Andrew Heath - Soundings

Disco Gecko: 2017

I've been neglectful of Andrew Heath. It's not like he's been absent, releasing music at a yearly clip, but it's been a few albums since I last talked him up. Thing is, though I generally like his minimalist ambient works, it's also something that's reliably just there, not terribly fussed about getting attention. I can go back to it whenever I feel, comfortable that it'll sound exactly how I expect it will, and that'll be that. Seeing as how it's been two years (!) since I last reviewed one of Mr. Heath's records, it stands to reason my attention's been diverted elsewhere in the meanwhile. Absolutely so, labels like ...txt, Dronarivm, Cryo Chamber, and, er, Psychonavigation having lured my ambient explorations away from Disco Gecko in that time. Well, better get caught up on ol' Andrew then, starting with his most recent offering, Soundings.

One thing Mr. Heath has started putting more focus on is his use of field recordings, making them the guiding backbone of his compositions rather than sonic texturing. That is no more prominently displayed than with the opening track Wanderlust, where the good ol' clackity-clack of a typewriter greets us. More often than not, when I hear an album open with a typewriter, I expect the person at the machine to proclaim he's taking his work back underground (to keep it from falling into the wrong hands), but I suspect Andrew's manifesto isn't so renegade. Instead, this piece features distant footsteps, crackling static, soft synthy timbres, and those distinct, sparse piano tones that will always bring the Harold Budd comparisons, though Heath's use of them goes into abstraction. Halfway through the fourteen-minute piece, acoustic guitar plucks and muted dialog take the lead, though the typewriter/piano combo does return for the final leg. If Wanderlust was about capturing the feeling of one's mind drifting while trying to get proper-work done, it certainly does that. You've no idea how many times I got distracted even writing this paragraph!

For as much Andrew made in the liner notes about his field recordings being his primary source of inspiration, from which he crafted his music around, I don't get that sense from the rest of Soundings. For sure there's more throughout, the usual assortment of open areas, intimate settings, and the like, but nothing quite so significant as the typewriter of Wanderlust. Rather, he's given more time and space for the guest musicians to do their things. This includes clarinet from Bill Howgego in A Break In The Clouds, cello from Stéphane Marlot in Days In-Between, and the usual instrumental accompaniments from Anne Chris Bakker, whom Heath's been working with for some time now. They're all fine pieces, though does edge the music closer into modern classical's domain than ambient.

And in the end, I still found myself more enthralled by Andrew's 'traditional' songs, such as the Bandcamp bonus of The Painted Surface, something of a sober reflection of Wanderlust. Navigating art halls never felt so isolating.

Various - Soma Records: 20 Years (Slam & Silicone Soul Mixes)

Soma Quality Recordings: 2011

A 20-Years party ain't complete without a couple DJ mixes thrown into the, um, mix, and Soma Records has plenty of tools in their arsenal to do the deed with. As is typical in such an event, one set handles current material, while the other digs deep into the archives, and the results are about as you'd expect. No matter how 'cutting edge' or 'forward thinking' or 'better produced' current material may present itself, it simply cannot hold a candle to the bonafide classics standing the test of time. It is what it is, so you can only hope that the upfront tunes at least don't embarrass themselves too much in relying on gimmicky trends of the era they came out in.

And Slam's set (the 'current' one) mostly avoids such pratfalls. The Soma owners grant themselves some leeway in plucking tunes that have been a part of the label's history by presenting them with contemporary remixes. This includes Diabla (Christian Smith & Wehbba Remix), Stepback (Adam Beyer & Jesper Dahlback Remix), Passage Of Time (D'Julz Remix), Lifetimes (Pan-Pot Bass Times Mix), Right On, Right On (Nick Curly Remix), and Positive Education (Zero T Remix)... kind of. That last one's actually a d'n'b rub, which just wouldn't fit in a deep, tech-house, techno set such as this, so Slam uses a snippet of bass while bridging two versions of Stepback together. Which comes after that Lifetimes track no less, so that's technically four Slam tracks in a row. Not to mention opening with the Deepchord Atmospheric Rebuild of Groovelock, plus the Oxia Remix of Human a little later after. Slam sure love themselves some Slam tunes.

