Photek - Solaris

Virgin: 2000

Photek’s Solaris is almost legendary in how it divided a jungle nation. It didn’t have to be so. Drum ‘n’ bass was in fine shape at the turn of the millennium, though could have used more of Mr. Parkes’ refined approach to the craft of intelligent tech-step drum programming. Despite a few doing their own spin on the Photek stylee, (word to the Source Direct crew, yo'), other producers weren’t replicating it en masse. Still, for as generally healthy the d'n'b scene was, it had lost much of the commercial and critical clout it once earned in the '90s, Mr. Parkes' absence perhaps partly responsible for those dwindling times. That junglists were expecting- nay, counting upon another Modus Operani to remind the general club 'n' rave populace of their chosen sound's supreme standing is understandable. No less so, then, the betrayal many felt when Photek said nuts to all that, going his own way down paths no true junglists ever dared ventured.

An ocean and sky blue cover notwithstanding, fans had to suspect something was up when lead single Terminus dropped. Also the opener on Solaris, it’s a seriously funky outing with banging and clanking drum work, sounding more like some of Orbital’s output than much of Photek’s prior work (seriously though, that bass drop in the middle!). Infinity was more in line with the sort of tech-step d’n’b heads enjoyed from Mr. Parkes though, so perhaps the full album would offer up more like it. Oh, such innocent thoughts those were.

Second track Junk carries on with the Terminus style, though creeping much closer to techno’s realm than Photek had wandered before. Then Glamourama hits and, oh my God, it’s a house beat! How dare he! How dare he! How dare he? Wait, why is my head bobbin’? Ergh, argh, must. Resist. Deep. Groove.

Haha, foolish junglist, Photek has you in his house clutches now, and to keep you there, here’s Mine To Give, as vintage a Chicago throwback as you could get in the year 2000, including a guest vocal from Robert Owens, a singer featured on many classic Trax Records tracks. As if throwing a bone to the ‘deebee’ faithful, Can’t Come Down gets back to the d’n’b side of things, though on a much chiller scale than anything heard in the Photek discography before. Was he daring LTJ Bukem to play one of his records? The second half of Solaris isn’t nearly as dynamic as the first, if anything flickering down with more claustrophobic house (Solaris) and trip-hop (Halogen, Lost Blue Heaven), but hoo, what an impression side one imparted.

Of course, given this would be the last Photek album for over a decade, the vitriol leveled on Solaris faded, folks wondering if he’d ever drop another LP again. Mr. Parkes would occasionally return to jungle in that time, and his genre explorations garnered him more respect abroad for taking such a chance with his music, succeeding even in the face of predictable backlash.

AstroPilot - Solar Walk III: Event Horizon

Altar Records: 2014

Why settle for one sequel when you can make a trilogy out of a concept? Hell, an entire franchise if one is so bold, though such projects are usually reserved for DJ mixes, not artist albums. Here we are though, now three albums deep into AstroPilot's Solar Walk endeavour, where the ambient side of Mr. Redko's muse gets to roam wild and free. And as I mentioned in the previous two Solar Walk reviews, if you prefer your trapstyle with wailing disco divas in a techno dungeon, then what the Hell are you doing looking at a psy-chill release?

Solar Walk 2 would be a difficult one to top, taking successful elements of the first and refining them into pure sonic excellence. It wouldn’t be a demerit in Dmitriy’s discography if he repeated that album – ample amounts of grand space ambient drone, with a couple outings in psy-chill’s more rhythmic styles for flavour. Heck, he might even taken the concept to a whole new level. Like, beyond the limit of our understanding in the realms of musical reality, where time and timbre have no meaning. Why, you might even call it crossing the sonic event horizon! Then again, if AstroPilot could achieve such a feat, I’m not sure how I’d be capable of listening to Solar Walk III in the first place. Should my feeble cochlea hope to comprehend of music of this calibre?

