Various - Inti

Suntrip Records: 2012

And this is the last of the Suntrip CDs among my 'I' albums. Final tally: six, which may not be that much, less than ten percent of the whole she-bang I bulk bought from the label. Sure felt like a lot though, perhaps due to having a dangling 'H' album lodged in there, or so many bunched up towards the end of this month. We're also dealing with a compilation here, which is nice, those usually offering a little more variety than your standard artist albums. Yeah, there's typically a central theme, but different muses, different gear, different approaches, and all that fun stuff. And, if you're the sort that likes coincidental symmetry and such as, Inti came out just before K.O.B.'s Identity Mash, which, if you remember, was the first 'I' album I covered from Suntrip. Ah, the neocortex abides.

Aside from that, there isn't anything especially significant about Inti beyond what it is – that being the yearly Suntrip compilation. I suppose there's some talking point about this coming out in 2017, a strangely lean year for the label (the aforementioned Identity Mash, a single from Astral Projection, and a concluding trilogy from Mindsphere all they put out). Guess it's a good thing they loaded this compilation up with all of their then-current hottest acts!

Actually, I don't know how accurate that statement is. I know for certain that the usual artists most folks considered Suntrip's core of its old guard (Filteria, E-Mantra, Ra, Khetzal) aren't present. Still, that Crossing Mind fella', he'd been a steady compilation contributor for much of the '10s, plus two albums out by this point. Okay, he counts, even if this was one of his final appearances with Suntrip (and ever).

Having spent more time with this label now, names like Morphic Resonance, Triquetra and Celestial Intelligence are definitely familiar to me, and even supply some of my favorite cuts off here. Morphic's Varese Dream affirms my enjoyment of his high energy brand of psy, Celestial's Distorted Visions gives me a glimpse of their sound being less soggy, Triquetra get two tracks, both still on that strictly reverential goa vibe, and Crossing Mind's Entropy... hey, chill breaks! Well, for a little bit at least.

The familiar out of the way, let's check out the un version of that, starting with Ovnimoon. Okay, he's far from unknown, but I've sparingly come across him over the years. He does a goa too. Jagoa's Perverse Polymorph goes way darker though, really touching on that period when psy started leaning way more sinister. And at the way opposite spectrum is Sykespico's Glimmers Of Sunrise, coming off like a long-lost cut off Paul van Dyk's Seven Ways. Hey, that's, like, my favoritist PvD album! Guess I approve of this track too, even if its at total odds with the rest of the compilation. Oh, it's the final track? Well, alright, its a suitable 'in search of sunrise' closer for a compilation titled after the sun.

N:L:E - In-Organic Adventures / Continue / 3

Liquid Frog Records: 2019/2020/2021

A threefer! Yeah, as I've said, the only way I'm getting through this massive queue in any sort of timely fashion is to consolidate a few of these mini-series into bulk reviews. Honestly, this will probably only effect material from the N:L:E discography because, well, just look at what I've dealt with already! I'm significantly deep enough into Mr. Giacovino's catalogue now to know how these things go, so all that's left is detailing the particulars. I wager there are still enough proper 'albums' among his releases to warrant individual write-ups of those, but for these mini-series consisting of variations of similar ideas, probably not so much.

Which I feel does In-Organic Adventures a slight disservice in of itself. Far as I can tell based on the Liquid Frog Records chronology of releases, In-Organic Adventures was the first album Juan Pablo titled anything with 'organic', one of his favourite go-to words in general. True, 'Caravan' outpaces it by a wide margin, but it was his Organic Adventures on Neotantra that first clued me into his works, and a search of 'organic' on his Bandcamp page reveals ten more uses of it. That's gotta' have some importance to his larger body of work, the sort of stylistic kick-off that would influence much more after.

Or maybe not. The first of these came out in the earlier half of his musical output, when he was still beholden to what a standard album should entail. In-Organic Adventures comes off less restricted in that regard, a chance for Juan Pablo to indulge in some freeform ambient doodling without much need or care for what comes from the session. This approach to songcraft would be more thoroughly explored on his Caravan series, but we hear it best here first. Well, 'best' being something of a subjective stance, depending on your preference for gentle, pulsing ambience such as this. Three tracks, two of which are close to a half-hour combined, though it all plays like the same piece regardless. It's nice in a familiar way, but that's about it.