For the most part, their set starts from deep house groove before riding tech-house funk to a thumping techno peak, indulging a couple detours into minimalist-plod (oh God, why'd you use that mix of the lone Vector Lovers track?), with enough clever blends and layering for the ardent trainspotter to enjoy. I mean, you gotta' love how cheeky Slam is in using just a portion of Groovelock for intro purposes, when Deepchord's rub runs over thirteen minutes.

Silicone Soul takes on CD3, and oh boy, just look at all these mint Soma tunes! Daft Punk's Alive! Desert Storm's Scoraig 93! Rejuvination's Requiem! Alex Smoke's Chica Wappa! Chaser's Destination Unknown! Funk d'Void's Diabla (Heavenly Mix! (wait) Silicone Soul's Right On, Right On! (haven't we already...?) Slam's Positive Education! (now just hold here...!) Okay, so there's a lot of repeats from the Soma Classics CD. Mr. Soul does a few clever acapellas and overlays along the way, but I'm kinda' worn out on Positive Education now, thank you.

Also, if you aren't fussed about the DJ mixes, the digital options for 20 Years does include all the original, unmixed tracks for your enjoyment. I usually stump for the physical, but damn, even if you stick to streaming sources, that's a good deal. More than enough music there to get the whole Soma story, and then some.

Various - Soma Records: 20 Years (Soma Classics)

Soma Quality Recordings: 2011

Has there been any UK label more influential than Soma Quality Recordings? Yes, yes there has. Many more, in fact, and I could name-drop a dozen of them off the top of my head. I won't, though, because this is supposed to be a summation of Soma, a label that often likens itself as Very Important, but is honestly more like Kinda' Important. Still, they've released a lot of classic tech-house and techno over the years, and was a go-to source for many top progressive house jocks from the lands of Britannica. They've been steady homes for Slam, The Black Dog (Phase II), Samuel L Session, Silicone Soul, Funk D'Void, and DeepChord. Soma also introduced me to one of my all-time favourite artists of the past decade in Vector Lovers, and that's gotta' count for something. Oh, and a French house duo got their break on this label too, though they were quickly lured away by big Virgin dollars, so we needn't talk about them.

Oh, fine, I guess I must. I mean, it's practically the selling point of this 20 Years blowout, plastered all over the front cover. Frankly, I was more excited getting an unmixed version of their rub on Scott Grooves' Mothership Reconnection, one of the last before becoming robots. All that prime-era French filter funk in full effect, mmmm... Oh, right, the exclusive, unreleased cut, made before even Da Funk, when they were still doing hard acid house with Conor Dalton. Okay, my review of Daft Punk's Drive: it's a'ight.

I have half the tunes on the Soma Classics disc already, but in DJ mixes, so it's nice having them mostly in their full, original versions. Kinda' gutted that Desert Storm from Desert Storm is missing the intro portion with the war dialog and tasty pads on their own, but since this CD maximizes its runtime, some space needed saving.

Three Slam tracks make the cut (thumping acid techno of Positive Education, loopy hypnotic techno of Azure, Pt. 1, and vintage Balaeric progressive house of Eterna), because it's their label, damn it. And no Soma classics CD would be complete without inclusions from Silicone Soul (Right On, Right On), Funk d'Void (Diabla, though the lighter Heavenly Mix instead), The Black Dog (Cost II, by way of a 2007 reissue loophole since the 1993 original came out on General Production Recordings), Percy X (X-Trak 1 letting Detroit know that Soma recognizes the roots), and Samuel L Session. Interestingly, Mr. Session's Can You Relate is the only nod to then-contemporary bloopy tech-house on this CD, and by way of the Joris Voorn Flooding The Market With Remixes remix. Unsurprisingly, it's the least interesting cut here.

Of course, this is hardly the full Soma story, many names and tracks not included here. Fortunately, two additional DJ mixes handled by Slam and Silicone Soul come with this package, filling in those gaps to various degrees. Check in to Part Two of this review for the details!

