Technical Itch - Digitally Ascended Vol. 3

Tech Itch Recordings: 2017

Technical Itch was clearly content sticking to the singles market, so I gave up hope on ever hearing another long-player from the man, Diagnostics a once in a blue moon event. Much time passes, and I feel a tingling sensation in the back of my head, like a sentient nerve poking me with the question, “I wonder if Mark Caro has anything on Bandcamp?” And holy cow, does he ever, not only releasing tons of fresh material via his own label this past decade, but bringing in new artists that share his classic darkstep aesthetic. With actual physical media too, including CDs! Hot damn, I gotta' get me in on some of that action, but it seems the only hard-copy item currently available from Technical Itch himself is this Digitally Ascended Vol. 3. Whatever, it's gotta' be dope, the man incapable of wrong after such a storied career!

And... he's taken a stab at trap. *sigh*... When will I learn?

Personal petty petulance aside, I'm not tut-tutting Technical Itch here. Doing a modicum of research would have clued me into the fact that this Digitally Ascended series was started way back in 2009 as a means for Mr. Caro to explore that trendy dubstep thing going on, and carried on with other stabs at the slower, grittier side of bass music; for the d'n'b purists, he had the Progression Threat series. Some time in the mid-'10s, he started rolling Tech Itch Digital material into the parent label Tech Itch Recordings, finally offering hard copy options for stubborn holdouts (*cough*). Digitally Ascended Vol. 3 was the first of his own releases to come out during this phase, hence why it was the first Tech Itch item I saw available as CD. There's promise of more to come though, oh yes.

And you may be thinking, what's the big deal about Tech Itch branching out? Nothing at all, but this is one of those cases where his top-notch production doesn't fit the sound he's trying. Trap is all about stripping things down to bare essentials, the most rudimentary drum sounds available from your 808 emulator. In Mr. Caro's hands though, with his menacing widescreen atmospherics, these drum tracks end up sounding like demos or, at best, something from the halcyon days of audio bass sub-whoofer stress testers. The dubstep tracks are only marginally better, in that they aren't far removed from what the genre did sound like in its infancy.

Fortunately, Digitally Ascended Vol 3 offers surprisingly more variety than the early portions of the album suggested. There's a couple dark ambient tracks here (August Ends, Separka), for all your psychological thriller needs. Elsewhere, Rememberance edges as close to tech-step as this series would probably allow, while the final two cuts (Strangest Form Of Magic, Touched By The Gods) have more a trip-hop vibe going for them. Good stuff, just a shame the comparatively under-produced first half of the album sours a full listening experience for me.

Kriistal Ann - Delirious Skies

Werkstatt Recordings/Wave Records: 2014/2017

Not her first album, but considering it was the only one of Ms. Ann's Werkstatt recordings to get a re-issue with Wave Records, I feel safe calling it her breakout. It's better than Refraction too, Kriistal's actual debut rather rough and under-produced. Not that the whole minimalist, coldwave aesthetic is known for its cutting-edge studio quality – indeed, the rawer the better – but the songcraft was still comparatively basic. Sometimes you just need to get that out of your system though, expunge those hesitant jitters, get a feel for what works and what doesn't. Right, she wasn't any rookie, having already been making music with Toxic Razor for half a decade to that point. Something something solo spotlight versus shared stage, and all that.

I feel like I'm spinning lyrical wheels here. I want to hype Delirious Skies because it's the Kriistal Ann album that has She Walks In Beauty on it. That piece of music makes me feel things I didn't know I was capable of, and I fully admit it was the absolute best setting to hear it the first time doing that. There's nothing like seeing freshly-lain snow, two feet deep, over a mountain pass as twilight settles upon a starry sky, all the while hearing an all-encompassing mechanical bassline and icy synth leads as Ms. Ann's ethereal voice sing-recites poetry from Lord Byron. Holy cow, I get chills even thinking it!

It's also such a significant leap above in mood and tone compared to the music on Refraction, it feels like much of Delirious Skies is in service of bridging the gap. The opening salvo of songs Fortune Of Medea, Fright, and Punisher do sound stronger and more confident in vocal delivery (Ms. Ann's “ohh-ooh”s in Fright seem off-key to my ears, but she fully commits to giving it her all regardless), with the minimalist coldwave production tighter and punchier. Then she goes into more avent garde territory, with harsher synths, clunkier rhythms, and less singing in favour of operatic spoken-word delivery. Is there a technical term for that? I'm sure there is, like a whole Gothic sub-genre of it.