Juan Pablo must have felt there was more worth exploring with these sounds, as a year later he released In-Organic Adventures Continue (each track still self-titled, but now four through six). It's about the same length, and while still carrying that semi New Age meditative vibe as the first, there is a little more dubby production and naturalist instrumentation going on, making this session far more lively than the first. Then one year after, out comes In-Organic Adventures 3. The melodies and progression are similar, but are far different in terms of production. 7 is almost shockingly clean, lacking any of the dubby tonal depth most N:L:E tracks have, especially when stood in contrast with 8 and 9. These versions all are more rhythm focused too, but again only in contrast to the previous two editions. I suppose its the most interesting collection of tracks of the three, but Continue has the best balance between them all.

InnerSpace - InnerSpace

Suntrip Records: 2012

Not only is this the next item in my alphabetical queue following Crossing Mind's The Inner Shift, but also the next item in Suntrip's chronological catalogue as well! Wow, not even Hypnoxock's Beyond The Wormhole could claim that cosmic coincidence. Come to think of it, I have no other albums with 'inner' in its title either, these two now the lone options within my library. They'd be side-by-side no matter how I'd gotten them, as though ordained to be intertwined with each other.

Okay, not one-hundred percent so, InnerSpace the first of Suntrip's 'Limited Edition' run of CDs. Mucks up that 'Sort By Catalogue Number' sequence in Lord Discogs, InnerSpace shunted well away from The Inner Shift. I guess they also don't sit together in lists that include articles (like my MP3 player), Crossing Mind's album then lost among all the other 'The' records. Where am I going with this again? Oh yeah, coincidences, and how our pattern-seeking brains want to assign meaning to them. Careful of conspiracies, kids.

I – and by I, I mean Lord Discogs – have practically nothing on InnerSpace. A name, which came with the Bandcamp blurb: Jörg Schemczyk. There isn't much else info I can find, beyond some generic 'been active in Germany's goa trance scene' copy on a long-defunct website only accessible with the Wayback Machine. I'm somehow not surprised. This release has the feel of Suntrip doing a solid for a friend of the label, not the debut of an artist looking to make a major mark upon the psy world at large.

I've talked about many 'big fish, small pond' types, and I'm sure goa's got more of those than you can imagine. If anything, that scene is almost too generous in giving folks their moment of shine, hence the insurmountable glut of releases that's been an issue for as long as I can remember. They want to be as generous and rewarding for hard work as possible because hey, good karma and all that, but it really isn't always necessary.

So I assume it went with InnerSpace. Suntrip, always eager to bring exposure to any artist that may fit their neo-goa manifesto, convinced Jörg to put out something with them. It wasn't a lane he felt that comfortable exploring though, content remaining in the one he'd carved out for himself. So Suntrip says, “No problem, bro', we'll just 'limited edition' a one-off. Heck, we'll even give it that extra 'ripped from CDr' flavour, adding an annoying *click* to the start of every track!” Or I'm just blowing smoke as usual.

Oh, the music? Yeah, it's retro goa trance. Does everything you'd expect of the style, perhaps a little more on the deeper end than anything tear-out. Makes sense for an album called InnerSpace. A couple tunes slow things down to more prog-psy territory (Below, Lost City), but there isn't much sonic variation among the tracks either. About as middle-of-the-road as Suntrip CDs go. Darn grade curves.

Crossing Mind - The Inner Shift

Suntrip Records: 2012

Well, I liked this one more than his other album, Beyond Duality. I can actually recall more to this CD than just production aesthetics. Again, it's not that Mr. Bèze's second release with Suntrip was bad – I haven't really heard anything out of this label that I'd classify as being bunk. I've just come to realize there's certain styles within this micro-niche genre of neo-goa I prefer over others, and for whatever reason, the sound on that Crossing Mind record just didn't click for me.

I recall reading somewhere that Stéphane intentionally tried doing something a little different for Beyond Reality, and fair play for artists stepping out of comfort zones. Perhaps that's why The Inner Shift was an easier sell for my earholes though. While technically not his debut album by any stretch, it was his chance at re-introducing himself to a fresh audience, one that was far more receptive to psy trance on something of a retro bent. And the best way to accomplish that is to offer something familiar while throwing your own spin on it.

