. The second piece seems to be staged from prepared piano, amplified televisions, and tone generators, offering another skeletal rhythm to the clinical frequencies. The third piece returns to the ideas of the first with the reprise of that piano, but here a semblance of a melody encroaches the slow-motion raga drone from low-thumbing electronics and rasping sustained strings. It's not all that far from another of Nicolai's storied collaborations, with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both Zeitkratzer and Nicolai are guilty of playing it safe on these three pieces, but the results are striking and lovely nonetheless.
The gorgeous image of a stagecoach barreling down a mountain roadside, as if being watched by a crow perched in a fir tree, has great appeal to an imagination that begins listening the moment it beholds a record's cover. Unfortunately, the music inside this cover does not really correspond to what is evoked by that image.
Not quite so mysterious, or adventurous, this live recording, complete with polite audience applause and the pristine but cold high end of a digital room recording, is probably less satisfying than actually having been at the performance(s) that brought together Japanese improv psych shaman Keiji Haino and the German experimental chamber music outfit Zeitkratzer. The physicality of Keiji's input - his vocalizations and percussive noises - rescues Electronics (3) from the banality of the "noise" its liner notes make such a fuss about. Sometimes it's a bad idea to read the liner notes! Whether it's just very naive or, more annoyingly, a stab at self-important academic validation, the essay that accompanies this disc offers little to make Zeitkratzer's project any more exciting or "important". Some name-dropping - Levi-Strauss, Nietzsche, Bach, musique concrete, Carlyle, Dionysus, Susan McClary (?), Debussy, etc. - sprinkled amidst lines of academic jargon and just a bit of actual information about the "construction" of this music, and rehearsals behind this record (aren't there artists and bands spontaneously creating such 'noise' music all the time? Artists like Haino?) makes one wonder why they just didn't opt for a photo of the the ensemble's gig bags for the cover? Couldn't the liner notes have simply said that these musicians were stoked to jam with Haino, and really let their hair down??
Having said all that, liner notes aside, for any Haino fan, this may be worth the purchase just for the dramatic track 3 alone, the approximately 25-minute "Sinfonia", given the peaks of ecstatic beauty reached by Haino's noise-making therein... tracks 1 and 2, "Aria I" and "Aria II", are rather more typical of haunting, eerie-sounding 20th century classical, albeit with added extremity due to the Haino factor.
This is the third in a series of Zeitkratzer collaborations entitled Electronics, the other two featuring Carsten Nicolai and Terre Thaemlitz respectively, and thus this is the most "out there" of 'em all, being more about improvisation than composition, Haino himself (on guitar, Theremin, voice, drums...) the equal of the entire ensemble that's accompanying him (on tuba, trombone, clarinet, cello, drums, etc.).
And now that we're listening to the disc, rather than reading that cd booklet, we've gotta say we're also really digging the "bonus" track 4, a "Drum Duo" (presumably of Haino and one lucky Zeitkratzer member). Their freeform percussion blitz gets down to business without any of the highbrow posturing of the previous, larger scale pieces.
