Norken & Nyquist - Synchronized Minds

Intellitronic Bubble: 2020

Aha! There was another Lee Norris alias I had yet to cover. (no, Man-Q-Neon doesn't count; nor Nei Lorken) Norken's been around almost as long as Metamatics, emerging about the same time as Nacht Plank. I don't think this one gained quite the cult following as his others though, in that Lee never released Norken records on his own labels. Which makes sense, the Norken material not fitting so tidily on Neo Ouija or ...txt, as this is Mr. Norris' serious techno muzik alias. Okay, not that serious, but from what I sampled of his earlier albums, there's heavier emphasis on deeper, almost minimalist tech-house rhythms. That just wouldn't do for those labels plying more of a continuum of ambient techno IDM, nosiree.

Despite having mostly mothballed the project since the mid-'00s, Lee kept Norken around for sporadic items, eventually dusting it off with more regularity half a decade ago. Somewhere along the way, he became buds with Futuregrapher, and started releasing a whole bunch on his Móatún 7 print. And then, still feeling that proper techno twinge, he teamed up with Futuregrapher to start up another label together, Intellitronic Bubble. Gads, how many labels does Lee have running right now? Seven?

Okay, that's Norken sorted, so how about _Nyquist? Not nearly as much history, and much of it is in conjunction with Lee on Móatún 7. When Intellitronic Bubble started expanding into artist albums, it was decided their combined powers were a perfect kick-off for the throwback techno print. Doesn't hurt when you're part label-runner too. Of course, I knew very little of this, just that there was an interesting new label that Lee Norris was part of, and here's a cool piece of cover art featuring Arctic wastelands. Ooh, might it be experimental tundra drone?

Nah, it's techno, ol' school and stripped down with machine-jackin' rhythms, floaty synth leads, and deeper than thou basslines. Like, holy cow, are these basslines ever low on the low end! Some of these frequencies are in the technobass domain, though the surrounding production keeps things in the realms of crisp 'n' clean techno. If that crisp 'n' clean techno carried with it those heart-melting melodies Mr. Norris' body of work is known for. Sometimes a little acid action is thrown in (Aux Patch, Auxxx Thatched), other tracks opt for a vibe in other genres' realm (tech-house in Mutual 2, electro in Track 11, Detroit funk in The Far Center, ambient techno in Love Simulation), but the general sonic aesthetic of each track remains mostly consisted throughout Synchronized Minds.

And I can't deny, that does lead this album to sounding a little samey when I play it back. Nothing ever slips in quality, but little leaps out as the highlight track, or the intriguing leftfield cut, or the instant earworm. Which is fine, Synchronized Minds clearly not that kind of album. Does feel like this could have been broken up into separate EPs though, giving each track more space to stand out.

Lionel Weets - Stellar Orchestra

Motech: 2014

Well, look at that, another Motech album. How did that slip by? Must have put it in a different 'to review' pile than the 'to review' pile that had all the other Motech releases. Why yes, I have many 'to review' piles going at the same time, is that so weird?

Belgian Lionel Weets started out making thumping techno as MGMX, releasing several singles across several labels. If Lord Discogs is anything to go by (and it usually is), these didn't catch on in any major way. Undeterred, Lionel pursued his musical interests towards a more Detroit-based sound, leading him to a debut album on Motech, this here Stellar Orchestra. His Discoggian info dries up after that, save a lone collaborative single in 2017. Uh, wha' happened? Did this album not meet expectations, causing a crises of musical faith? Not enough bills getting paid to continue on this path? Another case of Lord Discogs missing massive updates on particular artists just because no one's been keeping tabs on Bandcamp pages?

Okay, before I hype this record up more than it probably deserves, I'll say straight up that what Lionel is doing here isn't revolutionary. Indeed, you'll hear plenty of sonic markers that'll have you remembering Detroit techno anthems of yesteryear, Mr. Weets laying his influences naked and bare for all to hear. The Strings Of Life strings, the Plastic Dreams organ licks, the Man With The Red Face saxophone action. Even the... Pump Up The Jam synth stabs? Well, Technotronic was also Belgian, so I guess you had to give some nods there. Come to think of it, Jaydee is Dutch, and Laurent Garnier is French. Are we certain Lionel Weets is doing a strict Detroit thing here?

