Solar Fields - Formations

Sidereal: 2022

There was a time I couldn't wait to hear a new Solar Fields album. Getting the CD in the mail from Ultimae Records, marvelling at the shiny, smooth texture of their product, getting psyched to hear all those wonderful ultra-positive vibes in widescreen sonics. Good days, f'sure, but things changed, Magnus setting up his own label, working to reissue his older material through it and all that. He did release an album during that time, Ourdom, which while good, didn't seem to have the lasting appeal as some of his older works. I couldn't help wondering whether he'd done all that he could now, future albums relegated to a comfortable familiarity without pushing too far into genre explorations.

It was quite the wait indeed, Formations six years in the making. Then I added two more, letting it sit in my queue for its alphabetically ordained time to listen to it, rather than throw it on in hot anticipation. That kind of sums up my recent feelings on Solar Fields though, doesn't it? “Yeah, it's nice that there's some new music, but I'll get to it whenever I get to it.” Was my lukewarm reception justified, or did I do myself stupid putting Formations off for so long?

Well, it's definitely a Solar Fields in a classic sense, in that holy Hell, does he ever unleash some of those prime ultra-melodies from the days of yore. Not only does he do so, but somehow keeps upping the ante as the album plays out. Seriously, the whole thing could have perfectly ended after the mind-bending Star Carnival and perfect coda Between Mirrors, but no, there's still a third of a record left. How can he even follow that up?

By going a little more conceptual, I guess. Always 034746 sounds like Magnus' stab at something more Berlin-School, though obviously done to his ridiculously rich and full production standards. Heck, I can't help but detect a whiff of prog-rock in there too, but that may be more due to the use of more regular sounding drums and guitars. Speaking of, I couldn't help getting some Vangelis vibes off Motion Horizon, specifically Alpha (aka: the other piece of music everyone associates with Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos'). Nothing outright, mind you, just the way it does a very calm, gentle start, building into a big, rapturous crescendo. Come to think of it, that's been a Solar Fields trademark for a long while too. Huh, wonder why this particular track made the connection for me.

I know I'm jumping all over the place with Formations, but it's kinda' a funny album like that. On the surface it's about as Solar Fieldsy as it gets, but it makes you want to go back to hear something again, even before the rest of the record finishes. A relatively weak album narrative is likely the reason for this, but who cares about that when you just want to hear those riveting high points again? Not this person, I wager.

Purl - Form Is Emptiness

Archives: 2016

In my mind, Purl will always be a Silent Season guy, for one rather silly reason: his album Stillpoint was the second CD I ever bought from the label. And a humdinger of a record it was, so perfectly capturing such a sublime vibe the dub techno print cultivated at that point. Never mind that would end up being Mr. Cimbrelius' last release with Silent Season, or that he'd only had one other item with them before (Deep Ground). In my mind, Purl was Silent Season, and always will be.

That's obviously completely erroneous though, Ludvig shopping the Purl brand among many labels throughout his career. Heck, even by the time he'd put out Stillpoint, he'd already had more albums out on Dewtone Recordings than any other label. The following year, however, he made his debut with a little ambient print just getting their feet wet, with a similar aesthetic to Silent Season (densely layered dub drones, naturalistic cover art). He'd go on to release many more there, plus their off-shoot print. For all intents, I should be thinking Purl as an Archives guy more than a Silent Season guy. Nope, still can't quite shake it.

Purl being on Archives makes sonic sense, and Form Is Emptiness delivers exactly what you'd expect of the pairing. Ludvig's drone tones are given more prominence, but his dubby rhythms aren't completely jettisoned either. In fact, they're often downright heavy, some serious low-end throb going on in the track Unlearn even as gentle, ethereal pad work weaves through the bass. Elsewhere, Under Mjuka Vatten and Willow (Graft I) keep the dub techno pulse steady, focusing more on the subtle harmonic tones layered overtop. And if final track Terra Lumina, at sixteen minutes in length, didn't make room for at least a little beatcraft during its runtime, it'd be a big waste of sonic space indeed.