Our in store entertainment wunderkind John Dwyer is apparently unstoppable in his never ending series of releases and this new, ultra-low fi, hiss ridden cassette may be his best yet. 'The Architecture Of Dark Dance' comes after many weeks of research by Dwyer into the fecund techno scene from the city of Unterschleissheim in the state of Bavaria, Germany. Though it took John only a few weeks to saturate hundreds of hours of Unterschleissheimian techno before generating his own, albeit American version of the genre, it sure seemed like months here at Aquarius. We're pretty used to Dwyer coming in on a daily basis to entertain / harrass us, but the period during which he was working on this cassette was an unending daily test of endurance for us at times. At first it was humorous: John walked in one morning about a minute after we'd opened up the store and insisted that we play this twelve inch he'd picked up at the Community Thrift Store down the street. After being informed that the needle on our turntable was busted, John slapped the record on the counter and ran out of the store. It was then with surprise that we watched John return three hours later pulling a Forsell "Air Reference Turntable" on a stainless steel cart and heave the immense beast onto the counter (don't even ask where the hell he 'found' the thing.) After much jimmy-ing with our system, John got the twelve inch playing over our stereo. By the time first distorted snare hit sounded over our speakers Dwyer's eyes were as big as pluots. "FUCK YEAH!!!! THIS IS THE SHIT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT!!!!" Turns out that a local German D.J. that had been living in the city had had to give up his entire collection of dance twelve inches when he was deported for an expired visa as a result of strict immigration rules in our post 9/11 environment. The always pennywise and poundthrift John Dwyer seized his opportunity and ended up buying the entire lot from the store for a mere $20 (instead of the $30 they were asking) after three intense hours of haggling with the clerk. After a period of absorption Dwyer began testing out his own covers, reworkings and even original compositions on us here at Aquarius. Most of these tracks hadn't yet had the vocals laid down, so Dwyer would simply sing them impromptu for us and whoever happened to be shopping in the store at the time. The final result is a lot like a more fucked up version of the Jones Machine's "I'm The Disco Dancing" combined with the manic punk energy of the best DHR releases out there. Songs like "Dance You Idiot" capture the immediacy of dance music as well as its subtle political underpinnings and "I'm At The Club" recreates the common folly of answering one's cellular phone on the dance floor. The 11 songs on this cassette are both boorishly satyrical and strangely addictive. It's the type of joke you know you shouldn't be laughing to but there's no use in resisting. Dwyer says it's not a joke, and ha says it's not him. He has nothing to do with the mysterious Ziegenbok Kopf. Who ya gonna believe?!?!
Battle Of The Peak is the crushing epic debut release from this Tolkien-esque psychedelic prog-doom noiserock from Portland, whose debut is in fact fucking amazing, not just sonically, but visually as well, more on the over the top ridiculous packaging in a second, cuz musically, it's hard to imagine an aQ metalhead who wouldn't freak out over there guys, epic, sprawling 15+ minute songs, classic metal riffing, big pounding drums, yowled bellowed vocals, the whole thing straddling the lines between classic metal, doom, noise rock, and black metal buzz, which makes sense as the mastermind of Zirakzagil is also the man behind two Northern BM bands of note, whose most recent records were both reviewed on the aQ list not too long ago, but Zirakzagil is a whole different beats, the band unfurling long stretches of tranced out riffing, surprisingly melodic, super dynamic, lurching stop/starts, some seriously soaring leads, at times it sounds a bit like the Fucking Champs, slowed down and stretched out into some psychedelic noise rock doom, at other times it's full on metallic prog, intricate, tangled arrangements slow builds, dense, and intense, the drumming super wild and chaotic, the songs will chug and churn, before slipping into some super melodic passage, and some of the leads, super emotive old school classic shreddery, and while there are vocals, bellowed bearded noise rock howls, most of the record is instrumental, the instruments doing all the heavy lifting, whether it's heaving swells of churning riffage on opener "The Birth Of The White Wizard", the woozy psychedelic shuffle of "Durin's Bane", or the weird mathy psychedelic breakdown near the end of "The Endless Stair", which ends up sounding like a more metal, and more mathed out Don Caballero!
This rules! And it's DEFINITELY not black metal, heck it's really not even that doomy, it IS sludgey, heavy, mathy, proggy and totally epic!
And speaking of epic, the packaging is ultra epic, and NERDY! The title and the cover art are of course beholden to Lord Of The Rings (where would metal be without Tolkien?), but then that stuff is designed into a faux Nintendo game cartridge, the fonts, the label log, the layout, the oversized clamshell case, it looks just like a Nintendo game, and open it up, and the liner notes are deftly worked into the game's instructions, even including a picture of the game controller, adorned with the Zirakzagil logo! Includes a patch and a sticker too. And of curse, EXTREMELY LIMITED! ONLY 98 COPIES, and we have about a dozen...
This is some seriously blissed out cosmic exploration. No doubt named after the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, ground zero in late '60s Berlin for the burgeoning experimental art/music scene that would blossom into the sounds of Krautrock. All these years later the amazing sounds of many who emerged out of the Zodiac Free Arts Lab, like Ash Ra Temple, Popul Vuh, Cluster, and Harmonia have had such a huge influence on a new generation eager to get lost in that cosmic trance.