God Body Disconnect - Sleeper's Fate

Cryo Chamber: 2017

Definitely a surprise that Bruce Moallem returned to the story arc he started in Dredge Portals. How much is left to tell about a man lost in a coma? We've already explored the past memories, the self-reflections, and the damning judgments. All that remains is the final climb up Jacob's ladder, but the last track off Dredge Portals made it clear the narrator wasn't destined for such a fate any time soon, trapped in a forever loop wandering his own psychosis. And perhaps that still remains, though taking in Sleeper's Fate, I get a sense there's conclusion here, a new path taken behind a previously locked door. Literally, one of the many field recordings being a key unlocking a door.

Y'know, I'm not so sure I can call what God Body Disconnect does with sounds is field recordings. When most producers make use of such sounds, it's as sonic dressing, ambient canvasing, and other 'aural painting' analogies you may think of. You may hear babbling brooks or falling rain or stampeding wildebeest, but it's all in service of setting mood and tone for the composition being presented, seldom a narrative device. Mr. Moallem, however, is so precise and focused in his use of such sounds, it's like I'm watching a movie play out without watching anything on a screen.

The opening titular cut, for instance, places us back at the scene of the narrator's attack. There's falling rain, distant thunder, radio chatter from nearby cop cars, a screaming ambulance arriving, and through it all, a dying man's haggard gasping breath, his throat choking from blood welling up through his mouth. And I'm right there, in this man's viewpoint, as vividly as though watching such images play out on celluloid. Only after this scene plays out do we get some music playing, a sombre piece of strings, pads, and echoing guitar, though even this feels like a 'credit roll' portion of the album before we return to the actual film.

Sleeper's Fate essentially plays out like this, long stretches of 'foley recordings' (can I call this a thing?), with the narrator traversing empty corridors and past hazy memories. It's not too dissimilar to Dredge Portals in that way, but whereas the atmosphere of that album could feel damning and claustrophobic, there's more sense of openness here, lighting once shadowed recesses of the narrator's state of mind.

To put a finer point on it, the whole reason our viewpoint character is stuck in a coma is because, no matter how much he thinks he wants death, he just can't let go of life. Sleeper's Fate is about finally giving in, and the release that provides. The back-half of this album features the most music, almost all of it the sort of soothing ambient that's antithetical to a dark ambient label. Has our narrator awoken from his torturous Hell? Is he walking in the literal Garden Of Eden? Guess we'll have to wait for a third God Body Disconnect for an answer.

Seaworthy - Sleep Paths

Slaapwel Records: 2012

Ah, hm. Feel like I've gone into a rut here. The whole point of doing this alphabetical sequence is to prevent such things, to keep every subsequent item different from the last. And sure, there's times where runs of similar-sounding albums can't be helped – the 'Trance' month of 2016, for instance – but such instances are generally rare and at least expected when the moment comes. I never intended for so many shortish ambient releases to bunch up like this, and were they in my original regular queue, they'd at least be spaced out a little more. Or maybe not, items like Selected Ambient Works, Slumberland, Signals, and Solar Walk also among these 'S' albums. Maybe there's just something ambient composers are drawn to in this region of the alphabet, a physiological state of being that works well with ambient music. 'Smiling', that must be it.

So we return quite quickly to Slaapwel Records for another outing of single-song, lullaby music. No, seriously, that's what Sleep Paths is, a forty minute composition the 'electro-acoustic post-rock' band Seaworthy wrote as a beddy-bye time soundtrack for guitarist Cameron Webb's newborn child. Forty minutes is too long for such needs though, especially when so very little actually happens in this piece.

From the outset, you hear super-soft electric guitar plucking, gentle whispers of mechanical breathing, all the while droning reverb and delay effects blanket everything in a minimalist melodic haze. And that's it for the entire duration, cottony sounds meandering along without a care in the world, floating along a river of fluffy clouds. It's impossible to pay attention to Sleep Paths without your mind wandering even after a dozen minutes of this, and Seaworthy stretch things out as long as most toddlers are willing to nap for. I can't imagine anyone even playing such music live without nodding off themselves, gazing at their shoes to the point they've doubled over and passed out on their feet. At least Simon Scott's offering for Slaapwel had a sense of progression from start to finish.

Not that I'm saying Sleep Paths is terrible or boring or anything – it do what it supposed to do, and it do it well. It unfortunately leaves me with almost no talking points. Lucky for me, however, there was a Bandcamp bonus with this CD, Sleep Paths II, which has more going on than the original piece.