Obviously this album is nothing like that. A bit surprising though, is the fact Mr. Redko did change the format, going strictly ambient all the way through for his third constitutional across stellar photons. It’s also a different sort of ambient than to the previous Solar Walks, comparatively darker and subtle as though he’s finally succumb to what ‘proper’ space ambient should sound like. None of this massive, wall-of-synth opulence of the cosmos, but humbling respect of the impossibly vast emptiness that truly encompasses the universe.

Okay, we’re not dealing with Lustmord levels of bleakness here. AstroPilot still skilfully paints his sonic canvas with layered pads, harmonized synths, and even adds melodic moments that could serve as minor leitmotifs were this translated to the visual medium. Yet whereas Solar Walk and its sequel sold the notion of space as a place rapturous and inviting, Event Horizon firmly reminds us how limited humanity truly is in the grand scheme of things. There’s still wonders to behold, but damn if we’re gonna’ struggle to unravel them all. Titles like Millions Lights Years Away, Distant Worlds, Farscape, Whiff Of Eternity, and even Relict Emanation help sell this concept to a tee’.

As for what prompted Mr. Redko into such a drastic change in his Solar Walk project, he lists Event Horizon as something of a tribute to the ambient composers that inspired his own musical development. This includes classic names like Eno, Roach, and Boddy, to more recent ones like Biosphere, Alio Die, and ...Bad Sector? Oh man, add another producer I gotta’ dig onto The List.

AstroPilot - Solar Walk 2

Altar Records: 2012

Much better than the first! Not that Solar Walk was bunk, but you hope a sequel improves upon a concept’s successful attributes. It’s always a crap shoot though, some efforts simply retreading the same music with slight variations to warrant the sequel tag. Other times there’s almost no common link between the two, the repeated use of a title nothing more than capitalizing on brand recognition. Given AstroPilot’s comparatively small market penetration, however, I highly doubt the latter is the case here. Nay, it’s all the more likely Solar Walk turned into a suitable outlet for his ambient and chill-out productions, and retaining a series title for those productions helps clue listeners that, yes indeed, that’s what you’re in for heading in. If you prefer AstroPilot on the uptempo take, you’d best not bother with any edition of Solar Walk.

No, wait, Solar Walk 2 does bring the beats too. Well, about as ‘beatrific’ as a dedicated chill-out album can go, but this is AstroPilot we’re talking about here, a chap who can make a brisk BPM cut sound as calm as any piece of meditative ambient drone. Hell, there’s one such track on here with Patterns Of Awareness (also the longest tune at nearly fifteen minutes in length). Another one is Betelgeuse, the second longest cut on Solar Walk 2 at twelve-point-five minutes, and employing a dynamic bit of escalating rhythm at that, the sort that could work as the climax on a standard tempo album of psy-chill and dub music. And here’s Mr. Redko dropping one on a CD supposedly dedicated to ambient space music. Even the first Solar Walk never got this intense with its lone prog-psy detour.

Ambient is what Solar Walk aims to showcase though, and ambient is what we get in droves. In terms of style, AstroPilot retains the maximal approach to the craft, layering pads and effects with such intensity, it sometimes feels like you’re being crushed by their immense, droning sonics. Yet nothing ever comes off overbearing or harsh, as though this foreboding cosmic plane envelopes and embraces your being rather than pulverizes your sanity with feelings of endless isolation. Whoa, I’m getting way deep here, aren’t I?

If this all sounds similar to the sort of ambient AstroPilot composed in Solar Walk, it is, but it’s also much more well produced too. There’s more separation and space between the multiple layers of sound, such that it’s easier to focus on distinct sounds and timbre should you so choose. There’s also more sense of progression within the tracks themselves, less emphasis on supplying heavy drone for indeterminate time. Instead, the sparse melodic ideas help paint a richer sonic canvas, allowing one’s imagination greater immersion for all your space travel needs. Finally, Solar Walk 2 isn’t continuously mixed, which greatly helps in taking in individual pieces as distinct forms from each other. It’s a small thing, but it’s easier to enjoy ambient when you’re not second-guessing if you’re dealing with a different composition.