Zodiac Free Arts Club, who hail from Berlin themselves, nails that sound and vibe spot on. In fact every single time we've played this in the store someone has asked what Brain Records reissue we were playing. Using analog synths with warm perfection, one can close their eyes and think they're listening to wonderful outtakes from Harmonia's Deluxe sessions. Reaching the same level of excellence in capturing this sound as folks like Arp, Jonas Reinhart and Majeure, this is some authentic modern day kraut-tronica indeed. The kosmische glow is alive and well in 2011!
Zombi must feel like Neurosis did back in the day. Returning after a few years with a brand new record, only to gaze out on a sea of bands who sounded just like them. And discovering that their sound, in their brief absence, had become an actual genre, and a ridiculously overpopulated one at that. But like Neurosis, Zombi return as royalty, their cinematic space psych and soundtracky synthscapes untouchable, even by the legions of wannabes, fellow Carpenter / Goblin worshippers all, Umberto, Applehead, Zander Harris, Gatekeeper, Dylan Ettinger, Nightsatan, Roll The Dice, Soft Metals and all the rest, as good as they may be, and as much as we dig all of them, still bow before this dynamic duo, whose epic stretches of spaced out synths are wrapped around REAL drums, propulsive and powerful, the sound a perfect hybrid of washed out retro-futuristic synth swirl, and churning kraut flecked post rock, the tracks extended trancelike epics, the pulsing synth bass looped and mesmerizing, peppered with warm melodic swells, the drums pounding out equally mesmerizing tribal rhythms. The opening title track here sounds almost too short at 7 minutes, and like it could erupt at any moment into a second, even more epic movement, but instead, remains locked tight, cyclical and hypnotically repetitive.
The next few tracks slip closer to the cosmic dancefloor, wild squalls of tangled synths, woozy, melancholy melodies, but again, the real drums make all the difference, on "Slow Oscillations" adding some awesome rapidfire fills and flecking the grooves with little bits of double kick filigree, while on "DE3" twisting up a classic disco rhythm into something a bit more fierce, anchoring the new age swirl, all building to a seriously epic sci-fi climax. "Shrunken Heads" is a minimal groover, the synth buzzy and distorted, but the rhythm more programmed sounding, a looped chase scene soundtrack, tense and intense and darkly propulsive.
"Time Of Troubles" finishes things off, beginning with a hazy cloud of softly swirling sun dappled synth shimmer, and then big ominous low end, the perfect ending, especially if Escape Velocity was actually an eighties soundtrack, you can almost imagine the credits rolling as the hero and his motley gang of intergalactic misfits walk off off into the alien sunset, the sound majestic, but minor key and a little bit melancholy, the drums adding a sort of kraut/post rock vibe, totally mesmerizing, and definitely making us wish the deliriously over the top cover art (replete with running naked women and, yes, a Delorean, gull wing doors wide open, on what appears to be the floor of a sauna floating in a blue sky) was in fact a real film, and this was the soundtrack!
While we have always loved Zombi's proggy and tense synth thrillers, we've secretly wished they would cut loose a bit, add some hi-hat fills and give us the dark and sexy slow euro-disco we always knew they were capable of. The actively atmospheric sounds of John Carpenter's Escape From New York and French disco pioneers, Cerrone were really baby steps apart from each other in the first place, so we weren't surprised (but we were elated!) when a Zombi track, "Sapphire" showed up on Swedish DJ Prins Thomas's awesome compilation, Cosmo Galactic Prism, that really honed in on that late seventies / early eighties coke-mirror sound. "Sapphire" had earlier appeared on Zombi's out of print, tour-only ep Digitalis. Well, we finally have the 12" single release of "Sapphire" in its entire extended nine+ minute glory, and it's killer!! The vibe is definitely inspired by Cerrone's Frankenstein fantasy, "Supernature", with its vaguely sinister build-up, but it expands in interesting ways taking us into trancey rhythmic shifts and changes that never let up the dirty space disco late-night groove. The b-side features a track, "Long Mirrored Corridor", that ups the dark druggy disco perversions of Black Devil Disco Club, while the Escort Remix of "Sapphire" distills the long version's twists and turns into a more digestible dancefloor friendly version. So good!!!