For one, it runs at a 'brisk' twenty-nine minutes, which makes better sense as a 'falling asleep' composition (if you haven't naturally nodded off after that long, music ain't gonna' help). Two, while the basic acoustic-droning elements remain, there's rhythm here, clinky percussion panning across the channels throughout. Sleep Paths II also changes form after a while, more prominent guitar plucking and layers of static fuzz added towards the end. Seems to defeat the purpose of sleeping music to have your piece grow more dynamic as it progresses, but hey, at least it gives me more to wax words over.

36 - Sine Dust Versions

3six Recordings: 2015

Wait wait wait!!! Dennis Huddleston released a single with Saturn on the cover!? Yeah, guy, a mini-series at that. Awww, man, it's like 36 knows me or something, my one true weakness for any artwork. Can't say I would buy the vinyl of Sine Dust or Tomorrow's Explorers though, if anything because they're already out of stock and jacked up on the open market now. At least I still get to hear tunes off those records on the bonus CD of Black Soma, but I cannot deny those Sine Dust copies do look exquisite.

While crafting the four tracks of that particular EP, Dennis made alternates, mostly as a means to explore various ideas or paths on each before settling on the finished versions. Not that this is a unique thing musicians do, especially ambient ones, but unless they're the sort who'll release every and anything that strikes their muse, it isn't often they'll make such works available. Given how immaculately produced 36's finished material typically is, I'm surprised he's even letting us hear his alternate pieces, but I guess he figured there was enough to differentiate them from the originals.

Either that, or he just wanted to show off more Saturn porn, which I'm totally fine with. I mean, just look at that beauty shot, the golden globe hovering in space so majestically, its rings stretched out and enhanced. Yeah, I don't think that's an actual Cassini photo, probably a composite. Plus, if you stare really closely, you'll notice concentric lines encircling the planet, as though the light from the background stars are being warped by gravitational forces. In fact, the whole top half of this picture looks more like painting smudges. It's all quite subtle, the sort of thing you won't notice unless paying attention. Hey, kinda' like where 36 takes his music with Sine Dust Versions!

The originals were some of 36's most focused pieces of melancholic music – I'm sure I mentioned as such in regards to the titular track which also appeared on Void Dance. The associated tracks on the single generally followed in Sine Dust's mould, and so it goes with Versions too. Only in this case, tones and melody are drawn and stretched out such that each composition is turned into lengthy pieces of drone, sometimes doubling their runtime in the process.

On one hand, this definitely falls more in line with the type of ambient you'd expect of a space music outing, especially with a lonely Saturn against as stark, empty black backdrop. Whereas the originals could melt your heart, these may leave you feeling lonesome and cold. Hell, the ghostly vocal of Sine Dust is essentially non-existent in its Version counterpart, though Sun Riders Part II (Version) does retain some moving moments in its droning timbre. I wouldn't recommend this EP for anyone other than 36 followers though, which was the intent behind releasing it anyhow – offering a glimpse of different angles Mr. Huddleston's takes his musical ideas.

Simon Scott - Silenne

Slaapwel Records: 2010

So this is a quaint little label's I've stumbled upon, and boy, do I mean 'little'. Operating out of Belgium, Slaapwel Records has been in the game for a decade now, with a grand total of only thirteen items released. Even at their early 'peak', they barely managed two a year, and have been downright lethargic these past few trips around Sol. Makes one wonder whether they've taken that “music to fall asleep to” manifesto all too well. Still, it's not like Slaapwel's a major enterprise either, their CDs coming off like they were made in the art studio of someone's cottage home, simple high-grade cardboard sleeves with ink-stamped type-face, and a pretty picture literally stitched on the cover. It's any wonder they have enough market share such that I discovered them at all.

Discover I did though, on account of following a lead through Lord Discogs, which led me to their Bandcamp, from which I could order actual physical copies of musiks from their offices. And to think such a thing would have been night impossible ten years ago. Truly astounding times we live in.