AstroPilot - Solar Walk

Altar Records: 2010

Solar Walk was what piqued my curiosity enough to start diving into AstroPilot's discography. Not because I'd heard tracks elsewhere, or it came highly recommended by psy-ambient experts abroad (are there such folk?). Nay, it came down to the same ol' reason that always afflicts my impulse buying habits: there's a cosmic theme afoot, and I'm never sated on that space music stylee. Hell, the alias Mr. Redko chose for his work intrigued me alone, though having tracks appear on Russian space-race tribute compilation Absence Of Gravity and the final Fahrenheit Project from Ultimae were definitely added incentives to dig further. Then when I searched the Amazons for some affordable options on AstroPilot material, I discovered not only did he have an album called Solar Walk (*squee!*), but a follow-up (*-eeeeeee!*), plus a companion LP called Star Walk (*-eeeeeequss!*). Well, there goes that week's allowance.

What distinguishes the Solar Walk series from AstroPilot’s other albums is the heavy focus on ambient and chill music. I’m not sure if ol’ Dmitriy always intended to seperate his dancefloor friendly material and meditation tent efforts, but it’s not such a bad idea in the long run, especially for a chap as prolific as he. Maybe it was just a coincidence he’d end up alternating between the two styles of album material. Less odd is the fun-fact Solar Walk was his kick-off with Altar Records. Hell, for that matter, this was Altar Records’ album kick-off in general, their first non-compilation release featuring outside talent (re: not DJ Zen at the helm). It certainly was style that fit with the fledgling psy-chill print out of Quebec, a deeply ambient outing with ample layers of pad work and... um, not much else, to be honest.

This isn’t to say we’re in for an hour-long excursion of minimalist drone, the tracks on here incredibly dense in timbre. In fact, for ambient, many of these compositions are rather loud and vast, as though AstroPilot intends his music to sound like nothing less than the grand scope of an endless infinity above. I guess ‘heavenly’ is another apt adjective for this music, but that strikes me as a tad sappy for what we do get, though the spiritual connotations are hard to dismiss. Get all in on that chakra healing, yo’!

Eight tracks make up Solar Walk, some rather short (opener Languor, darker Space Ghosts), others ridiculously long (nineteen minutes of Inside The Harmony). Honestly though, track lengths are almost meaningless where this album’s concerned, each composition continuously mixed into the next. Unless you’re completely focused on the nuances of AstroPilot’s pad work or shifts in tone, three tracks could go by without you realizing it. A couple do offer rhythms, including a gradual reveal of prog-psy groove in God’s Channel, but even with these deviations, Solar Walk mostly plays out like one long piece of layered ambient drone, often lacking distinct musical moments along the way. Still, it’s better than your standard laptop noodle wank.

Peter Gabriel - So

Geffen Records: 1986

The only Peter Gabriel album you're supposed to have, even if you're not a Peter Gabriel fan. Unless, that is, you were already a Peter Gabriel fan, enjoying his work with the O.G. Genesis line-up and his following art-rock solo work. Then So is probably seen as a wack, commercial sell-out of an album, courting easy money with huge hits like Sledgehammer and In Your Eyes. Hell, he even gave this record a proper title after his first four were eponymous. That reeks of corporate interference, and it t’was, his label insisting a title so they could market it easier. Man, did they ever, So a mandatory inclusion in any generic advertising shot of CD collections. It worked though, convincing me to 'splurge' on So after spotting it in a supermarket bargain bin. Anything from the '80s with that much public prominence must have some merit to it beyond the recognizable hits, right?

Sure, although this album feels so ‘80s, it almost hurts. Part of that is strictly the production standard of the time, what with the copious reverb and hall effects the decade adored, so if you can’t stand that sound, walk on by. Granted, Mr. Gabriel was partly responsible for it becoming popular in the first place, among the first employing that distinct flat, echoing drum kick everyone associates with Regean Era rock. It also doesn’t hurt having Daniel Lanois as a co-producer either, most famous for lending his talents to U2’s most endearing work. He, too, has an inescapable ‘80s aesthetic, but his widescreen style definitely suits the ambitious, ultra-dense song-writing of Gabriel, so it’s a good pairing in this case.