Yeah, I'm pretty certain. This is definitely tech-house as inspired by the Motor City, and though the rhythms are mostly straight-forward, they have more than enough beef to carry things forward. It's all about whatever melodies Lionel comes up with anyway, and what instrument he uses for a lead in a given track. The first few mostly rely on those archaic string samples we all associate with early Detroit techno, but I'll take Mr. Weets' use of them over hearing Strings Of Life ever again. Elsewhere we get pianos (Don't Follow Me, I Am Lost, Alien Opera), organs (The Night Is Ours), saxophone (Not Today) or synths (Rise Of The Dragons, Different Ways To Paradise). And hey, just to show it's not a total Detroit fest, here's a little garage action with Through The Universe. Oh yeah, that's some shuffle rhythm there!

What amazed me the most about this album is how well it flowed. Yeah, the tracks all abruptly stop, but they also don't waste time when starting up either, getting right into the action again. And once another fun solo breaks out, you're all in for the ride. All solid stuff, and astounding to me that Mr. Weets apparently didn't do much after this.

Solvent - Solvent City

Morr Music/Suction Records: 2001/2012

And so we come to the end of my Suction Records excursion. This... is the last, right? I won't have a Motech or Werkstatt situation where some unexpected record pops up that I totally forgot about? Let me check... Lowfish... RX-101... Skanfrom... Solvent... Yep, I'm pretty sure that's the four I picked up from the label's Bandcamp. No hidden or surprise albums from that bundle, nosiree.

Seems fitting I end this with a Solvent album. The man behind the moniker, Jason Amm, launched the label with Lowfish way back in the '90s, and relaunched it less way back in the '10s. Everything I've said regarding Suction Records can be tied to Solvent, so it's about time to actually dive a little deeper into his discography. And his is an interesting one, to say the least. Like most of the early Suction material, his first couple albums skewed closer to the realms of IDM than the electro he'd be more known for. His big break, if you want to call it that, came with signing on Ghostly International, where he shifted quite dramatically into 'don't call it electroclash' synth-pop. Well, that would certainly explain why Phase 1 of Suction Records petered out: its label runner was off gallivanting with that Ghostly hussy.

Still, comparing the leap from Solvently One Listens to Apples And Synthesizers is drastic, a feeling of something linking them between required. Solvent City is that link, and not just because it was released between the two. Okay, it is part of that, but you can definitely hear the bridge this album creates. The more IDM'y aspects of his older stuff has been sifted out, refining his music into its pure electro-pop essence here. It isn't must of a stretch to start adding a shinier production gloss and robo-singing for the Ghostly International crew.

As such, Solvent City comes off much simpler and quaint compared to its neighbouring albums. Is this why it ended up on Morr Music instead of Suction Records, tunes too off the expectant path of what folks wanted out of Solvent's label? Eh, that's neither here nor there, in that for such a young and relatively unknown print, I can't imagine it'd develop a hard-core, purist following. Mind, stranger, cultish behaviour has happened in the world of techno, even for labels based out of Toronto.

Anyhow, quaint electro-pop vibes permeate Solvent City. Aww, look at all these cute automatons going about daily activities like they're human. I easily imagine various simple animations playing out, drawn in the crude figurines as featured on the cover art, all doing things suitable for the titles. Buying some Frozen Food. Picking up a newspaper That Will Be 49 Cents. Testing out a Built-In Microphone. Looking over billboards, passing by ones that say Not For Sale. Rummaging through products to Sample And Hold. Wait, that's a Neil Young title! Holy cow, is this a cover of his utterly obscure slice of electro Rusty-rock? *listens* Mm, okay, maybe not.

Vector Lovers - Solstice EP

self released: 2015

So this EP's taken on a bit more poignancy, now that I know what Martin Wheeler was going through around the time of its release. When I first spotted all these self-released Bandcamp singles, I just assumed it was a trickle of items while other things ate up his time. Boy was I ever right, just not in a way I ever suspected. Still, game development takes time, especially when essentially doing it all on your own. But if some Vector Lovers folks weren't keeping tabs on Mr. Wheeler's other ventures (*cough*), the occasional Bandcamp EP would do in a pinch. I mean, no sense carrying on with Soma Quality Recordings if an app for personal self-promotion is available.