That particular lead was Dag Rosenqvist, who's Jasper TX project was any early contribution to Slaapwel's skint catalogue. Another chap who he'd collaborated with was Simon Scott, who also released an album with this label. Simon's biggest claim to fame is one of the early members of seminal shoegaze band Slowdive, and he's flitted among various other bands and projects over the years since (The Giant Polar Bears among the most amusingly named of them). At the start of the current decade, he started releasing material under his own name, Silenne on Slaapwel his third of such efforts. Seems like an odd choice, but since ol' Dag had done the deed as well, Mr. Scott felt it was a decent enough label for a tidy little one-off piece of his own.

And that's essentially what Silenne is, a thirty-three minute long single composition that maintains Slaapwel's stated aim of slumber-inducing sonic bliss. The opening portions of the tune mostly consists of a simple, gentle, looping acoustic melody with delay effects bridging each loop. A soft, low thrum of bass breathes every so often, and vinyl crackles add a sense of randomness as things play out, as though Scott's recording this while clearing stress-filled cobwebs from your head. Eh, I'm not feeling sleepy, just need to give my eyes a little break, y'know. Staring at a computer screen can be taxing and all.

The acoustic plucking gradually fades into a steady drone, receding from the fringes of your consciousness. Assuming you haven't gone to the land of Nod by this point, the remaining two-thirds of Silenne slowly ebbs out with soft timbre and fuzzy effects so subtle and trance-inducing, you'd have to be strung out on amphetamines to not zone out. It's weird saying losing one's attention in the second-half of a lengthy composition is the point, but here we are.

Ras Command - Serious Smokers (The Best Of Ras Command)

Waveform Records: 2000

Ambient dub may have been the foundation Waveform built their early success on, but that don't mean they had no love for the roots of dub music either. I'm talking that righteous irie rude-b'woy Jamaican reggae, mon'. After Phase 1 of the label's existence came to a close (re: had finally tapped out of material exported from Beyond), they were mostly left wandering about in search of their next course of action. For a time, it looked as though they would explore the separate facets of ambient and dub, first with Slumberland, then with Earthjuice. And boy, did Waveform figure Earthjuice was gonna' be a thing, proudly stamping a Volume 1 on it, and flooding the stores with copies. Every time I went on Big City Sojourns to take new musiks back with me to the Canadian Hinterlands, there was Earthjuice, its tropical trees in a rasta-man frame staring back at me. Can't say I was terribly intrigued by it though, my ears demanding the unexpected and unheard - Jamaican dub music isn't known for its diversity.

One individual from that compilation that Waveform seemed keen on was Alex Buchal (aka: Ras Command; aka: Cee-Mix; aka: Kong Fu; aka: L-X; aka: Third Coming; aka: Q-Clones). A German by stock and trade, he mostly peddled in dub music, though dabbled in the realms of d'n'b too, releasing some four albums and a dozen singles across his aliases. He was also suffering from cancer, and passed on early 2000. A couple months after, this 'best of' collection emerged from Waveform. I'm not sure whether the label and Alex were already in the works for such a release, or it was put together after the fact as a tribute - some liner notes regarding this matter would have been helpful.

As for the music, it's about as you'd expect of a reggae dub outing. The sounds are sparse, letting all those echo, reverb, delay, phase, and flange effects on the pianos, melodica, and rhythms breathe and exhale to their heart's content. And they take a heaping toke with every splash of snare, believe you me. Plus, that bass! There's some serious sub-frequency action going on here, my friends, low-ends that only the choicest speakers will properly register. Play these tracks on regular ol' computer or laptop outputs, and there's nothing there, absolutely nothing. This is bass for the true believers, not poseurs who think bass is a mid-range noise.

Most of the tracks come from the two Ras Command In Dub albums, some of which get rather brisk in tempo. A couple cuts from his Cee Mix project that skews more trip-hop also appear, as does the exclusive Love Dub (Drum Mix) cut from Earthjuice. That's about all I have to say with Serious Smokers though. Like I said, it's reggae dub, the most predictable style of downtempo out there. Is it ever the most perfect music for ultra-laidback vibes about though.