Anyhow, I don't like it as much, but again do appreciate the branching out. As mentioned, it all comes off in service of building Kriistal Ann into her final form as presented in She Walks In Beauty. And as if to sell the point any stronger, the Wave Records re-issue included a bonus track, Jewel Throne, which sounds leaps beyond even the album's earlier tracks, closer to what her later releases would become.

I'm not so foolish as to try and recommend Delirious Skies to anyone beyond the most ardent coldwave cultists. This remains incredibly niche music, and trying to sell it as anything but makes me feel like a Pitchforkian hipster gushing over witch house. Kriistal Ann simply struck the right endorphin trigger for yours truly, but who knows, maybe she will yours too. Maybe wait for a returning winter though.

Lars Leonhard - Deep Venture

self-release: 2015

Straight off, this is definitely different. Less moody, more a sense of subtle awe and graceful beauty. Even the trademark dubby production comes off softer and inviting, not so darkly atmospheric that it sounds like you're in a fog. Which makes sense since Dark Tales From The Woods was all about that setting, whereas Deep Venture is not. Thus we can conclude that, yes, each Lars Leonhard album is distinct from one another, and the only reason they sort of blend together in my memory is due to the time-gap I have between listening to each one. And, as a result of the generally subdued nature of his songcraft, it's his sonic aesthetics that typically stick to my membranes rather than any particular rhythmic pattern or melodic hook. We scienced this up hardcore, y'ah bwoyz!

(to find out what ever it is I'm going on about with this train-of-thought, oh ye' souls of future tense, scope out my previous Lars Leonhard album review right now!)

While Deep Venture isn't about any specific thing, it does have a general theme of exploration in the most mysterious domains of our little ball of rock and water. A significant chunk of the tracks here come with titles like Bioluminescence and Photophore, plus name-drops like Vampire Squid, The Singing Opah (a warm-blooded fish), and Osedax (bone-burrowing worms that feed on whale skeletons), all creatures of the bounding main, lurking deep within unfathomable fathoms.

Not to be outdone, even technical terms like Pelagial, Hydrogen Sulfide, Negative Termal Expansion, and Trophogenic Zone all bring to mind things that occur in bodies of water. Only two track titles don't specifically tie into these themes, Northern Stargazer and Retroreflector, but they can if you tilt your head the right way. Ah, yes, looking upon a clear, dark night before sending your recording instruments deep into the darkest waters below. Lovely mood setter, that.

As befitting an album with its sights set on deep aquatic ventures, Lars' distinct dubby production feels more tranquil his other albums. There's even breathing space for his subtle melodies, which I know is a weird thing to say for a producer's who's made his lane in dub. Sometimes they get overwhelmed by the layers of sonic depth in his other works, but not so much here. It's like he wants you focused on whatever particular critter his sonic camera has focused on, no time for getting lost in one's headspace.

In fact, the music on Deep Venture feels so custom-made for video accompaniment, I'm surprised there haven't been any aqua-related YouTubes with this used as a soundtrack. It's because NASA already gobbled up a bunch of these for one of their Ultra-HD 4K vids of the sun, isn't it. Yeah, the space agency had been plucking tracks here or there from Lars, but this one's a full half-hour long, half of Deep Venture. Now when folks hear Osedax, they won't think of bone-burrowing worms, but of solar eruptions.

Lars Leonhard - Dark Tales From The Woods

self-release: 2014

Another day, another Lars Leonhard album. Look, when I say I was sent a lot of them, I meant it, the man rather relentless in his output rate this past decade. Maybe not 'tech-house singles' or 'industrial noise experiments' relentless, but averaging a couple LPs per year ain't no slack either. Heck, since I was sent this then-current bundle, Lars has released five more albums. Guess that just happens when your sound is in high demand for NASA videos. Moar muzik for the Stellar Gods!

Thus I must reiterate I've exhausted almost all avenues in talking up Lars Leonhard. There may be a couple albums with specific reasons that went into their creation, but there hasn't been that much sonic difference between most of them, especially in his post-BineMusic era. He's found his lane in downtempo dub techno, and by g'ar, it's where he remains. Unless he has expanded a little more beyond that in more recent albums. I don't know, I haven't heard them yet. I'm still catching up in all these older ones.

