ACE TRACKS: August 2015

So this is late, partly because of slack, but also because Spotify went and did another one of their app-crippling updates that made making Playlists a bitch for a while. Yes, even one as short as this one for August 2015, of what few releases I did get through last month. At least it was more than my previous August effort of two years past, a feat I was determined to beat, dang nab’it! The good news is that finally - finally - Spotify’s Local Files issues seem to have finally been fixed, and the app took in a good, heaving gulp of all the music I’ve gathered since that featured went kaputnik. And holy cow, I’ve now amassed over two months worth of music on CD, played non-stop, back-to-back. Now that’s what I’d call a road trip!



Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Slumberland (Episode 2: Awake & Dreaming)
Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 2% (I wouldn’t really call most Beach Boys/Brian Wilson music rock, at least of what’s here)
Most “WTF?” Track: Brian Wilson - Ms. O’Leary’s Cow (I know the bovine was responsible for much destruction, but dear me…!)

This one came together remarkably well - or perhaps all too predictably since we’re dealing with a smaller sample size of music and genres than most months. Good times are aplenty if you vibe on the dubby downbeat and calm ambient, plus a couple pleasant techno and trance numbers thrown in for good measure. Not much else to say about this one, so onwards and upwards to another 1,000 hours of music in plastic form. Maybe I’ll hit that mark before the end of the year! Erm, not the way current finances are going, I wager. Damn vacation bills.

Adham Shaikh - Resonance - Selected Ambient Works

Sonicturtle Records/Black Swan Sounds: 2010/2013

Hearing Adham Shaikh branch out into music with more tempo and groove is all well and good, but it was his ambient productions that got me digging deeper. Still, though he'd mostly left that part of his career in the '90s, it didn't stop him from composing pieces in his spare time or for other projects. Prominent among these were sounds and scores for various, small-budget films and documentaries, mostly dealing with things like spiritualism, activism, and yogaism. And while they didn’t lead to anything officially released on the market, he kept those works on hand should their ever be an opportunity to make use of them. Turns out there was, in the number of recommendations from associates and friends that told ol’ Adham that he needed to make these available to all us common folk out here in the music wilds. Hey, if it worked for Aphex Twin, why not Adham Shaikh? Oh yes you better believe the Selected Ambient Works sub-title was gonna’ get remarked upon. Uh, that’s I got on that.

Anyhow, I can’t deny once again having preconceived notions of what Resonance would be going in. A return to Journey To The Sun, mayhaps, or a fresh take on ambient dub, as so many ethnic fusion types often do. Heck, even something deeply meditative again would be interesting, just to hear if Mr. Shaikh had picked up some new techniques in composing such music.

Instead, we’re dealing with pieces that are very much score orientated, some sounding not all that dissimilar to the piano and drone works of early Brian Eno (Ambient Dream, Warm Hope, Fibonacci Spriral Song, Opaquealyptic), though with a slight worldy twist. Others tread close to the New Age realm with their heavy mystical and spiritual vibe (Voices Of Hope, Om Shanti Shanti), not a surprising development given Mr. Shaikh’s deep involvement in the yoga scene. A few pieces go all in with traditional sounds like woodwinds and string instruments (Mountains Of The World, For The Heart of The World, Dew Daisy), and a few more run for lengthier times (Gayatri Mantra, Satori), suggesting not everything on Resonance was intended for visual accompaniment. Or maybe they were inspired by credits sequences.

That was my initial trouble with Resonance, where I couldn’t disassociate the music from its original intent of score compositions. It was still enjoyable on that level of course, but without seeing the films, I felt something was lacking. Mind you, it didn’t help I was playing these in the background, never quite focusing on the music. Until it came time for the standard ‘in MP3 player, on headphones, walk’ playthrough anyway, which I always do before writing a review (daily commutes help with this). With my attention properly focused then, my goodness did this music ever open up to my ears! Those stunning, captivating ambient textures that wooed me in Journey To The Sun, they were all here, lurking underneath, waiting to seduce an attentive mind. How’s he keep doing this?