Only the second release on this new The Rapture-run label, and doubtless limited in edition.
For those of you who already know and like Zombi, the appearance of this, their second proper full-length album, is pretty much a no-brainer purchase-wise, we can assure you. You've already had a pleasant taster for it in the form of the Digitalis cdep released earlier this year. But if you've never checked out Zombi before, an introduction is in order (and this album will do nicely...but we'll also write something here). You might assume from their name, and presence on mostly metal label Relapse, that they're some sort of metal band, into zombie movies. Well the later part is true. They love their horror flicks -- they're from Pittsburgh, home of George Romero after all. But they're not really a metal band. More of a post-rock or math-rock outfit, Zombi is an all-instrumental duo on drums and synth (and bass), heavily influenced by Goblin, the legendary Italian prog band responsible for scoring all those Dario Argento films back in the '70s and '80s -- including the Italian cut of Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, aka Zombi. Other film soundtrackers from that era are also inspirations for Zombi the band as well, in particular John Carpenter. Then there's all the cosmic electronic space music of the '70s too, like that of Klaus Schulze. And Magma, the bass player has got to be into Magma. All that gets stirred into Zombi's witch's cauldron (oops, is that a mixed metaphor?) and the resulting potent concoction could serve as the soundtrack to the most schlocky, suspenseful, arty horror film of your imagination... It's an elixir that exudes subtle menace without, for the most part, being overtly "scary music", much like those Goblin soundtracks. Really it's kind of New Agey... New Agey with tension!! MASSIVE tension on Surface To Air's spookiest track, the album-closing 18 and a half minute "Night Rhythms", filled with ominous drones that eventually give way to powerful bass-heavy grooves... it's an epic tour-de-force of tension and release and very very cinematic. But all the tracks here pulsate mesmerizingly and moodily, with bright n' airy synth tones, dominating bass, and repetitive Circle-like hypno-rock rhythms. If that sounds good, check it out. And if you're already a fan, like we said, you'll be well pleased with Surface To Air!!
Ok, lately it seems like we're ALWAYS saying stuff reminds us of the suspenseful soundtrack synth music of film director John Carpenter - who, along with collaborator Alan Howarth, is known for composing the propulsive, sinister scores for his own movies. Music that's become a big influence on a lot of our favorite artists today. How many recent releases have we tagged with a Carpenter comparison? Umberto, D.A., Gatekeeper, Zombi, Xander Harris, Majeure, Roll The Dice, Steve Moore, Twins, Dylan Ettinger, Blizaro, Jonas Reinhart, Hyetal, Arrow Kleeman, Lazer Crystal, Maserati, Nightsatan, and more... Of course many of those are overt imitations of the master. Goblin is the other influence we usually cite for a lot of these too, but the future-disco, fright flick, sci-fi SYNTH sound is more about Carpenter.
So, this release makes perfect sense, the obvious next step in the current wave of Carpenter worship. Zombie Zombie is a French synth duo, 1/2 of which is in fact former AQ Record Of The Week honoree Etienne Jaumet (for his album Night Music), and they have decided to pay tribute to John Carpenter in the most direct way possible: a disc of all Carpenter covers! This 5 track, 28 minute mini-album includes their takes on the main themes from JC classics Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape From LA, and The Thing. Hmm, the latter of which was actually composed by Ennio Morricone, right? Though that's cool too. You also get ZZ's version of the music from the bank robbery scene in Escape From New York.
When we learned Jaumet was part of this, we knew ZZ would know their stuff and do JC right, and they sure do. All the skittery machine beats and eerie melodies, urgent shuffling chase-scene rhythms and ominous thick bass heavy synth burble, moody atmospheric drone and creepy tick-tock-ery of the JC originals is lovingly recreated via ZZ's not-far-removed but definitely updated, dancefloor/DJ friendly versions, which come across as somewhat heavier and a bit more tweaked than actual soundtrack recordings, also more "band-like" and less soundtrack slick. We haven't heard ZZ's other album, but we bet these sound like their own songs, y'know. Basically, if you like John Carpenter, or any of the stuff we're always mentioning JC in conjunction with, you will dig this! The only thing that would have made this better is if they'd made it a longer disc and also included cues from The Fog, They Live, and a few other of our JC faves. But these themes are pretty much the best of the best. And we'd LOVE to see 'em play this stuff live, which we hear they're doing. Come to think of it, we'd love to see Carpenter himself perform live, we wonder if he's ever even considered the idea, he'd probably be surprised at how many people would come out to see that, don't you think?