If the timeline is accurate, this Solstice EP was the first of a yearly run of EPs that's more or less carried on to this day. I can't imagine it gaining any sort of attention at the time of its release, the market on Vector Lovers singles all but dried up by that point. There was a lone vinyl with Soma in 2013 supporting iPhonica, plus an MP3 digi-single, but aside from that, the fruitful year of 2008 was the last time Martin contributed much to the EP market. Folks just weren't looking for Vector Lovers records anymore, is what I'm saying, so it's no surprise to me that this one wasn't even on the Discogs database yet. Excuse me while I do my duty for The Lord That Knows all now.

Okay, that's sorted. So what else can I blag about before getting into this EP? Well, it was apparently made solely on an iPhone, using some softwear called NanoStudio. That's kinda' cool, and fits with the whole 'iPhonica' theme Martin's music was all about prior to those years. I wonder if these were done as a lark during those sessions, ready to be used for b-side consideration, or just on his spare time while getting his game developer muse on. Either wouldn't surprise me.

I'm dallying again, mainly because I feel like I've said just about all I can say regarding Vector Lovers music. Unless there's something truly unique in the release I'm covering, I'll just be reiterating points I've previously covered. Solstice EP sounds about as typical a tiny collection of Vector Lovers tracks as there can be, which is great if you can't get enough of his melancholy electro, which I can't!

So key differences between tracks then. Almost Human does the aforementioned 'melancholy electro', while Glacial treads more the sentimental ambient-pop route, if that's any way to describe a tune. The titular track is more along his tech-house lane, with beats that softly pitter-patter and crispy-crunch along with a heart-tugging melody. Okay, it's a little 8th notey, but at least it's not McProggy in the process. Crestfallen carries on the Almost Human vibe, with a moody lead-in, followed upon a tender melody and electro rhythms. How much more vintage V-L can one get?

Arcturus - Shipwrecked In Oslo

Blood Music: 2014

This crossed my path while browsing about Blood Music's webpage for CD deals. The Ensiferum albums had already intrigued me with their Viking art, so was on the look for anything similar, where Shipwrecked In Oslo popped in. Well gosh, this sure looks spacey and all. Plus, the band's name is that of the third brightest star in the sky? (okay, fourth, if you want to get technical about it) Is it Viking metal though? Oh, what the heck! I'm feeling adventurous, courageous. What a thrill, finding a whole new genre to explore with absolutely no idea who anyone is or if any of them are good!

However, I have no idea if Arcturus actually are any good. They certainly don't appear to be bad, definitely talented musicians at what they do, but man, this is getting into realms of metal I wasn't prepared for. Lord Discogs lists Shipwrecked In Oslo as “Black Metal, Prog Rock”, and “Avantegarde”, and right from the jump, I hear rockers unafraid to go where no metal has gone before.

Apparently Arcturus have been something of an outlier since their inception way back in the emergent Nordic black metal scene of the early '90s. Only two members have been there since the beginning, keyboardist Simen “Sverd” Johnsen, and drummer Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg - and yes, “Hellhammer” is the most metal name for a metal drummer I've ever seen. Aside from those two though, Arcturus had many rotating members coming and going throughout the '90s, gaining something of a reputation for being the band where black metal musicians would go if they wanted to push the boundaries of what their music could entail. By 2005, they'd settled on their current line-up ...after which they broke up. Then they reconvened half a decade later, and have been stable ever since. This live concert album was recorded in support of their last album before the hiatus.

Actually, I wouldn't even technically call this a live album. Originally Shipwrecked In Oslo was a concert DVD, released on Season Of Mist. I guess when Arcturus reunited, a round of album reissues happened, and somewhere along the way, Blood Music got the music rights to release the audio for this, including limited run CDs and vinyl. This is the only Arcturus item Blood Music has, though to be fair, Arcturus' journey among record labels is almost as convoluted as its rotating band members.

Am I gonna' talk about the music at all in this review? What can I say? There's operatic black metal, with crazy time signatures and key changes, such that a six-minute song can feel triple that length. Groovy solos and blast-beat drumming. Mastering so wonky that it sounds like you can hear everything all at once, but is drowned out at the same time. I want to 'get into' this, but with absolutely no frame of reference guiding my opinion, I feel lost on a black metal sea. Music Entry Difficulty Level: too damn high.