It's the melodies, mang'. Like, the sort that actually hook into your brain, and aren't lost among all the assorted psy trance wibble. Sure, they can get twisted and contorted into trippy, squiggly variations and progressions, but at least they're there. The sort of tunes that draw you away from whatever primary activity you were doing while playing it in the background, forcing you to notice what the track is doing and even enjoy doing so. Yeah, not gonna' lie, part of the reason many of these Suntrip CDs don't always leap out at me is for that very reason, too often content remaining agreeable music existing in the peripheral of my attention. That cuts like Modulated Self Reminders and Magnetic Fields of Life managed to overcome that hurdle for yours truly is worth recommendation alone.

And then The Inner Shift does that other thing I'm always ranting about these neo-goa albums are in desperate need of: diversity! Granted, it's shunted towards the end of the CD, but the fact there's two tracks of lower BPM out of eight is far more than we usually get out of Suntrip releases. Plutonia is only marginally slower, not even enough to end up in the realms of prog-psy, but it's at least moodier, bringing a change of tone. Optronic Circles (Inner Shift Remix) is definitely 'chuggy' enough though. There's even a short 'secret song'!

Eh, that 'production aesthetic' quibble I brought up about Crossing Mind's second Suntrip album? Yeah, The Inner Shift has a bit of that plastic flatness to it too, but it's not nearly as noticeable. It's funny how, when the hooks are strong enough, keeping your focus on them, such things like 'production aesthetics' aren't as much of an issue. Weird how that's been a factor with music for as long as I can remember, yet it continues to come up. You'd think artists would have learned that by now.

Jamie Myerson - The Influence Of Stars

self-release: 2023

I feel fortunate stumbling upon Mr. Myerson's re-emergent discography the way I did. I could have discovered it via some Discogs links or Bandcamp recommendation, but this way felt long overdue, one of the reasons I still maintain such a service among all my others. For you see, somehow, someway, Deezer gets the credit on this one. I can't recall whether it was via some Ace Tracks Playlist maintenance, or the app just happened to luck out when showing me new releases, but upon hearing what the former atmospheric jungle producer had been up to in recent years, I had to scope out some more. Thanks, Deezer!

So what happened to Mr. Myerson anyway? While not exactly a high-profile producer in the '90s, he did release plenty of items on several prominent labels (Ovum Recordings, Sm:)e Communications, S3), and was even playlisted by the big Oakenfield when Paul was dabbling in jazzy d'n'b. For all intents, he should have had a long-lasting career off those accolades, but for whatever reason, the chap receded from the limelight following his self-titled 2004 album. It was nearly fifteen years before he emerged again, self-releasing many new items on Bandcamp. Some of it was a return to the spacey jungle style he was known for, but other singles found him exploring other sounds, including Berlin-School ambience, cosmic disco, and slowbeat dub techno. Whatever happened in that decade-and-half downtime must have truly invigorated Jamie's creative spark, because the guy's been on an absolute tear these past five years.

While many of his EPs look intriguing, The Influence Of Stars stood out the most, what with its vintage representation of gravity wells. Some proper space music from Mr. Myerson, then? Well, the titular opener is definitely on that retro space synth vibe, pure ambience with pulsing, shimmering melodic leads ebbing in and out. Almost synthwave in that regard, the sort of moody introduction you hear before heading into some outrun action.

Overview Effect brings things more to ambient techno's domain though. For sure the synths on use are about as grand and opulent as an Astropilot prog-psy session might go, but the rhythm is more steadying and grounded. Soliton, meanwhile, opts for beats a little more crunchy and subdued, all the while dense layers of pad work wash over you, save the occasional splash of trancey lead. It never takes off in a significant way, which makes the relatively calmer Automaticity feel less significant as a closer. This track probably would have been better served as one of the first couple, but that's just a minor quibble, still a solid slice of deep atmospherics rich in timbre and dubby groove.

Is this the EP you should be checking out, then, if you're curious about Jamie's recent musical developments? I'd say so. For sure you can still get his d'n'b productions among his output, but The Influence Of Stars proves he's not so beholden to a singular style either.

ALPHAXONE - The Infinite Void

Cryo Chamber: 2022

Been a while since I last talked up Mr. Saleh, 2018's Edge Of Solitude the last item I covered from him. Granted, I wrote that review a few years after it came out, but it's been a few years since then, so the point stands. It's not like he hasn't kept busy, continuously releasing albums at as steady a pace as ever. He even released an album on ...txt, under his Spuntic guise (Silent Escape), so definitely colour me intrigued by that – always neat seeing these artists cross-pollinate upon labels I'd never associate them with (Purl and Dronarivm springs to mind). So if everything seems hunky-dory in Alphaxone land, why have I not come back to him more frequently?