36 - Seconds & Forever

3six Recordings: 2016

I've settled upon a New Year's Resolution: don't be so anal about buying MP3s anymore. I really can't justify being against it as in years past. There's a lot of wonderful music out there, but without ample funds behind it, a great deal of it simply isn't viable in the physical medium, often limited to small, collector runs at best. And when some of those runs stick to the vinyl option – a medium I must resist because I know it will financially ruin me – I've effectively and stubbornly cut myself off for decade-old petty reasons. Well, enough of that, I say. Bandcamp has provided me with an outlet I feel comfortable paying monies for musiks with – direct compensation to artists. And while I'll hold out as long as possible for CD options, I shouldn't feel beholden to it either when the high-quality MP3 is right there at a cheaper price too. Obviously I'm not gonna' go on a spending spree of MP3s now, but should a discount offer pop up for an item I know I'll never buy in physical (sold out, wrong format, etc.), well, sure, why not, eh?

Okay. Let's now dig into this mini-album from 36, a vinyl release which I bought as a high-quality MP3 from his Bandcamp because there was a discount code available. I'm so easy...

Really, of the short list of artists I'd be willing to take this route, Dennis Huddleston's 36 project is near the top, especially since he self-releases so much material. Seconds & Forever, though, appears to be one of the few items he's put out on a separate label. That same year, he released The Infinity Room on the semi-popular label-blog A Strangely Isolated Place, but Mystic & Quantum is a regular ol' print running out of Spain. They're relatively new, only a handful of records in their catalogue, but have LPs from the likes of DMX Krew and VHS Glitch to their name. 36 is an odd addition, his ambient nothing like the synthy electro and techno Mystic & Quantum peddle in. Why, if you tilt your ears in just the right direction when playing back Seconds & Forever, you'll hear the sounds of worlds colliding.

As for the music, yeah, it's more ambient from 36. Consisting to two eighteen minute pieces (one for each side of the record, 'natch), Part 1 takes a little to build. As it gradually emerges from the lowest registers of human hearing, however, you can tell it's gonna' be another lovely, pleasant, heart-warming composition of layered pads. I initially had shades of Vangelis' Creation du Monde when first hearing this, though 36's dense timbre soon puts that comparison to rest. Part 2 goes in an opposite direction from Part 1, a subdued and sombre melody maintaining a general through-line, as additional layers of strings come and go. Overall more calm and gentle, letting you drift into melancholy thought. Works best while gazing through winter windows.

ACE TRACKS: December 2017

That's another Gregorian calendar done, and there's one thing I can say I'm truly disappointed in this past orbit of Sol. No, not American politics, I got over that almost immediately – if anything, things could have turned out even worse if they didn't have some of the densest idiots running that daycare circus. Some other projects kinda' stalled this year, but that's not entirely in my hands, so I can let that slide. And while the world has had its ups and downs, I'm strangely okay with how things are heading. Maybe it's blinkered optimism or complacency, but for all the rough, nasty crap folks had to endure, I feel like it was as though lancing a festering boil that had grown into a vicious tumour, a necessary operation for things to get better. It was a year of shitty people over-reaching with their shittiness, and actually getting called out for it, some even suffering consequences from it. It's a start.

No, what irks me the most about 2017 is it was somehow my least productive year, at least with regards to this blog. Of these past five years, I've generated the least amount of new reviews, and while that's partly due to taking a month off, that doesn't provide my only excuse. Hell, I did the same in 2014, and still cranked out a bunch of reviews then. And yes, other projects did take up some time, but I was still taking college classes in 2013, which were just as much a distraction as anything. Really, I got nothing, the lower review turnout just an inexplicable happenstance of the year 2017. And of course, this means I'm somehow still not finished with my regular alphabetical run. This decade though, I promise!

Anyhow, here's the ACE TRACKS for December of 2017.


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
WestBam - The Roof Is On Fire
Various - Quinq
SiJ & Item Caligo - Queer Reminiscence
Out Of The Box - Out Of The Box
Various - Nu Balance
Lorenzo Montanà - Nihil

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 4%
Most “WTF?” Track: If not Oak Ridge Boys again, maybe Wednesday Campanella, just for how unexpected it is.

Yep, three months later, and the alphabetical backlog is still chugging along. I've only just hit the 'S' portion of it now, and trust me, like it's regular queue brother, 'S' is a beast – will take me at least half a month to get through that. Then it's onto 'T', 'U', etc. I'd like to say I'll be finished with everything by spring, but, y'know...