Various - Renaissance: The Masters Series Part 13 - Hernán Cattáneo

Renaissance: 2009

About time I take in Hernán Cattáneo. I've only been recommended him for a decade now, and kinda-wanted to hear what the big fuss was for awhile. They say he's kept the prog fires alive, long after all his DJ kin wandered elsewheres in the music world, staying the deep, groovy path while others chased clicky-glitch dirt and side-chained traintracks. Only one problem for yours truly though: Mr. Cattáneo kept releasing his mixes on expensive foreign labels like Renaissance and... um... That's pretty much his only home, isn't it? He recently got his hands in Balance, and contributed something to Perfecto way back, but by and large ol' Hernán’s had most of his spotlight burning surrounded by angelic and philosophers artwork. Not sure if he's beat out Dave Seaman for “Most All-Time Renaissance Mixes” though.

It feels weird even having a few of these Masters Series in my collection now. Like, I had one, long-long ago, a Dave Seaman mix of course. I don't remember much of anything from that except the second track (Minimalistic's Struggle For Pleasure). This was back when Ultra Records had more clout in bringing over trendy UK mix series, but I lost it during a move. Now, whenever I make a rare browse of a used shop, there's inevitably a Renaissance CD sitting there, so why not pick them up upon sight, eh?

Thus, we get to Hernán Cattáneo’s fifth contribution to The Masters Series, the thirteenth in total. Uh oh, is there some bad luck to be had on here? This did come out at the tail-end of prog-house’s infatuation with minimal and electro, and no matter what folks claim, I’m sure even Mr. Cattáneo couldn’t keep that sound totally out of his musical arsenal – can’t go getting irrelevant, right? And yep, there’s Guy Gerber’s Stoppage Time sitting at the fifth track position, a minimal tech-house ‘anthem’ if there ever was one. What kind of music leads up to it, then?

Oh! Oh wow! This is some deep, dubby, groovy stuff, mang. Spacious sounds, echoes of melody, and... okay, the beats are still in late-‘00s limp mode, but with enough shuffly percussion going on, it’s not so bad as many other ‘prog’ mixes of the time went. Even the Guy Gerber tune is pretty dope, mostly focusing on a building envelope of dubbed-out sound filters, while the rest of CD1 carries on from the tone set in the early going. There aren’t many tracks I’d point out as highlights, but Hernán’s choice of tunes maintains a steady, vibey mood throughout. Good stuff.

CD2 starts even better, with more energy in the rhythms, more melodic sweet spots (oh my God, Damabiah’s Flower Planet is practically prog German trance!), and a finish that’s... kind of a letdown of a wind down. Man, I’d thought a final sequence featuring tons of Guy J and Henry Saiz would be stronger. It doesn’t ruin a great overall collection of tunes from Cattáneo though. I believe this hype.

BT - R & R (Rare & Remixed)

Nettwerk: 2001

I'm far from a BT mark, but I cannot deny a double-disc collection of rare and remixed music from Mr. Transeau's back catalogue is a tasty offer. Some of his best music never made it to his albums proper, while other producers have given tracks brilliant rubs, outclassing the originals. Even better, this release came out shortly after Movement In Still Life, before all sorts of bullwark and unsense affected ol' Brian's music making ability. In plucking tunes from his earliest, obscure collaborations with Deep Dish and John Selway to the very (then) current cuts of his discography, R & R (Rare & Remixed) almost serves as an alternative greatest hits package. Oh, what the Hell, I declare this better than any kind of “Best Of BT” that could have surfaced covering the same ten years of his musical life, including 10 Years In The Life.

For one thing, CD2 has nearly every great nu-skool breaks tune Mr. Transeau ever had a hand in. Fibonacci Sequence is here! Hip-Hop Phenomenon is here! Smartbomb is here, and the kick-ass Plump DJs remix at that (best damn cut off WipEout: Fusion)! Um, that's about it, at least the ones I rate as his most essential breakbeat efforts – guess the Hybrid Remix of Godspeed is fine too, if you skew more the progressive trance way for your breaks fix. Point is, you won't find these on his albums proper, at least no official, non-special edition version in the Americas. And yet, here they all are on R & R, all lined up and decently mixed together. I told you this collection is mint!