Honestly, I kinda' burnt myself out on him during my initial Cryo Chamber splurges. He was not only one of the label's most prolific artists in their early years, but also one of their only ones that got me itchin' to dig further. And as his records steadily drifted from outworld dimensions to cosmic soundscapes, they were diverse enough to keep me invested. With Cryo's roster expanding with more and more unique offerings, however, I felt compelled to explore those rather than stick with what I was already familiar with. Like, after seven albums from Mehdi, I was plenty sated for the time being.

Which brings me to The Infinite Void. Kind of. Sort of. Okay, not directly in any sense. It just happened to be his latest offering when I last bulk-bought from Cryo Chamber, and seemed appropriate I should check it out. Another space-themed session at that? Hell, I'm already checking out a bunch along those lines (Exo, Quasi, Beta Pictoris, Xenoplanetary), what's one more?

The Infinite Void is aptly titled, because this is one darn minimalist album of cosmic drone. Yeah, drone music is generally minimalist by default, but I'm talking quiet too, tones and timbre seldom escalating beyond a simmer of soundscape. There's ample use of Apollo mission chatter, but even that is barely audible, only the faintest traces of actual dialog discernible. For sure you know what they're saying, as the radio chatter is some of the most iconic radio chatter ever, but you only recognize it as that, nothing specific to the music (such as it is) supporting it. Like memories of mankind's greatest achievements forever drifting lost and trackless in the void above.

While there are periods of foreboding drone throughout this album, a feeling of melancholic loneliness tends to override it. With how sparsely it all plays out, however, I can't say its a terribly engaging listen, more suited for background mood than anything. That is, until the titular closer, where the horrible serenity of cosmic isolation hits you with about as many feels as anything I've heard from Alphaxone's body of work. I'm forever alone, and I'm perfectly content with it in this infinite void within my mind. Not so crushing as the Silent Universe would have you believe.

KEDA8 - Inertia

Intellitronic Bubble: 2022

Releases like this remind me why its so important that I maintain a wide variety of musical styles for my regular rotation. It's all the difference in having something sound fresh and vital upon first play-through versus just more of the same in a run of similar sounding CDs. As I've been so immersed in Suntrip Records' neo-goa for the last little while, getting back to some acid electro and techno is a godsend to my ears, at least a month since I covered any. Yet for as wonderful as KEDA8's Inertia currently sounds, I can't help but suspect, had I listened to this shortly after, say, that run of Intellitronic Bubble compilations, it wouldn't have as much initial lustre.

Which would have been a shame, because this is a darn good album, perhaps one of the best outings from this label I've heard yet. And that's saying something, considering the high pedigree most of the releases I've thus far scoped out have been. When you consider most of the artist albums I have reviewed off Intellitronic Bubble are from established names like Lee Norris, Mick Chillage, Devin Underwood, and Kenneth Werner (not to mention Futuregrapher adding his mastering touch to everything), the fact this near-unknown in KEDA8 dang nearly outshines them all in his debut is something special indeed.

Okay, Xander Brown isn't completely new, having quite a few releases already under his belt on his Bandcamp page. For some reason though, none of those have been added to Lord Discogs' tomes. Dang, does someone need to bulk-buy his Bandcamp catalogue and do the deed for him? Hmm, it's only ten releases for a fifty spot. Hhhmmmm.....

Right, I wouldn't be even thinking of this if I didn't think his music's not worth digging further. Besides, it's not like I'm hearing much on Inertia that I haven't heard before. Intellitronic Bubble prides itself on being apologetically retro with its sound, sometimes almost to a fault (that Floating In An Acid Can record, for an example). KEDA8 though, is just so damn good at this.

Like, right from the jump in Mirage, if those vintage Detroit vibes don't hook you, then I have no clue how you've been a fan of techno in any fashion. Then Nail Acid gets right into the ganky muck of back alley acid, while Precept gets about as proper electro as the Belleville Three ever did. And then Xander follows that up with trance! Okay, Prism and Proto Acid aren't really trance, but with that much melody coupled with 303s drenched in reverb, I'll allow it. Yes, I'm acting as the acid trance arbiter.