So on first ear-glance, I don't have much unique to say about Dark Tales From The Woods, because my first impression is this is more of the same that I've come to expect from Mr. Leonhard. I wonder though, if this impression is due to the general listening gap I give between albums. If I actually played each one after the other, whether significant differences would emerge. Fortunately, due to alphabetical stipulation, I'm dealing with two Lars albums in a row, this one, and Deep Venture. This has given me an opportunity to properly examine them, and whether my lack of picking such distinctions out of other works is simply due to that aforementioned gap. Okay, enough fancy conceptual talk, let's get into Dark Tales From The Woods.

This was among the first (the first?) of Lars' self-released albums, though he still had at least one more outing in store for BineMusic (Passenger At Night). As such, his conceptual streak was still more specific than later efforts would go, though not so razor-focused as 1549 went. The opening track Three Oaks Legend is certainly a moody enough number to set things off, and we're right in the thick of that deep, immersive downtempo dub techno.

And mostly stay in that lane for the duration of the album. Yeah, a couple tracks go groovier than the rest (Forest Window, Rustling Leaves), some feature more of a proper techno pulse (Guardian Of Crows, Deep In The Fog), and others offer a lighter tone to the general mood (The Glade, Rustling Leaves again). It all kinda' blends together though, which makes sense for an album maintaining a consistent theme throughout. Would have been nice to have a journey into these woods, but if tales is what Lars wanted to tell, then tales it was.

Tune in next review to read whether Deep Venture ends up being 'more of the same', or starkly contrasted with this album. Oooh, suspense!

ACE TRACKS: March-July 2020

So I have shingles.

At least it's not COVID-19, right? And I don't feel sick, just frequent hot spikes of pain around my shoulder-blade (imagine a heated cactus ball rolling about) as my latent chicken-pox virus does its damage to all those tender nerve membranes. And you may be thinking, “wait, Sykonee can't be that old such that he'd get shingles?”, and you'd be right. Yet here we are. I already knew all the stress I've put upon myself this year wasn't doing me many favours, but the fact it suppressed my immune system enough such that the ol' varicella-zoster could act up again should have me rethinking the way I'm doing things.

And what's 'funny' about all this is, until it flared up, I thought I was doing fine, life-wise. Yeah, there were still things and stuffs lingering in the back of my mind, but I still had a good groove about doing it. I can only hope my stubbornness hasn't done permanent damage because dear God, this would suck to have to deal with for the rest of my life. Or get myself in on that all-encompassing opiod market America is known for.

That all said, I realized it's been five months since I last did an ACE TRACKS playlist. Figured after all that time, I'd amassed enough of a backlog to make one. Little did I realize the final list would be over 10 hours long! Gander, at the ACE TRACKS from March through July:


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Bedrock: Jimmy Van M
Various - Better Living Through Circuitry
Various - Beyond The Machines
Cryostasis - Between Static And Distance
Coma Eye - Insufflated Brine Shrimp
Astral Engineering - Chronoglide

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 3%
Percentage Of Rock: 19%
Most “WTF?” Track: Neo-Adventures - Whaaaauuu (because “whaaaaaauuuuu TF?”)

Okay, so I cheated a little in the length, in that I included the entirety of L.S.G.'s The Singles: Reworked at the end. Plus some of the all-time longest recorded pieces of music by both Banco de Gaia and Creedence Clearwater Revival ever committed to master tapes (ten minutes of CCR may as well be a prog-rock opus).

Even with those caveats though, the fact this playlist ended up as long as it did just goes to show I've been busier than I gave myself credit for. And diverse too, a little something for anyone's interest making its way into here, providing a surprisingly smooth listening experience compared to many playlists past. Of course, if no one wants to listen to it, because it'll remind you of *gestures wildly*, I wouldn't blame ya'. Heck, maybe it's why I put off on doing this for so long in the first place. It's been a Hell of a five months, it has.

