[Review] Synkro- Acceptance [ Published In NOW THEN issue 59 February 2013]

Paradoxically, minimalism has a lot going for it.

We all either went through a period where we thought we liked minimal techno or a period where we had no idea it was around. 

They’re both essentially the same thing.

Mildly tedious electronic fad or no, there’s a certain amount of beauty in restraint. 

The simple act of holding a little back can open up whole new worlds of gratification.

It’s the same principle that applies to only eating half a tube of Pringles or watching no more than 10 minutes of absolutely any Michael Bay movie.

Allowing simple musical motifs to speak volumes is something modern music has been indulging in since the 1960’s. The ‘New York Hypnotic School’ of classical musicians, which included the likes of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, pioneered a style of sonics that modern musicians such as Aphex Twin and Fennesz adapted into ambient and drone soundscapes. Take the reconstructed floaty sounds of the ‘future garage’ scene that reared it’s head a few years back and welcome to the subject at hand. 

Minimalist, ambient, forward thinking, upfront, future bass music. 

Before you get any ideas, I’m coining that term so back off.

Manchester’s Synkro has been forging his name as a garage/ 2 step artist for a good old while but it wasn’t until 20011’s absolutely exquisite ‘Look At Yourself’ that you could really see his true floaty potential. 

His latest LP ‘Acceptance’ is the sound of an artist who has truly grown into their own style. Packed to the gills with lush consonant harmonies, delayed etherial vocals and crisp, expertly mastered beats everything ambles along at a pace that betrays it’s true 135BPM roots. 

The addition of reverb heavy guitar strummings on nearly half of the offerings show a brief foray into a depth of new musicality, or just reinforcement of the idea that guitars in electronic music make you seem like more of a credible artist.

Pick one.

It’s production value is so high that it makes speakers sing. Little Burial-esque nuances of rain and traffic slip through unobtrusively and bass lines feel like soft damp cuddles.

It’s warm and familiar yet current and edgy. 

Like a kitten smoking crack. 

If this lush offering could be described as anything it would be whoopee makin’ music for the bass generation.

Minimalist, ambient, forward thinking, upfront, future, baby making music. 

Coined it. 

[Preview] Four Tet @ In: Motion [Published in Fear Of Fiction Oct 2012]

There’s nothing quite like witnessing someone at the height of their career.

I call it the ‘Under Seige moment’. That brief but glorious snapshot where Seagal wasn’t clinically obese and didn’t require a stand in when the script called for a close up of his hands.

That’s where Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) is right now. The height of his career that is, not 

helping to ease Steven Seagal’s metacarpal issues.

The man can seem to do no wrong. At least not in my eyes, or indeed in the eyes of an anonymous friend of mine who spent the majority of his secret set at Bestival sobbing. Quite right too. It was blooming glorious, which is a given whenever Signor Tet is involved.

So, if you needed another reason to get excited about the 5th of October, other than it being my birthday, it should be that Four Tet himself is gracing the hard concrete floor of Motion with the Hessle Audio troupe and fellow virtuoso Floating Points.

A line up that good can be pretty overwhelming. 

I’ve already packed the Kleenex for Katy.

[Preview] In: Motion [Publish in Fear Of Fiction Sept 2012]

People are always waffling on about seasons.

Soccer season.

Ski seasons.

“Oooh that chicken’s a tad bland. It could do with some seasoning.”

Bee season.

Seasons allow a modicum of anticipation. They provide heightened pleasure through the act of withholding their potential.
All except the chicken one.

It’s because of this that simple folk like you and I get giddy as arseholes at the prospect of the Autumn/ Winter clubbing season. My former people of the North get Manchester’s Warehouse Project and we, my friends, get the epic In: Motion.

This years whale of a roster contains the talents of Four Tet, Floating Points, Josh Wink, Public Enemy, Joy Orbison, Kerri Chandler, Disclosure, Jamie Jones and Fatboy chuffing Slim to name but a tiny handful. There are big name takeovers from Hessle Audio, Futureboogie and Cocoon and a new year’s rinse out as the cherry atop the disco fudge cake.

I’m fully aware that, like me, your September 29th will be spent celebrating International Coffee Day but that evening should be graced with In: Motion’s massive Jamie Jones led opener.

The wait is over. It’s In: Season.

[Review] Four Tet- Pink [Publish in Fear Of Fiction Aug 2012]

In a predominantly digital world of distribution the idea of vinyl only releases seems fairly alien to some.

All and sundry are rocking an ‘i’ something or other but not everyone is decked out with a set of 1200’s.

Limited vinyl releases have been about since records began (pun unashamedly intended) and as outmoded as they seem to some, they show no real sign of disappearing. Perhaps it’s a defiant final middle finger to the remnants of the Napster generation, or maybe we were so quick to blindly accept change we dismissed tradition.

You know, whichever’s funnier.

Happy to scratch everyone’s itch, Kieran Hebden has provided an opportunity to snag some of his tastiest morsels from the past year and a smidge.

Morsels like, his Fabriclive exclusives ‘Locked/Pyramid’, the stupendous ‘Pinnacles’ from his Daphni co-release, cracking newbie ‘Ocoras’ and 128 Harps, the one I don’t like.

Couple this with two new tracks which are sans release and you’ve got an ace LP.

Or, if like me, you own 80% of these already you’ll feel like he’s dropped a deuce.

You know, whichever’s funnier.

[Review] The Cinematic Orchestra- In Motion 1 [Published In NOW THEN Issue 52 July 2012]

It’s very rare that an artist can live up to their name.

Prince being an obvious exception.