Some dubby leftfield tracks (Whale Dub, Being), something a little twee (Yuki), and something lowridin' (Auro) round things out for a tidy nine-tracker. And now I want more from KEDA8. Moar! When's that next Bandcamp Friday again...?

(note: while writing this review, I learned that Árni Grétar, aka: Futuregrapher, died from a car accident on New Year's. It's a terrible loss for everyone involved in these labels, Árni not only giving shine to many talents on the fringe of techno, acid, electro, and chill-out, but often providing wonderful mastering jobs for them too. He will be missed)

Celestial Intelligence - Incandescent

Suntrip Records: 2019

Wait, another Macedonian psy-trance duo known for live shows? Just how many of these kinds of artists are there? ~ crickets ~ Okay, maybe there's a few more, but I can't imagine there being more on Suntrip, right? And even if there is, it's a damn impossibility they'd be following Celestial Intelligence and Cosmic Dimension in my alphabetical queue, right? Right...? *checks upcoming CDs* Right.

Seriously though, seeing as both hail from Kumanovo, I had to double check to make sure I wasn't dealing with the same pair of pairs. For one thing, Cosmic Dimension's lone album on Suntrip came out a couple years before Celestial Intelligence made their debut, and neither seem to have lasted on the label beyond The Great Shutdown of 2020. C.I. has also appeared on Global Sect Music, though much earlier than C.D. did. Plus, both appeared one after the other on the Ten Spins Around The Sun compilation, which means... Well, probably mere coincidence than anything conspiratorial. Still, it didn't stop me from clicking through the names of Branislav Dimkovski and Dalibor Anastasovski at Lord Discogs, making sure they weren't somehow aliases of Antonio Simonovski and Denis Bogdanovski. When you're dealing with so many '...ovski's, it's easy to get them crossed.

So Celestial Intelligence. Fiddled with other musics elsewhere before teaming up, released a number of compilation-only tracks for half a decade, landed on Suntrip as you do. And in my usual convoluted manner, am reviewing their second album first, because nothing can be that straight forward and simple.

Incandescent was another album I was looking forward to on cover art alone. With its bright, aquamarine blues and tropical setting, I thought this could, just maybe, be something a little different from the usual neo-goa norm. Dipping toes into more prog-psy territory, or even - *gasp* - Suntrip's lone experiment dabbling in psy dub. Surely they've tried their hand at something like that in their history? Perhaps, but this wasn't that album.

So it's another neo-goa album that's perfectly fine with some strong peak-time moments, but doesn't really stand out much more than that. Actually, no, there is one thing that makes Celestial Intelligence unique from all the other Suntrip acts I've thus far heard: their effects sound rather... wet? Juicy? Moist? I don't know how to describe it beyond that. Not so much 'drippy', as you hear in psy dub, just really... 'squirty'. It doesn't add much to the tracks either, the sort of superfluous noises you associate with the more wibbly portions of psy. Guess it'd make these tunes most effective at dawn's early light, when the morning dew is glistening off the surrounding foliage of whatever outdoor party you've been at.

Gotta' wonder if the Suntrip management noticed this too, hence the water-themed cover art. Heck, maybe this is a deliberate choice by Celestial Intelligence, tweaking the knobs on their gear to 'Soak' or 'Saturate'. Really 'marinate' that acid such that its 'drenched' in that 'damp', 'sopping' texture.

Londonbeat - In The Blood

MCA Records: 1990/1991

A group that's so globally recognized by just their One Big Hit, I'm surprised Todd In The Shadows hasn't done on episode on them yet. How big was I've Been Thinking About You? Hell, at the grocery store I was at this very day I'm typing, the song came on the overhead speaker!

So we all know that irresistible earworm of a tune, Jimmy Helms' soulful earnestness, William Henshall's jangly guitar, and those sweet vocal harmonies on the chorus, but what of the rest? Like, there was a whole album supporting this hit single, and surely something this dynamite had to trickle down into the group's other songs.

At least, that what I was hoping when I nabbed this out of the bargain bin. After all, Londonbeat hit it big during that sweet melting-pot musical era of late-'80s / early-'90s UK, when acid house music was catching on and every act, whether rock, funk, or soul was looking to cash in. Heck, you can even hear elements of it in I've Been Thinking About You, what with those piano chords in support (featured more prominently in the breakdown fade-out). Yeah, there's still something of a Stock Aitken Waterman production gloss to it, but of course they'd do that for the song aimed straight for radio play. If you want to hear the more adventurous productions, you have to go to the full album!