Even ravers and bangers have to come down sometime. After releasing two of the most uptempo, neon bright and relentless electronic albums of the last few years, Zomby is ready to show off other sides of his sonic scope. If Where Were You In '92 was him swallowing the ecstasy, and One Foot Ahead Of The Other, was him peaking on the dance floor, then Dedication is the dramatic and elegant coming down.
Stepping away from manic blasts of color, Dedication finds Zomby in a much more eerie, haunting and sensual state of sound. It's a lot like a musical version of when you first meet someone who you are so in to, they're always the life of the party and so fun to be around, but then you actually get to know them and they show you some different sides of their personality and you end up loving their spirit and soul, whether they are jumping up and down or feeling reflective and melancholy.
Dedication is a record that will hopefully bring Zomby to a whole new audience, but those who loved those first two blasts of manic musical ecstasy that were those first two records, should really try to get past the shock of the slow down, and listen a few times and let the music here seep into their bones. We hear some of our favorite moments of Squarepusher, Autechre, and Aphex Twin records, doused in a sensibility that's so fluid and infectious. We're always so excited when an electronic musician we love makes it obvious that they are in it for the long haul, as their ability to craft shapes, sounds and feelings transcends any one momentary trend in the always flavor of the month electronic scene. Zomby is here to stay, and this album proves it!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Zomby's latest full length, Dedication, which came out earlier in the year proved once again that he's no flash in the pan electronic act. The album showed a a new side of his music making, including an emotional depth and a more subdued quality we hadn't seen so much before. But we still love when he raves and bangs, and it really seems he has found his way to a perfect balance. This new 12" has both bangers and tracks that travel to the darker side of the dance floor. What keeps setting Zomby apart from many of his peers is not only that he had the balls to make such a strong shift in his signature sound, but that he really has come into his own as someone who defies any one electronic genre, and instead has the ability to make music that can get under your skin in so many different ways. We wouldn't be surprised if Thom Yorke is paying close attention to this new Zomby release as we could really see the next Radiohead or Yorke solo outing being heavily influenced by these sounds. With Aphex Twin missing in action for several years, it feels like maybe Zomby is the go to man for innovative electronic sounds that raise the bar, for the next decade. So fucking good!
Holy shit!!!! This has been in absolute constant rotation for us since we got it and sadly it's taken a while for us to get enough to list but here it is and we think it's going to be tough to beat this as the best electronic record of the year! Think 8-bit rave bangers with mescaline fueled glow sticks and you start to get an idea of the charged, frantic and colorful world Zomby have created with One Foot Ahead Of The Other.
Zomby manage to tap into all the aspects of electronic music we love and comes across almost like a new supercharged version of skweee! But the greatness of Zomby is that the songs and sounds on One Foot Ahead Of Another screams FUCK LABELS LET'S REACH SONIC LEVELS OF ECSTASY! while the rest of the electronic music world is constantly divided into way too many confusing sub-genres. This transcends all that, big time!
While past Zomby releases have aligned the 'group' with the dubstep scene, Zomby really does move to the beat of his own unique and unclassifiable rhythm. And the results are so fucking electrifying!
We're happy that there are no hidden cameras following us during our daily lives cuz when we have this on our headphones as we walk through the city we totally bust out impromptu contorted dance freakouts, cuz it's just totally impossible to stand still when this is playing. It has the same kind of frenetic energy that made us fall in love with folks like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher back in the day. One Foot Ahead Of The Other is the kind of record that folks like Black Dice, Fuck Buttons and Excepter all secretly wish they could make. Not a wasted moment to be found, all killer and no filler... and for sure one of our favorite records of the year!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
What if the ravers hijacked dubstep!? Well the UK's Zomby has done just that and we couldn't be more thrilled. We've selfishly been loving their 12"s but never were able to get enough to list, but with their debut full length we knew we had to make sure to let the world know just how much we love us some Zomby! Most faithful AQ list readers know that how much we dig so much of the dubstep that's come out in the last couple years, but we will also be the first to admit that it's a genre that can tend to get very same-y, so Zomby's sound here is so refreshing and invigorating, especially in a scene that was in some dire needs of some playful spirit and a bit more flamboyant charisma.