Oh, and some may have noticed I've skipped ahead on my reviewing order. The 'B' section of my collection is too big for one sitting, so decided to split that up while dealing with a pile of other items I've had gathering in that time. Will probably resume with the 'B's in, oh, a year, at my current rate

Atrium Carceri - Codex

Cryo Chamber: 2018

It's been a while since we returned to the on-going story Simon Heath is telling with his Atrium Carceri project. Maybe not as long as the Sabled Sun side-project, but that one did have a sense of finality to it with 2148. Heck, I'd argue it could have ended perfectly with the debut 2145, but that's neither here nor there. What's fascinating about A.C., however, is the fact Codex marks only the third mainline album under that banner since Mr. Heath set up Cryo Chamber. Plenty of collaborative works and joint concept works, absolutely, but to this point, only The Untold, Metropolis, and Codex have been solo works on the label. Does this mean the collaborative ones tie into the mainline narrative at all? Miles To Midnight sure doesn't seem to.

Thus these solo Atrium Carceri works are treated with a fair bit of awe and anticipation, exciting new chapters in whatever ongoing narrative there actually is between the three albums. Simon spared no expense in celebrating the third in the current-trilogy (two years later, still no fourth album), giving Codex the same lavish hardcover casing and picturesque booklet as some of those Cryo Chamber Collaboration releases. It's only appropriate to go whole hog on the package considering this is the label's one-hundredth release.

And we pick up right where we left off in The Void, that vintage all-encompassing cinematic dark ambient stylee Atrium Carceri built an empire upon. The mood is sombre, the atmosphere suffocating, the organs dominating, and your headspace transported to whatever bleak, uncompromising fallen society Mr. Heath has envisioned for us. A couple examples of choking drone follow, then Codex takes a surprising turn for the ...calm and blissful? Wait, what?

True, we've heard sombre piano pieces from Simon before, typically as contrast to whatever menace lurks in the surrounding tracks, but A Memory Lost remains shockingly lovely considering the lead-up. It's followed upon by The Empty Chapel however, with choir and ethereal pads that is almost angelic in presentation. Fits the theme of the track, I suppose, but can't say I've ever heard anything quite so pure ambient as this from this label (I've missed a fair bit in recent years, mind).

We go back to the foreboding cinematic drone after this, Mr. Heath taking us on another journey through old world domains, but its not so harrowing as works past. It's as though he wants us to be more in awe and worshipful of what we imagine than come away intimidated. But before you know it, Codex is wrapping up, another little piano piece in A Hunger Too Deep followed upon by a suitable denouement to the journey in The Citadel.

Gosh, that was rather a brisk listening experience. Felt like things were still warming up before coming to an end. Considering the anticipation, roll-out, and subsequent elapsed time since, I can't help but feel a tad let down by Codex's relative briefness. This dark ambient hunger don't sate itself.

Astral Engineering - Chronoglide

Worm Interface: 1994/2012

I don't normally follow Bandcamp suggestions. Not that I doubt they'll lead me somewhere interesting, but as my Discogs digging already takes up most of my exploratory attention, there couldn't possibly be any avenues not already covered there that Bandcamp offers. Well, not entirely, the deepest depths of that streaming service a mysterious domain of The Unsigned. At least there's some official capacity with Bandcamp, where folks expect their efforts could earn them a few bones, unlike the constant demo reel of Soundcloud productions. Lacking the time to explore that realm, however, I simply pass on whatever unfamiliar names crop up in Bandcamp's algorithms.

Except this one, for some reason. I can't recall which release it was tied to, but the cover art got my retro-senses tingling, so gave it a click. Lo', my senses proved accurate, for I'd stumbled upon a gem of an artifact in ancient ambient techno and dub. Astral Engineering emerged from the post Artificial Intelligence / Beyond Records era of British downtempo techno, finding a short-lived home on Worm Interface. Folks of the here and now may not recognize the label, but the London shop it based its operations out of – Ambient Soho – will certainly bring a flood of memories back to those vibing on the chill side of electronic music. Sadly, the label remained one of those hopelessly obscure prints that didn't generate much in the way of future Very Important talent (save a Tom Jenkinson), but has its dedicated fans floating about the perimeter of scene interests.

So Chronoglide. It's something that could possibly have made its way into the early Fax+ catalogue, though less on that pure, noodly spaced-out trip Pete Namlook and his associates often dabbled in. It's got the ultra-dorky sci-fi fetishism the IDM wonks were all about (Wave Part, Beyond The X-Ecliptic). It's got naturalistic sounding tracks that remind me of Delerium during their more experimental phase (Neural Net). It's got rather subdued, meditative pieces for those proper chill-room experiences (Ring, 2010). It's got some proper ol' school trance (Brainstrobe) paired with proper ol' school ambient dub (Bios ...such bass).