Or not. In The Blood is certainly fine for what it is, but it's mostly not what I was hoping for. Ultimately, Londonbeat started out as a post-Motown soul act, which just happened to have some influence from the local club scenes of the time. Their earlier b-sides suggested they were at least aware of acid house, but such sounds simply wouldn't fit on a record such as this. And hey, that's great if you're down for some quality soul music of 1990. I'm just not surprised that acts like Soul II Soul and Massive Attack get far more legacy cred' than Londonbeat does.

The closest thing to another 'house tune' this album gets is Step Inside My Shoes, in a New Jack Swing sort of way, while the titular cut does allow for some acid over the Funky Drummer break. She Broke My Heart and She Said She Loves Me too, though are more indebted to '80s funk. We go kinda' Balearic with Crying In The Rain and a cover of No Woman No Cry, almost entirely because of those dolphin samples. And as if you needed any reminder this group's from Europa, Getcha Ya Ya gets all red light district slinky, including an accordion in support. It was also nice to hear an acoustic outing with This Is Your Life, letting the group's vocal talents be fully heard without a studio.

If there's any nitpick to be had, the production is still very much of its time. Methinks In The Blood could use a strong remaster for modern ears. Londonbeat is still active to this day (!), so I don't see why they couldn't.

Cosmic Dimension - In A Special Kind Of Space

Suntrip Records: 2013

I could have sworn I already covered an album by Cosmic Dimension, but that's impossible. Not only is this the duo's lone album with Suntrip, but about it for their releases in total. They did put out another album a few years ago on Global Sect Music, which seems to be something of an alternate outlet for former Suntrip artists (Artifact303, Merr0w, Clementz). Hm, I actually like some of these producers, maybe it's a print worth bulk-buying from? Oh dear God, no, not again!

Anyhow, back to figuring out why I thought I'd already covered Cosmic Dimension. Am I getting them confused with Morphic Resonance or Hypnoxock? There are some similarities there, in that they all have kaleidoscopic cover art on their albums. More pointedly though, they're all operating in the high-octane, peak-time vein of psy trance, which I tend to prefer from these CDs. Granted, In A Special Kind Of Space doesn't have quite as much punch as The City Of Moons or Beyond The Wormhole, but it is enough that I could play these tracks alongside those and they wouldn't sound that much out of step with modern production standards. Okay, I'll go with that answer, and not the much more bunk one of just getting all these neo-goa acts mixed up from one another, especially when listening to a bunch in rapid succession (foreshadow!).

Right, that's sorted. So who are Cosmic Dimension anyway? A pair of Macedonians, they hit the scene pretty hot, dropping this debut album after just one compilation appearance with the label. They were apparently already making some waves on the live circuit, which I can easily believe. In A Special Kind Of Space is the sort of album where you can just tell the artists involved are well-honed in their craft, in this case delivering psy trance purely focused on maximum energy for the 2am crowds. There's plenty of wiggly-squiggly acid, but its never wiggly-squiggling about just for wiggly-squiggly sake, always there accentuating the driving rhythms. Sometimes you'll hear that full-on bassline, but its never so prominent that it becomes a distraction from the good stuff. Backing pads and strings help keep things properly cosmic without ever getting cliche. There's even a couple outlier tracks, a self-titled slow-beat intro, and a closer that, while still pretty peppy, is a good ten BPM lower than the rest. I could nitpick most tracks are kinda' similar throughout, but eh, neo-goa, amirite?

Yep, this all sounds like a solid entry into the Suntrip catalogue. Why, then, did Cosmic Dimension never release anything else with them? Well, I know nothing about that, but maybe In A Special Kind Of Space wasn't meant to be a proper artist launch? The CD was designated a 'limited edition', yet if I still nabbed a copy nearly a decade after, perhaps it didn't do as well as hoped? Then again, some acts just prefer sticking to the live scene, not having to worry about what sounds better in a home-listening environment.