You know what else was big in the ‘80s? Issues, man. Globalization was rearing its head, and people in prominent positions were all on that raising awareness shtick, Gabriel no less so than any of his musical peers. Opener Red Rain drops plenty of issues afflicting the world, the title alone a not-so subtle metaphor for the blood spilled for unjust causes. Meanwhile, gentle ballad Don’t Give Up narrows the focus closer to Gabriel’s country dealing with Thatcherism. And despite the upbeat funk of the song suggesting otherwise, Big Time is a condemnation of ‘80s consumerism. An unaware Patrick Bateman would approve if he wasn’t already a fan of Collins-era Genesis.

Finally, with world issues the hot topic of social conscience ‘80s folk, it also brought in more awareness of ethnic music. Gabriel was already a fan of such fusions, but with some pop sensibilities, he helped bring worldy sounds to Western radios in Sledgehammer (Eastern woodwinds!), Red Rain (Africa!), and Mercy Street (Brazilian forró!).

That didn’t stop him from getting his art-rock on at the end of So though. We Do What We’re Told has a meditative, rhythmic drone going for it, while This Is The Picture gets beat-jammy with Nile Rodgers and... wait, that bass tone. Could it be...? *checks credits* Laswell. Again with the Laswell. What is he, the Kevin Bacon of bass?

Snap! - Snap! Attack: The Remixes

BMG: 1996

Look, you know the hits, but their omnipresence within radioland, videoland, and sports-arenaland may have soured folks who'd been swayed in by The Power and Rhythm Is A Dancer. Why should they bother with a remix of a dance tune they only tolerate as it is, then? They wouldn't, hence clubland the only place having much use for a remix CD, and even then it’s suspect. Maybe DJs were wholly on board the Snap! train early on, but all that success tainted the underground's perspective of them. Thus, jocks that could get mileage out of Snap! remixes likely weren't having them in their rotation - not even the pop DJs, who'd just play the originals anyway.

That leaves the hardcore Snap! fans that’d collect everything they put out (*cough*). Yet such a following had significantly dwindled by the time this came out, concurrently with a ‘Best Of’ CD (dying career alert!). Not to mention the messy departing of rapper Turbo B excised his vocals from all of these tracks, including in an updating of The Power, titled The Power 96. As this is post Welcome To Tomorrow Snap!, gone are any sort of rugged, hip-house rhythms and urban vibe, replaced with standard eurodance beats and trance pads. The tune needs a rap though, and as ragga still had some popularity, in comes Turbo B’s replacement, Einstein, a euro rapper who’d been around since the late ‘80s. He’s adequate for what the tune’s accomplishing, but Snap!’s production had definitely lost an edge. The following two remixes are also by Anzilotti and Münzing (Snap!’s producers), and also aren’t much to get fussed about: Cult Of Snap! tries getting a deeper, tribal feel going, limply so, while Welcome To Tomorrow is... Look, the tune was already hammy to begin with, and ain’t no way they’d make it any better.

Fortunately, Snap! Attack: The Remixes turns remarkably fantastic following that, featuring a list of remixers that have to be heard to be believed. Oliver Lieb is here! Rollo and Sister Bliss are here! Dance 2 Trance is here! David Morales is here! Torsten Fenslau is here! Stonebridge is here! Even Resistance F’n D. is here! How on Earth did Snap! ever court such an A-list roster of house and trance producers? I’ll grant a bunch of them are German, and Snap! seemed buddies with just about every well-regarded name in that scene (remember Off with Väth?), so maybe it’s not so surprising after all.

Nor are the quality of these remixes either. Each lend their distinct sounds to their respective tunes (Resistance D. do the acid, Rollo and Bliss do the arena anthem, Dance 2 Trance the squalling, pitch-bending sawwave synths, Morales the bumpin’ New York garage, Lieb the... Lieb, I guess), with only the proto-Faithless rub of Rhythm Is A Dancer coming off weak (that ‘kick’ ...ugh). This unexpected (undeserved?) all-star cast of remixers is about the only selling point for Snap! Attack, but hoo, what a selling point it is.