And finally, it has a low, dubby synth lead in NGC 4512 that I cannot but help feel Underworld jacked for their first post-Emerson single Luetin. A coincidence, I'm sure, but man, if Underworld had ever gone ambient dub instead of prog-house, this is probably what it'd sound like. Also, what a strange namedrop, NGC 4512. Far as I know, it isn't a terribly remarkable galaxy, merely a smear of light in the Draco constellation. Why Simon Rees would feel inspired by it, I haven't a clue.

Ah, right, I should get into who Astral Engineering is, and all that. Sadly, Lord Discogs says he didn't do much else after this, though re-emerged this past decade to, along with this Chronoglide re-release, put out some unreleased material, plus a new album just this past year. Only a quarter-century in the making!

Frou Frou - Details

MCA Records: 2002

(a Patreon Request)

Like 97% of the world, I've only really known Imogen Heap via memes. Absolutely she has fans that extend beyond those hearing her synthesized croon as some helpless schlub is ironically shot in slow motion. Some of them even existed before Hide And Seek became her defining work. The amount of buzz that single generated for her career cannot be denied though, going from a non-charting oddity to Top 5 selling artist in America. Even Zach Braff including her Frou Frou track Let Go didn't accomplish that!

Right, to call this a strict Imogen project would do Guy Sigsworth a great injustice. Yeah, that's her voice on all the songs, and her glamming it up like she's about to go shopping Madison Avenue on the cover art, but Frou Frou was initially the brain-birth of Mr. Sigsworth. He'd participated in a few mildly successful UK bands in the '90s, but truly made a name for himself lending his production talents to the likes of Seal, Madonna, and Björk. He also crossed paths with a young lass with a quirky name, and helped produce her debut single called Getting Scared. I cannot deny it's weird seeing Ms. Heap as a raver-goth grrl in that video, given the future her career would take.

Anyhow, itching to make a proper album of his own, Guy set out to do just that, working under the project handle of Frou Frou. Realizing he needed a little female vocal talent to give his songs that extra bit of class, he got in touch with Imogen again for a contributing lyric or two. She soon became so involved with the creative process that they decided to make the whole Frou Frou gig a collaborative process. And thus Details came forth to much... mm, no, 'aplomb' isn't the right word. It did okay, from what I can tell (I recall Breathe In being rather popular on the radio for a spell), but it didn't light the UK on fire either. Still, those college kids in America seemed to like it, enough for a lengthy tour there.

I can hear why this album was popular with such a particular demographic – this totally makes sense hearing out at coffee shops or sorority parties. Guy definitely knows his way around a studio, expertly blending multitudes of instruments and musical styles into an indie-pop soup such that Details defies easy genre classification (my WMP suggests New Wave; capital attempt, ol' chap). To my ears though, that studio expertise flattens my enjoyment out of this album. The music within is just a tad too slick and polished, such that it kinda' fades to the background of my attention after a few tracks (the delightfully twee Maddening Shroud notwithstanding). As for Imogen, she sounds fine, I guess, certainly an integral part of the Frou Frou package. The chorus to Breathe In aside, however, nothing here eclipses Hide And Seek. And how could it, the latter a fixture of late '00s meme culture?

Coma Eye - Insufflated Brine Shrimp

self-released: 2020

(a Patreon Request)

I'm surprised this doesn't happened more often. These Patreon Requests have mostly been as I expected, if not so dominated by a select few. Getting my thoughts on items I've overlooked in the past, or throwing some shine on genres outside my usual wheel-house (so much Japanese music... just so much), that's usually how it goes. Somehow I haven't received requests for anything intended for a roast, as can happen, but I guess I haven't gained a reputation as that sort of review blogger. Come to think of it, I don't think I've gained any sort of reputation. Which is ...good? Like, I have a real life and a real job, and becoming Internet Famous could severely impact that. Yes, even Good Internet Famous (is there a Good Internet Famous?).