Still, Archives is generally more an ambient label than a dub techno one (there's Faint for that), and Form Is Emptiness offers the beatless stuff too. Vissna washes layered strings and synths like waves upon a seashore, while the titular track expands on Vissna's ideas to grander scale. Not to mention most tracks have at least some ambient dithering at their starts, gradually leading in whether there's a rhythm or not. Yep, there's all the things happening that should make this a standout Purl album. Well, almost.

Honestly, I think this is more an Archives issue than a Purl one. The label, while very dependable at providing a particular type of ambient, does tend to sound rather samey. I've brought up this critique before, and it holds true with Form Is Emptiness, a sense of repetitiveness settling in as the album plays out. Having heard Ludvig across many prints now, I can only conclude this is more him making music in the Archives style. Great if you're down for more with a little dub techno rudder, but may not leap out at you as essential as his other releases.

Photek - Form & Function

Virgin: 1998

I guess this was the only, non-single item left in Photek's early discography I'd yet to nab. Granted, it wasn't terribly high on my 'must-have' list, the very odds-n-sods nature of it all. New music from Mr. Parkes seems mostly at an end though, save the occasional collab' and some score work. Which is fine, the Photek legacy well earned and deserved to rest on a bed of laurels. If I want to hear more of that vintage drumfunk sound, there's plenty of new cats more than willing and able to pick up where Rupert once led. Still, that lingering OCD of mine, itching to at least complete the Photek set, such as it is. Sure, I'll grab Form & Function, should I spot it for a dime in some Discogs Seller collection.

Unfortunately, there's no getting around the 'hodgepodge' nature of this compilation. When you round up a bunch of remixes and b-sides, it's difficult enough sorting them into a consistent flow. Never mind the fact this was coming off Modus Operandi, an album that, while perhaps a little vacuous overall, at least had an identity to itself front to back. Though hardly justified, comparisons are inevitable, Form & Function forever saddled with the big brother that is Photek's debut.

That albatross sorted, let's dig into what we do get with this CD. Separated by two halves, the first deals with the remixes, the second rare stuff. Your mileage will probably vary whether you want to hear classic Photek or other people having their way with his tunes (“why not both?” asks the little Mexican junglist girl).

Funny enough, the first remix featured on Form & Function comes from Photek himself, a little modernizing of his early single of The Seven Samurai. The original is included among the latter tracks, so you can hear for yourself Mr. Parkes' evolution. Like, from the jump, you can hear how he was finding ways to manipulate the tech-step sinister sound into something even twitchier, though his drum programming was still reliant on a few tear-out moments. Not so for the remix, stripping things even further so you can really feel that bass resonance filling in all the empty space between the drums.

Anyhow, enough of that, here's some remixes from Digital, Decoder & Peshay, and Doc Scott. They all take Photek's sound into more familiar DnB territory: standard tech-step, a little jazzstep, and, erm, jump-up, respectively. Seriously, it's almost funny hearing the Doc try to force the most critically ridiculed jungle genre of its era into the most critically lauded. That said, I rather like J Majik's go with UFO, adding some nifty sci-fi synths that would have fit perfectly with other Modus Operandi tracks.

And the remaining Photek tracks? A little heady (Knitevision), a little funky (Santiago), a little atmospheric (Rings Around Saturn), a little classic (The Water Margin). A solid assortment, proving Parkes could mix things up. Man, the album needed some of these...

Yahgan & N:L:E - The Forgotten Civilization

Liquid Frog Records: 2020

Can't go long into a new month without another item from good ol' Juan Pablo dropping in again. Okay, that's unfair, sometimes several weeks going by before coming back to the Liquid Frogs Records catalogue. Just seem to be in another one of those 'several in a bundle' runs, like back in April. And hey, at least we're returning to one of his more intriguing aliases, Yahgan. Haven't touched upon one of those releases since, gosh, January? Let me check... (*clickity-clickity clack*) Oh my God! It's been ten months! I mean, thinking eight months wasn't anything to sneeze at either, but holy cow, really goes to show how long it's taking me to get through all this – as if we didn't need another reminder.