Kitaro - Silk Road II

Polydor: 1980

It's negligent discussing Kitaro's early career without bringing up The Silk Road. The seminal archaeological series was already a remarkable achievement for documentaries, among the first major ones produced in the Far East, and often highly regarded alongside Western greats like Attenborough's Life series and Sagan's Cosmos. It provided an intimate look at China's historical sights and locales, many of which had never been filmed or photographed during the nation’s reclusive years, much less exposed to the world. And as with so many of these sorts of shows, the soundtrack was vital to its success as a series. Just as you can't think of Cosmos without thinking of music from Vangelis, so it is with The Silk Road and Kitaro.

For anyone who’s watched the series, sounds of synthesized Far East harmonies is practically synonymous with the image of camel caravans traversing the desert against a setting sun. And a great many have, doing wonders for Kitaro’s exposure abroad. He was already making a name for himself with his original works and albums, but chances were unless you were hip to that whole synth music scene, his material would pass you by. Besides, how could he challenge Tomita for the crown of “Most Popular Japanese Synth Wizard” anyway? Music in a beloved documentary series certainly helps, not to mention an ear for melding the exotic with traditionalism making for easy appeal for folks of all walks in life.

If anything, having his music coupled with images of desert vistas, flowing rivers, mountain passes, ancient cultures, and a sense of mystery and discovery helped sell Kitaro’s style. It’s easy to take the these tunes out of that context and hear the New Age, sentimental sap creep in, which I’m sure some might if they simply played them plucked from the soundtrack. Certainly you can glean a few things on your own with titles like Takla Makan Desert (wide open landscapes) and Silver Moon (haunting beauty) without watching a single image of wind-swept sand dunes and the like. Seeing centuries old Buddhist statues though, so impeccably preserved in desert caves accompanied by Kitaro’s classic flutes, sparkling synths, and soothing pads, all playing captivating folk harmonies as the most evocative Far East music goes... Yeah, there’s something rather magic about it all, I must admit.

As The Silk Road’s initial run lasted twelve episodes, Kitaro crafted many compositions for the series, two full-length albums in all. Remarkably, very few tracks sound all that ‘soundtracky’, most capably standing on their own. In volume II’s case, Eternal Spring and Reincarnation have more rhythmic urgency about them, Magical Sand Dance and Tienshan go for larger crescendos, and Dawning works in synthesized chants, but all retain that sense of timelessness of the ancient world, traditionalism surviving even to the digital era. Both Silk Road albums are probably worth getting, though I’m talking up this one because it has one of my all-time favourite Kitaro pieces in Silver Moon on it. Used CD shop options were considered too.

EDM Weekly World News, September 2015

Where has our most trust-worthiest of trust-worthington gossip rags been in the past year? Why, getting exclusive inside coverage of the now gloriously (in)famous EDM movie We Are Your Friends. Our crack(ed-out) team worked tirelessly to get interviews, guest commentators from around the globe and beyond, plus coverage of the wrap party, after-wrap party, and the morning-after wrap party. Eh? You say our exposé seems a tad too positive for this movie? Oh come on, you know EDMWWN upholds only the most ethical of EDM gossip journalism you'll ever find in this day in age, and any other age for that matter. Now excuse me, I've a music festival to attend, ridin' in full-size SUV style all the way. Our dealer says Taylor Swift rode in it last, y'know.

Various - Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café III

Wagram Music: 2003

Shortly after I finished writing a review for the first Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café, I found the third in the series while browsing a used shop. That… can’t be a coincidence! Either the Music Gods guided me to this encounter, or the Collector Deities blessed me on that day - depends which faith you follow. Or you don’t believe is such things, and it really was just dumb circumstance that this occurred.

Hell, despite their dwindling numbers, I wager the same thing could happen if I went to almost any ol’ used CD shop. The Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café series strikes me as the sort of compilations that are almost always the first to go when folks cull their CDs. An initial purchase made because the cover seemed hip and cool, and turns out the music is hip and cool, but as you age, you grow less hip and cool, and the need to have hip and cool music playing to appear hip and cool grows less of a concern; so, you sell off your hip and cool CDs for some cool, hard cash. Or maybe you really do enjoy jazzy, lounge music with an ‘electro’ bent, but then you’d probably keep such CDs anyway.