Oh, you don't like BT Breaks. Fair enough, and as there's two discs worth of music here, there's heavier emphasis on his various takes on progressive house and trance anyway. Of course all the agreed-upon classics of his career make it on: Flaming June, Blue Skies, Dreaming, Anomaly, Remember, Sunblind. I personally don't rate all of these as highly as others, but damn if the versions on here don't kick some serious butt. Example: Tori Amos, bless her talented heart, has a tendency to grate after too much Blue Skies; that acid line in Mr. van Dyk's remix, tho'! And hey, it's a good version of Anomaly here, one that focuses more on acid than Jan Johnston's vocals. Hell, even Timo Maas treats Mr. Transeau's (questionable) singing in Never Gonna Come Back Down with some degree of class (re: shuffles them mostly out of the way early). Ooh, and we can't forget the Sasha collaborations either, Heart Of Imagination and the remix of Seal's It's Alive; no 2 Phat Cunts, unfortunately.

Probably the best surprise of R & R lies at the end of CD1 though, where two super-early, one-off BT collaborations lurk. Yes, I'm referring to those aforementioned Deep Dish and Selway singles, where you're treated to some bumpin' garage business. Never would you have expected to hear that on a BT CD, I wager.

Tiga - Non Stop

Different: 2012

Hard to believe it was a full decade before Tiga released another standalone mix CD onto the market. After a trio of solid sets on his own label Turbo, and a stellar offering to DJ-Kicks, the Montreal native seemed primed to become one of the top jocks on the market. Then he discovered an innate talent at producing pseudo-pop music for a savvy clubbing audience, and he's hardly looked back since. He still did the DJ circuit, but it wasn't where his hype focused on, letting his artist albums do the talking for him instead. Thus, the only mix CD to his name between DJ-Kicks and this is a double-disc joint effort with Adrian Thomas called inthemix.05, which I assume is associated with the Australian website of the same name? Doesn't matter, since it's essentially a forgotten set compared to American Gigolo and Montreal Mix Sessions, and way overshadowed by all the quirky singles he was putting out during the mid-'00s.

Back to the heavyweight CD-mix jam we've ended up though, which can only signify one thing for Mr. Sontag: career reinvention! C'mon, it's how this story always goes. Trendy tastemaker makes mark on club scene with definitive DJ mixes, sustains a lengthy career with the sound, sound falls out of favor, jump on a fresher sound to stay relevant. Or, if incredibly uncanny, manages to create a new sound all on his/her own, but I doubt even Tiga could do that. Nay, he's instead fallen in with some of the biggest festival headliners around these last few years, like Boys Noize and the Mad Decent posse. Wait... he already was pals with them, back when he was the star and they were getting their breaks. Okay, never mind, this theory's the bunk.

In reality, Non Stop is nothing less than a statement on where Tiga's musical influences currently resides. Not a terribly adventurous concept then, but considering it's been such a long time since he gave us anything in a physical form, I'll take it. Like many of his sets from the past, Mr. Sontag is fearless in throwing various genres and styles into his mix, often using transitional snippets and blending tracks together for mash-ups ranging from cheeky to thrilling. Past attempts were often rather rough though, vinyl technology just not up to snuff in providing studio-perfect blends. Not so with Non Stop, every mix and layering sounding effortless and smooth – thanks, studio hands! Some might quibble it detracts from the sort of spontaneous, on-the-fly set Tiga's been known for, but I contend such tinkering only perfects the musical journey he's always taken folks on.

The music itself runs the gamut from warped AFX acid to bumpin’ Adam Marshall tech-house to tribal Lula Circus funk to thumpin’ Blawan techno, and proto-trance Homeboy-Hippie-FunkiDredd old-school rave. Yes, in that order, with all the gradual changes in tempo and genres that comes with it. Non Stop is a fun mix, all said, but then you’d expect nothing less from Tiga.