宇多田ヒカル - BADモード

Epic: 2022

(a Patreon request)

The record that finally had Resident Advisor talking up one of Japan's biggest pop stars, for what that's worth. Probably because of Floating Points' contributions to the album, especially so that Somewhere Near Marseilles closer which got everyone remembering acid house's hypnotic potential as it gestates and simmers for ten-plus minutes of improvisational groove. They might have even given Bad モード a sideways glance for the A.G. Cook tunes, what with him being among the earliest proponents of the hyperpop movement. Eh, the Skrillex track? Well, maybe if there's some Kingdom Hearts fanbois lurking.

Truthfully, I only found out about Sam Shapherd's involvement after I'd listened to this album, preferring to go into these things mostly blind. Yeah, I knew Sonny Moore was here, just because his name gets a big ol' Featuring credit tagged to Face My Fears. The rest though? Not so much, even though Floating Points is just as big a name in certain circles of electronic music (let's call them the 'prestige rags') as Skrillex is elsewhere.

When I threw Bad モード on, and started hearing the dance influences, I couldn't help but think, “Oh, Utada hopped on that retro-house revival Beyoncé's made a thing back in '22.” Never mind this album came out before the Queen B's did, that's the discourse that's permeated a few years on, not that Japan's all-time best-selling artist technically got there first.

Utada's always had an ear for the clubs though, even if stabs at American R&B didn't net the same sales results as ballads would in Japan. So hearing a steady house rhythm on Find Love or a trip-hop beat on 気分じゃないの (Not In The Mood) or a tropical house build on One Last Kiss didn't throw me out for that much of a loop, Hikaru's vocals fitting in just as snug as any traditional J-pop jangle from back in the day. Sure, I could tell whoever was producing 気分じゃないの (Sam) was adding a little extra shine on their studio talents towards the end, but it wasn't obnoxious about it. Not the Skrillex track though, Skrillexxing all over the main hook in the overproduced way so much of his music goes. Damn, if you were gonna' have stuff like that on here, why not have the guys from Wednesday Capanella come in. Eh, additional producer Nariaki Obukuro has worked with them? Well, there you go.

So a good album, definitely justifying whatever hype you've stumbled upon. Maybe even make Bad モード your introduction to Utada if you haven't played their music yet. And hey, don't take my word for it, just see what prestige rag Pitchfork has to say about it! Their opening sentence: “The path to understanding one’s identity is circuitous and without clear instructions—a never-ending process.” Geez'it, just as pretentiously odious as I remember. I closed the tab right after.

ACE TRACKS: October - December 2024

I know this is about the point everyone expects some yearly reflection, maybe a little philosophical insight about what the previous jaunt around the sun meant in the grand scheme of culture. Frankly, I got nuthin'. Oh, thoughts about All The Things aplenty, but little I find terribly enlightening. 2024 played out mostly as I thought it would, sadly, and was plenty prepared for all the nonsense that came from it. What does it say about one's outlook when the conclusion basically can be summed up with a classic 'King Of The Hill'-ism: “Mm, yup.”

Or maybe it's just because this was the year that, more than any I can remember, I had to come to grips with the reality that those closest in my life may not be there for much longer. Its something that's lingered in the back of my mind for a while, sure, but easily compartmentalized. Time grows shorter for many more though, which has a tendency to make those things more your priority than whatever else is going on in the world.

Oh hey, I didn't mean to make this sound all moody and glum. Here's some ACE TRACKS from the end of 2024!


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Natural Life Essence - Imaginary Motion
Sound Synthesis - IC 4406
Taboo - I Dream Of You Tonight (Bab Ba Ba Bab)
Jeannine Schulz - Humble
Natural Life Essence - Hidrogenesis / 2020
Various - Hidden Realms EP
Various - Galaxies: An Excursion Through Technospace
N:L:E - Gaia

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 17%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Franck Vigroux - 68 (it's a rather abrasive song to start on, especially with a lot of ambient to follow)

Something I just realized: with almost all of N:L:E's albums not on Deezer, I have a pretty good idea of how many I go through whenever I put together another of these playlists. Seems this three-month period was one of the more fallow blocks, which makes sense, these current letters within the alphabet surprisingly skint for albums in general.

As for the rest, it's about what most of these playlists have become: lots of Suntrip Records, lots of ambient forms (in this case, Urban Meditation eating up the bulk), with enough smatterings of other genres to keep things somewhat interesting as it plays through. A little more R&B and hip-hop than usual too, which I suspect will become more of a thing in the near future.