Imagine Benge mixed with Deee-Lite and you start to get the idea of what kind of ecstatic territory Zomby is dancing, stomping and having so much fun all over. The title of the record makes no apologies for their love of the early '90s rave/house scene yet they give it a nuanced facelift dipped in the sweat of dubstep that pretty much blows away anything we can remember coming out of that scene. While so many dubstep artists are so dark and serious, often to the point of self-parody, Zomby brings a levity and sense of play to the table that's not only much needed but he also imbues his sound with so much spirit and soul. We imagine this blasting at after-partys in the dressing rooms of everyone from Pinch to the Basement Jaxx. It's so cool that someone has found a way to bring the dark and brooding elements of dubstep that we love and light them on fire with dance floor hi-jinks and an wickedly irreverent spirit. So damn good!
With Love is full length number three from this aQ beloved outfit, following hot on the heels of Dedication, a record which found Zomby ditching much of the neon bright raviness, of his earlier record for something a bit darker and moodier, which some of us at aQ found infinitely appealing. We remarked that Dedication played like a Zomby come down record, which has us wondering what With Love might be, since it too, displays a much moodier disposition that the early Zomby jams, and in a way, might be even a bit darker than Dedication.
Spread out over two discs, and eighty minutes, With Love is a sprawling collection of short sonic snapshots, that vary greatly, and are all over the map sonically, touching on sounds both dark and light, but definitely leaning toward the shadowier side, with much of the record, heavier on the old dubstep Zomby sound, check out "Horrid", with it's clipped, echo drenched skeletal beat, its deep bass wobbles, and swirling psychedelic loops, or the string laced synth heavy electro-dub skitter of "Orion", but then the vibe/sound shifts on jams like "Isis" with moody piano, and layered, looped vocals, a sort of dark electro brood, which shifts once again on a track like "It's Time", with an old school breakbeat, beneath a flurry of skittery jazziness, all underneath another hazy looped vocal, woozily soulful and darkly funky, but then again, out of nowhere "Overdose" explodes in a flurry of old school jungle, right down to the revved up Amen break, which rules, and resurfaces throughout (again on the muddy, droned out drum and bass of "777"), but does raise the question, how exactly are all of these songs linked? In some ways, With Love feels more like a singles comp, a collection of odds and ends, as if maybe Zomby had some tracks left over from a handful of different releases and assembled them into With Love, cuz while there is a flow, and a pretty good one at that, it's not necessarily all that linear, and might be a little bit schizophrenic, how could it not be, 33 tracks, with most tracks sounding not at all like the song on either side of it, which is not a bad thing at all, but it does make it more of an 'active' listen, it's not the sort of late night chill out record you throw on and wind down with, although there are plenty of tracks that are perfect for that sort of listening, and it's not a nonstop dance party, even though there are plenty of jams like that, some are glistening and shimmering and dreamy, others dubbed out and minimal, still others beat heavy and dark, some of the record dips into Burial / Vessel style slo-mo soul, some gets all soundtracky and kosmische, it's definitely super varied, and while we'd be psyched if ANY of these tracks came blaring through the PA at some club, we're not sure your typical dancefloor would get it. Instead, consider With Love some seriously psychedelic headphone bliss out for electronic headz, which in case it's not obvious, means this comes HIGHly recommended.
Checksum is the collaboration between San Francisco leftfield indie mainstays Jeff Palmer (Granfaloon Bus, Sunny Day Real Estate) and Greg Freeman (Pell Mell, Virginia Dare, Lowdown Studios), taking spartan instrumentation not far from late period Talk Talk or the first Tortoise record to occasional lap top / dubby trickery.