Kitaro - Ki

Canyon Records/KuckKuck: 1981/1982

Ah, good ol' Kitaro, the Japanese composer often credited with creating New Age music many moons ago. I doubt it was his intention to do so, his musical upbringing well off the beaten path of your traditional mystic synth wibbler. Hell, the guy was practically banned from learning music while growing up, his parents intent on gearing him to take over the family business. Kitaro said nuts to that, essentially bailing on his home to make his own way in the world, working small jobs while writing music on his spare time. Damn, this is sounding like an old-fashioned 'hippie goes West to start folk rock band' story.

It gets even better! After joining the Far East Family Band, their touring eventually took them to Germany, where Kitaro met krautrock synth legend Klaus Schulze, and started studying his mastery of many of the latest and greatest keyboards around. Already fond of the sounds created by synthesizers, Kitaro adopted any that he could afford into his repertoire, and left Far East Family Band to start a solo career. Before doing that, however, he travelled throughout eastern Asia, picking up musical styles along the way.

Point is, mock the New Age scene if you must, but Kitaro himself definitely earned his stripes (to say nothing of his plaudits in the ensuing years). Between original compositions, tons of score work, collaborations with unexpected chaps (a guy from Megadeth, really?), and plenty of awards and nominations, he has very little left to prove to the world of music. Or maybe this is just a big ol' ramble justifying why I picked up a couple Kitaro CDs from a used shop a couple months back. Hey, even the store clerk raved about Kitaro as I was buying them, so clearly he's got fans lurking everywhere, right? So it goes.

Thus, let us go way back in time, more than three decades past and when Mr. Kitaro was building a name for himself. Ki was his fourth album, but he’d also released two soundtrack albums for the Silk Road television series, plus a live album too. Later that year, he’d release a Best Of collection too, which is utterly bonkers for such a short time span. Ki is essentially the cap on the earliest stage of his career, where his synthesizer melodies and shimmering, pulsing sequencers defined his sound. Later he’d start incorporating more traditional instruments into his compositions, so if you fancy way ancient synth music, this period is a good starting point in dipping your toes into Kitaro’s tones.

Or maybe not. I cannot deny this music is very calm, soothing, folksy, and charming – New Age, yes, though often with more orchestral punch. Plus, if you don’t care much for Far East melodies and harmonies, Ki won’t do much for you either. Dammit though, there’s something captivating about Kitaro’s use of pads, minimoogs, and spacey synths, like exploring mysterious, strange lands through the use of sound. Ain’t that what great music do?

ACE TRACKS: April 2013

It was bound to happen at some point. Like, after eight years of attending, there had to be a down year among them – law of averages and all that, right? This isn’t to say I had a bad time this year, oh no! However, I can’t honestly say I had a great time either, compounding stresses keeping me from ever quite ‘letting go’ as I typically am wont to do at Shambhala. I had a forty-hour stretch of non-sleep, and believe me it wasn’t chemically induced insomnia. Definitely has given me pause on how to proceed with next year, provided I can get rid of the debt these two summer trips have accrued upon me. Live and learn. Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of cool music that I reviewed way back in APRIL 2013!



Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Frosty
Various - Freebass Breakz & Sub Funk Beats
Various - fabric 61: Visionquest
Various - FabricLive 50: D-Bridge & Instra:mental Present Autonomic
Various - fabric 47: Jay Haze
Various - fabric 36: Ricardo Villalobos
Various - FabricLive 32: Tayo
Tony Anderson Sound Orchestra - Focus On Hollywood

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 12%
Most “WTF?” Track: Yes - The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) (soo trippy)

Yes, I feel your anguish at not getting to hear those chintzy synth-pop covers of famous movie and TV themes. Maybe not so much at the lack of cuts from my first Fabric Project (on a budget) though. Shame, as the music from Tayo’s mix definitely needs more lovin’. Aside from that, this was another month of totally random music (trance, ambient dub, tech-house, acid jazz, jungle), so I went with another alphabetical arrangement. This time, however, I’ve gone in reverse! Thrill at hearing songs with titles starting with “W” and “T” early in a playlist!