If you don’t know what’s up with the Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café, a handy review exists less than four months back detailing such trivia. And truthfully, not much has changed in the series two years between the first and third. There’s still a wide variety of nu-jazz sounds, from the sort of café music you’d expect to hear, to fusions with nearby genre cousins like trip-hop and acid jazz, plus a little sprinkling of ‘as real as real jazz can get in urban locales’ sort of tunes. Of course all these saxophones, pianos, trumpets, standing basses, drums, and singin’ soul sistas come coupled with a fair share of trippy synth sounds, squelchy acid stabs, and occasional sequenced rhythm sections, but more often than not the line is blurred between the natural and synthetic, you can’t tell whether that snare fill is programmed, sampled, or played live in the studio. Okay, the big giveaway is most of the acts in this compilation are solo artists, but man do they ever often sound like a five piece jazz band once a tune gets going.

Probably one of Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café’s greatest strengths as a series was their ability to keep the artist rotation fresh for much of its existence. You’d seldom see a repeat name with each volume, all the while mixing well known acts with relative obscure ones. Only De-Phazz makes a return for SGdPC3, offering something on the cinematic side of jazz with Downtown Tazacorte. Other names here I’m familiar with are DJ Cam, Patchworks, Tek 9 (aka: 4 Hero), and Moloko, who ends the CD with a Sing it Back. No, not the version you’re thinking of, but a totally swingin’ piano version care of Can 7, sounding lifted straight from a ‘30s speak-easy. Well, murder, little tomato cat!

DJ Moe Sticky - RnB State Of Mind 33

promo: 2015

Of course, another reason I had no problem parting with some American paper for two promotional CDs of DJ Moe Sticky is I knew I could get some mileage out of them. No, obviously not on the home front as those street hustlers promised ...well, maybe I could, if I was the sort of douche who'd invite club girls over with this pre-playing in the background. My game's so weak though, that I'd probably talk about how trap has its roots in Miami Bass music, or that RnB was better in the New Jack Swing era. Like, are we gonna' do it or not?

Not in this review, baby! I've got some things to say about the state of RnB, yo'. For instance, it's no secret that EDM and southern beats crept into the genre in recent years, but even after hearing two mixes worth of it, I'm still kinda' flabbergasted by the development. RnB, and by extension the urban scene in general, had almost nothing to do with dance music's environment, the two repelling each other like two negative electrons (g'ah, so dorky!). One had their thing, the other hand their thing, and though they shared some loose lineage in utilizing drum kits, studio synths, and the like, by no means would their scenes cross, RnB a world apart from where I stood. A few tunes would catch my ear, but so much of it sounded the same to me, even with occasional evolutions of the sound (we go reggaeton!). Which is fine – I needn’t follow every electronic genre under the sun, especially ones I don’t relate to.

That all said, I find all these trap influences none too obnoxious at all. Make no mistake, the RnB that DJ Moe Sticky’s promoting here has little to do with RnB of old, or even the soulful crooning stuff that most critics will praise. The Brooklyn native is strictly all about that strip club bounce and cruddy crew come-ons; much less ‘rhythm and blues’ and tons of ‘raunch and bass’.

The only thing keeping this in the realm of RnB is the reliance on singing rather than rap, and even that’s suspect in this case. Well over half these names (T-Pain, Fetty Wap, Lil’ Wayne, Tyga, Kid Ink, and a ton more you’ve probably never heard of) rely on digital manipulations of their voices to carry a tune, which undoubtedly pisses off purists to no end. Me though, I dig it - at least when they don’t sound like they’re singing through their nostrils. Most times it sounds natural (!) with all the booming bass, synth stabs, snare and hi-hat rolls, and trap-chants (which remind me of the “Hey! Hey!”s from Boney M’s Rasputin for some silly reason). There are enough familiar electronic sounds that I enjoy from genres of old that there’s no good reason for me to hate this, even to the point of enjoying it in drunken spurts.

Mr. Sticky’s annoying cut-off ‘mixing’, on the other hand...