Thus getting requests as a means of promotional hype has been exceedingly rare on the Patreon front. I can't imagine my word carries very far or has any influence – I do this as a lark, not as a profession. Folks would have more success sharing things on streaming services than the slim hopes someone may stumble upon this blog and wade through over two-thousand posts to see their stuff given some shine. Then there's the whole 'ethics' of it all, getting paid to potentially hype something up. Never mind I'm quite honest in my feelings over whatever I listen to, there's just this whole assumption, see. Then again, I've actually reviewed promo stuff from my local talent, so where do I get off on this holier-than-Pitckfork shtick?

Speaking of 'local talent', listening to this debut EP from Coma Eye reminds me of the sort of live PA acts I often hear at Vancouver's bi-annual Sequential Circus showcase. Apparently Coma Eye is part of one such scene, hailing from New Orleans but somewhat involved with Erie's electronic music scene. As in, 'Lake Erie' Erie? Wouldn't make sense to have an Erie in Louisiana, now would it? That'd be like having a town called Tsimshian on the Hudson Bay (very local joke).

Won't deny I didn't have high hopes for this after the first couple tracks. IDM can go oh-so very wrong and off the rails without a steady hand, producers too often thinking MOAR stuttery-glitch means MOAR awesome. Coupled with ultra-twee perversions of electro-pop sampling, and the palming of my face is complete whenever I hear that kind of stuff. Coma Eye doesn't go quite that far, but does take a longing glance at the edge of that cliff.

Or maybe my ears just prefer when she takes things down the breakneck acid techno road with HORSE. Or the creepy sludge-glitch of Conquered In The Concord Gel. Or the trippiest-hop of Do You Love Your Granny?. That's the darned thing about these IDM wonks: when no sounds or styles are off limits, they're bound to stumble upon something that connects with the cochlea. Some have better batting averages than other, but even a .500 on a six-track EP ain't too shabby.

Airwaves - Biomechanical

Carpe Sonum Records: 2018

The spiritual successor to Fax+ has been on a heck of a run these past few years, such that I grow ever more flustered with each passing newsletter of their releases. It's sadly been nearly two years since I've picked anything up from them, and it's not for a lack of interest, believe you me (so many 'blue covers'... just, so many...). They've simply grown more than I'm sure anyone could have predicted, but since their run of CDs aren't as limited as similar labels go, there's a sense of biding time with Carpe Sonum. Dabble here and there, particularly with artists you're not always familiar with but features striking cover art. Ah, this Biomechanical looks intriguingly unique, why not that?

Thing with Carpe Sonum is I generally have a good inkling of what I'm going to get with them, typically ambient and ambient techno with a '90s feel for it. Imagine my surprise, then, when listening to this CD for the first time, it went ultra-retro, all the way back to the '70s! Not that I hadn't heard such stylistic dalliances from the label before, and honestly, it's not like ambient as a genre is so specific to decades as other electronic music is. Still, you can just tell when some pieces have influence from earlier eras than others. It's all in the gear used, m'man, and the chap behind Airwaves, he was a connoisseur of vintage gear indeed.

Right, Airwaves, or Oscar Menzel, as inscribed on his obituary. He passed away earlier the previous decade, but left quite the impact upon the Mexican ambient scene, in that anyone was even aware it existed at all. He released two albums as Airwaves way back when, which naturally are super-rare. Additionally, they were on Opción Sónica, an L.A. based, Mexican-focused outlet that didn't last into the new millennium, specializing the harder side of rock and EBM, placing Airwaves well outside the label's usual fare. Basically all odds dictated Airwaves should have been hopelessly buried in obscurity, yet some folks did discover him. Then his music generated enough positive buzz that Carpe Sonum somehow unearthed more unreleased material from the Menzel estate, two album's worth, in fact (as I was gathering pre-notes for Biomechanical, Carpe Sonum released Multiverse... I did not plan this!). I feel like this chain of events could only have happened in the modern era, what with archival websites like Discogs letting super-diggers know of Mexican ambient composers releasing music on '90s industrial labels and all.

I also feel kind of bad in thinking the story behind Airwaves is more interesting than the music on Biomechanical. It's decent enough as an assortment of pieces feeding off that vintage Tangerine Dream vibe, with a lean towards the New Age side of things. Aside from a couple tracks that sounds like it should be in a direct-to-VHS horror movie, it's all rather pleasant and nice stuff. The adherence to vintage gear does give it all a dated feel though, even with a spiffy modern mastering job.