Liquid Stranger - The Intergalactic Slapstick

Interchill Records: 2009

Yeah, I went on a recent Interchill Records splurge too. And why not? The label’s just across a strait of ocean water, practically next door in Canada terms. I’ve never been let down in my dabbling with their output, so why not check out a few artists further. Say, look at all those Liquid Stranger albums. Mr. Stääf’s found himself a home with Interchill, which explains his huge popularity on the festival circuit around my slice of the planet. I’m almost certain I’ve heard him at Shambhala, and anyone that gets a tune on an Ultimae CD must have a sound I’ll find appealing. On the other hand, Liquid Stranger does have an album out on Rottun, they who be responsible for the popularity of bro-friendly, raging hosebeast dubstep. While I can’t possibly see Interchill ever promoting the stuff, I don’t doubt some of it wormed itself into Liquid Stranger’s palette.

As for Mr. Stääf, he made an immediate impact on the dubby chill side of downtempo with his debut The Invisible Conquest, offering up trippy reggae dub without falling into the psy side of things. Flash forward two years and we have The Intergalactic Slapstick, featuring cover art that looks like it was intended for a quirky Israeli psy trance compilation. Make no mistake though, Liquid Stranger’s having none of that scene, staying the course with his dub influences while adding in a few new sounds that had developed in the time since The Invisible Conquest. That’s right, he’s gone Burial!

No, of course not, but he did adopt the style of another ‘dubstep’ producer who gained a ton of critical acclaim during those years, namely The Bug with London Zoo. There be grimey dancehall on here (Rough Road, Full Metal Jacket, Tantrum), including Madame Warrior Queen herself for a guest feature on Mutants. While not quite at Kevin Martin’s level of crushing bass attacks, Liquid Stranger handles himself within the genre most excellently. What’s funny is The Intergalactic Slapstick didn’t even start out that way, the first few tracks sounding like carry overs from his first LP. He bridges the two styles of Jamaican dub rather wonderfully though with Soundboy Killa, bringing in the dancehall toasting while keeping things on the laid-back, cavernous bouncy vibe the best reggae dub goes.

And yes, there’s that other development in dubstep present here too: the gratuitous mid-range wobble. Not much of it, thankfully, but gads that sound never ceases to grate. Most annoying is in Dub Missle, with so much pointless meandering mid-range that- wait, suddenly it changes to spacey pads and reggae echoing off the cosmic plane. Dub Missle is awes- ah, shit, there’s that stupid wobble again. Argh!

Liquid Stranger ends The Slaptastic Interspacer rather oddly. Bodily Needs features quirky dialog detailing the neccesity for health and sex over a tune that’d have The Orb giggling, Lotus goes full world-beat boppity-boo, and closer Dew Point sounds like… Kitaro? Huh, never underestimate one’s influences. Still, solid album all around.

Opus III - Guru Mother

PWL International: 1994

Opus III are known for two things: being responsible for early UK house hit It's A Fine Day, and Orbital sampling said hit for Halcyon (and on and on-om-nom). They could have been known for so much more though, had they carried on longer than two albums worth. The talent was definitely there, productions capably toeing the line between respectable club anthems and easy home listening. They had a marketable look with Kirsty Hawkshaw as the face of the group, a distinct voice and presence in a scene filled with pretty but unremarkable singers.

Kirsty though, she sensed the group getting a little commercial for her taste, and Opus III disbanded. Ms. Hawkshaw then went on to provide vocals for, um, BT, Tiesto, Lange, and Delerium. Hey, there's some respectable collaborations during that period too (Orbital-proper, Swayzak, Hybrid), but man, did trance producers ever line-up for ol' Kirsty's pipes. Not sure what happened to the other three members of Opus III though. Even Lord Discogs provides little.