A performance alias is generally just intended to make you sound cooler, like DJ Shitmat or Big Pooh.

It’s not often an artist’s moniker gives a apt description of what they do. At least I very much hope so in the case of Big Pooh.

A nom de Ableton Live is bloody difficult to choose. I myself have been through many a different branding, my personal favourite being ‘TJ Bass’. Not least because it made me sound about as cool as the interior of a McDonald’s apple pie following a thirty minute tanning session inside a Breville. 

For The Cinematic Orchestra, their name became somewhat of a self fulfilling prophecy. 

After receiving masses of critical acclaim for their first album ‘Motion’ they ended up bagging the opportunity to compose a modern score for the classic silent film ‘Man With The Movie Camera’. 

In addition, they also composed the soundtrack to many people’s relaxed drinking endeavours.

I’ve never worked in, or imbibed in a bar that didn’t have their second album ‘Everyday’ nestled neatly somewhere in a playlist.

It comes as no surprise that after 2007’s self professed  “Soundtrack to an imaginary film” ‘Ma Fleur’, head cinematic orchestrator Jason Swinscoe would want to curate a collection of modern day scorings of classical cinema.

Considering I knocked my AS Level in film studies on the head just after learning how to spell mise en scene, some of the avant- garde pictures in question are a tad beyond me. 

Thankfully, a lack of cinematographic smarts is of no real importance.

The music on offer is stunning. With unnerving and evocative submissions by Austrian beatsmith Dorian concept, piano movements from Austin Perelta and beautiful ensembles by The Cinematic Orchestra themselves. 

Being unaware of the original visuals these pieces were intended for opens up new opportunities for listening. 

It’s especially rewarding if you combine this collection of ornate orchestral pieces with 1992 action epic, Under Siege. 

For example, the truly chilling ‘Entr’acte’ begins with lush chords and slowly develops into a motif of rising strings and moments of discordant tension which coalesce beautifully with the kitchen scene where Seagal makes that bomb out of a mug of oil and a microwave. 

Investing a little time and being prepared to let your noggin take you on an epic journey makes this release something truly special. Not giving it the attention it deserves means you risk missing out on the incredibly moving qualities it possesses and that reward is not worth squandering.

Another chapter which cements the idea that The Cinematic Orchestra are just that, maestros of imagery. 

Let’s hope Big Pooh doesn’t cement anything for a while.

[Review] Lone- Galaxy Garden [Published in Now Then Issue 50 May 2012]

Why do all Blink 182 songs sound the same? Why did michael jackson keep banging on about the colours black and white? Why in the name of all that is good in the world do people keep listening to Skrillex?

Its all about artists ‘doing a Glenn Miller’ and finding their sound. 

You can spot a Lone track a mile off. Any time you drift off and start to imagine a nightclub themed bonus stage on Ecco the dolphin, or start seeing colours like aquamarine or fuschia you’re most likely listening to Lone. Either that or you ate the ‘funny’ fruit pastille your flat mate left on his windowsill when he moved out. 

Lone’s use of scattered chords and notes akin to that of an autistic child playing Chopin, are all his own. His Leitmotif if you will. Like the 9th chord progression at the end of a blues song, or when Switch has to put his name in every bloody remix he does because he managed to find a sample that sounded vaguely like his moniker.

I’m a massive advocate of Lone’s signature sonics, so when I say all his songs sound the same it’s both informed and perfectly acceptable. It’s the same principal as me getting away with talking Patois on account of my ex girlfriend being black.

You know where you stand with Lone. You know it’s going to sound like someone playing a  Mega Drive at a warehouse party.

Like freshly washed bed sheets, his new offering is suitably familiar and yet different enough to pique interest.

The two collaborations with Sepalcure’s Machinedrum are stand out efforts. The output of both artists seemingly made for partnership, with tracks packed to the gills with big 808’s, lush pads and haunted vocals.

Floaty, early 90’s rave culture is the order of the day for tracks like Raindance and the absurdly good Crystal Caverns 1991 and everything else is smattered with a healthy doses of Boards Of Canada and Chicago house.

Frenetic yet perfectly under control. Verging on intense but always subdued and above all produced and mastered to the brink of perfection. 

This album is most definitely a progression from previous efforts, just not in the grandiose way you’d expect from a fifth album.

So fixed is Lone in the idea of his own sound, he can obsess on fine tuning it to make sure it will always stay familiar.

[Preview] Jazzy Jeff- Live at Lakota Bristol (Published in Fear Of Fiction May 2012 Issue)

I was always a sickly child. 

I used to blame it on the diet of John West and Philidelphia cheese spread upon which I was raised.

I spent most of my free time in my school playground relaxing and occasionally playing basketball.

One fateful day two older boys decided to cause a ruckus in my local community. Not standing for a breach of the peace on my watch I ended up in a little scrap.

Upon hearing of this my mother became concerned with my well being and insisted I stayed with her sister Viv and her husband.

Whether that’s true or just the intro to ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ isn’t important. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t know of the man like Jazzy Jeff and his light hearted contributions to the world of hip hop.

He’s been around for a few centuries short of an aeon and although he’s never quite topped the work he did with Bill Smith in terms of popularity, he’s kept his head above water with some fantastic scratch heavy collaborations with Slum Village, Talib Kweli, Little Brother and The Roots to name but a few.

Speaking from wonderfully rose tinted experience, he always knows how to bring the party and with the Futureboogie DJs sweetening the deal in the form a 90’s inspired rinse out, there’s no excuse. 

Bristol is his kingdom and he’s finally here. So whistle for a cab and get to Lakota.