As for forgetting which month I reviewed Antarctica, I can only assume I associated the frozen album with the one obligatory snow day we had in January. Now that I recall though, I trudged through the stuff while listening to another N:L:E release, one of the Caravan Of Healing Sounds. And yes, the Rocky 4 soundtrack would have been more appropriate, but what're y' gonna' do?

As for other non-musical factoids surrounding this particular release, The Forgotten Civilization was the second album Mr. Giacovino put out with the Yahgan banner, though I wonder if he was uncertain it had much clout to stand on its own yet, tagging it with his N:L:E handle in support. It had been a couple years since he debuted it with Yahgan's Land E.P, I guess, an absolute age given Juan Pablo's relentless output. Give the polar themed project a little extra brand recognition.

Actually, I can hear why he may have returned to Yahgan at this point, as Mr. Giacovino was already going through something of a minimalist ambient excursion. He'd debuted the Caravan Of Healing Sounds series just the year prior, plus an album called Micro Ambient in between (which turned into a mini-series in of itself). Feelin' that subtle vibe, is what I'm sensing, and drone tones with an arctic theme have long been fertile ground for exploring that.

Speaking of exploring, I'm guessing archaeological expeditions of the southernmost end of South America is the loose theme going here. Cannot deny closing track Unknown Citadel (Submarine Encounters) does impart a sense of desolation, wandering ruins like... well, not quite an Atrium Carceri outing, but edging rather close to Cryo Chamber's domain. Be an interesting twist, f'sure.

The others, meanwhile, captures more the gentle awe of the realm, less about the loss one might feel in realizing whatever peoples did dwell here have long since gone. The gentle grace in traversing The Forgotten Temple at the start. Maybe seeing their souls dancing about in the more melodic pulses heard in Wandering Forms. Subsuming oneself into an underwater trove of hidden relics in Deep Waves. Ah, that descent into something more ominous with Unknown Castle makes better sense, following this sort of journey.

Nelly Furtado - Folklore

Dreamworks: 2003

You namedrop one Canadian pop singer, and the CanCon Commission comes knocking at your door. “How come you're reviewing a Japanese pop starlet, but not one of our own?” they ask. Look, chaps, I think I've been quite fair in my mandatory Canadian content. Why, I've even given two hip-hop acts that aren't Drake some shine here. Besides, R&B and pop really isn't my area of expertise, so...

“Nope, you're reviewing at least Nelly Furtado's first three albums, and if not, we're sending you to the Ellef Ringnes Island gulag.”

(Disclaimer: re-enactment – may or may not have really happened!)

Nelly Furtado was undoubtedly one of my country's biggest stars at the turn of the century. Not only popular enough to go multi-platinum on her debut, but managed to re-invent herself into a damn phenomenon, truly becoming a global star. By alphabetical decree, however, I'm starting with the record between those two flashpoints, the so-called sophomore slump of Folklore. Aww, c'mon, guys, it ain't that bad, really.

Following her breakout, however, she was something of an in-demand vocalist. Paul Oakenfold tapped her. Swollen Members tapped her (at the height of their popularity, no less). For most though, it was appearing on the remix of Missy Elliot's Get Ur Freak On that showed and proved she wasn't some one-hit wonder. That Nelly could hang with the pop world elite. Logic dictated that she should pursue that particular audience, maybe even work with Timbaland in an official capacity. Instead, she stuck with her original production crew (alt-rockers Philosopher Kings alum Brian West and Gerald Eaton) for an album that's, well, diverse, if nothing else.

There's no denying the album sounds big and bold, unafraid to toss whatever influence strikes Nelly's interest into the pot. Opener One-Trick Pony has a bit of folksy twang, follow-up Powerless throws in more Mediterranean influences (gotta' show those Portuguese roots), Explode aims for something more clubby with brisk rhythms and heavier low-ends, and Try... ah, there's the radio-friendly adult contemporary song I've heard for the last two decades.

All well and good, but I get why regular folks may not have connected with all the genre dalliances, especially when few offer quite the earworms Ms. Furtado had sang before. C'mon though, how can you not get a silly grin on your face hearing her crack up on the blues singalong Saturdays with Jarvis Church?