Fortunately, they went out in fine fashion, their sophomore album Guru Mother a remarkable record for the year 1994. This is progressive house as its finding its footing, figuring out what it could be, and maybe getting a little ‘epic’ in the process. This is BT music before BT had made a name for himself with Ima, Grace music before Oakenfold got tired of the goa thing, and Renaissance music just as that seminal clubnight was making Sasha & Diggers deities behind the decks. There’s sing-along house anthems (Dreaming Of You, When You Made The Mountain, Hand In Hand), darker, chugging prog numbers (Outside, Guru Mother, Sushumna), ethereal trance groovers (Release The Joy, Elemental), and chill, bliss-out ambient pieces (Cozyland?, When She Rises). Listening to this album two decades on, I’m astounded Guru Mother isn’t talked up more as one of those Very Important progressive house records. Were Opus III really seen as that much of a one-hit wonder that all their other efforts were so dismissed?

Perhaps so. I certainly never gave Opus III much care in all these years. Heck, the only reason I’m reviewing Guru Mother now is because I noticed it during a recent used-CD shop splurge. Of course I knew of It’s A Fine Day, but that song wasn’t on here. And that cover, man does it ever look cheesy, more suitable for a medieval folk group than anything with a dance beat. Then I recalled a similar sentiment shared with a Rupert pal long ago. He’d bought Guru Mother solely for recognizing Opus III as the It’s A Fine Day group, and was surprised how much better the album turned out compared to that single. While I didn’t doubt his judgment of Guru Mother, I simply couldn’t get past that cover, much less the photo of Kirsty Hawkshaw looking like some woodland pixie on the back. Just no way Guru Mother could be class, no way at all.

God, was I an arrogant idiot sometimes.

Another Fine Day - A Good Place To Be

Interchill Records: 2015

Here I thought only Psychonavigation Records could pull new material out of older producers. Not that Interchill Records isn’t an appropriate spot for Tom Green’s long, long, long gestating project Another Fine Day, but who’d have ever thought it’d see the light of day again? After some promise of being among the musical leaders in a post-Orb/Beyond ambient dub world with Life Before Land, Another Fine Day’s output practically dried up. Guess those gigs with the Big Chill crew kept him busy, another LP not showing up until the year 2000 on Six Degrees Records (they had a knack for rescuing former Beyond acts). Following that, Another Fine Day seemingly went on permanent hiatus, Mr. Green using his own name for the odd project here and there (music for MRI’s, really?).

Brushing off the moniker ol' Tom has done though, so where do we find the man who was pegged as one of ambient dub's seminal musicians many years ago? Why jazz, of course! I mean, doesn't everyone go jazz eventually? Not even electronic-leaning nu-jazz or danceable acid jazz, but full-on loungey, psychedelic jazz-jazz , showing off skills with multiple instruments and the like. Not that it's an unprecedented move for Mr. Green – he got noticed way back for this very reason, utilizing regular instruments at a time when almost everything was sample-based. Two decades plus is plenty of growing time for a musician though, electronics now playing a rudimentary role in productions, expectations of old-old school fans be damned. Wait, are there any lingering Another Fine Day fanatics that would think this? If so, let it go, guys. Even Sounds From The Ground moved on from ambient dub, and they were churning the stuff out up to this decade!

As I’ve often stated, I’m no expert in the field of jazz, especially when unconventional and obscure instruments are used. Mr. Green does play piano, organ, wind instruments, and double-bass, but he also throws in several more that I honestly haven’t a clue about without a cheat-sheet, and the CD digipak isn’t helpful there, much less Lord Discogs. Like, the track Spanish Blues, man are there ever a lot of different ethnic and familiar sounds floating about its laidback hip-mod groove, but what are half these instruments playing? Many tracks in the first half of A Good Place To Be are like this, though Mr. Green lets the piano carry many other pieces in the back half of the album, with various field recordings maintaining a running theme of sorts. Also, if he’s playing all these instruments, holy cow, talk of talent!

I almost feel guilty, then, for enjoying the somber, droning ambient and piano pieces scattered throughout instead (Enfolded, That Path, Andy Woz Here). Their simple, familiar style is comforting after being musically challenged by the jazz. At least they gave me a solid reason to repeatedly go back to A Good Place To Be, where after much replay, the rest of this album finally sunk in proper deep.