Biosphere - Shenzhou

Touch/Biophone Records: 2002/2017

The ambient techno leanings had slowly been sifted away in Biosphere's body of work, but even as late as Cirque, you could hear trace elements still lingering in the music's DNA. With Shenzhou, such markers are basically gone, marking a turning point of sorts within Geir Jenssen's discography. More experimentation! More minimalism! More abstract sound-scapism! And a whole lot less drum machines, unless by way of sampled jazz loops. That trademark chilly atmosphere though, that can stay, even if it isn't so laser focused on space or tundra clime's.

I admit this period of Biosphere's work is mostly an enigma to me for this reason. Save Dropsonde (picked up because it just happened to be in the used store at the time) and some scattered tracks as found on Compilation 1991-2004, I never bothered to check any of it out, as it was the vintage ambient techno of yore that drew me into the Biosphere fold in the first place. When an artist says 'nuts to my past' in pursuit of creative freedom, I'm all for it, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have to follow their journey too, especially if I was only ever a casual fan in the first place. Or wait, was I? No, I'm pretty sure I was super-keen on Biosphere from the start, I just had little resources to find his stuff in my back-ass corner of Canadaland. Praise be The Internet!

It does make me wonder how I would have reacted to Shenzhou had Geir's music been consistently easier to find for yours truly. Like, coming into this with nearly twenty years of prepared hindsight (yes, I got this as part of his ongoing re-issue campaign), I know it's a different album than Patashnik or Substrata. I didn't know what kind of different it would be – certainly not Dropsonde different – but certainly a change of musical direction. I definitely didn't expect to be so heavily influenced from Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project.

Was this a major thing at the time? For sure Gas got a whole lot of critical praise for his manipulated orchestral-sample drone loops, even as far as Pitchfork recommendations (back when such a thing was the ultimate in hipster cred'). It had to set off some trends, even if in smaller circles. Not that Geir would be a chaser himself, but I'm sure he took a listen to Pop and thought, “Hmm, I have some old orchestral records. I could do something like that, in my own way.”

I suppose that's why Shenzhou falls more into the 'interesting' area of Biosphere's body of work rather than the 'captivating' category I prefer. Yes, it's interesting hearing these orchestral loops ebb and throb, even the aged crackle of the used vinyl becoming as much part of the atmosphere as artifacts of archaic technology. Plus, there's always that omnipresent atmosphere of lurking menace, creeping in the shadowy recesses of your mind. A journey inward then, rather than Biosphere's explorations of the world outward.

Vector Lovers - Separation

self-release: 2020

Doing a video game score seemed inevitable. Lot's of electronic music producers do it, those with sonic similarities to sci-fi, anime, and all that good geeky stuff perfect adepts. So when I heard Vector Lovers had made a soundtrack for a game, it didn't surprise me that much. What did surprise me was the game in question, called Separation, was developed for the Playstation VR system. I've heard of the gear, but hardly seen much buzz around it. Or maybe there's plenty of buzz, but since it's a device I'll never use, it all passes me by.

In any case, I followed the handy link to the game's promotional website, for that all-important context on the subject matter, and it looks interesting enough. Mostly a walking simulator with a desolate world to explore while solving the mysteries of what went so horribly wrong for this civilization to have come to ruin. Gosh, getting some real Atrium Carceri / Sabled Sun vibes here.

I was curious how Vector Lovers came into contact with this project, so poked about the Recluse Industries page some more. Ah, here's an 'About' page, going into the developer's past game-making experiences, mostly done during earlier generations. He took a break from it for a while, then returned to the fold when the death of his father inspired him to make Separation himself. Signed ...Martin Wheeler? Wait, Vector Lovers not only did the soundtrack, but the whole game? Holy cow, I had no idea Martin was an indie game developer too! Seems like information that should be included on his Discogs page. That also explains the long stretch of minimal musical output following iPhonica. He was busy making a VR game in all that time!

Befitting a VR game that's more about immersion and exploration, the music for Separation is mostly on that moody ambient tip. It even occasionally dips its toes into atmospheric synthwave territory (Epic Fail, Outpost), which totally tracks for Vector Lovers. In fact, I'm surprised I didn't hear more of it, as this seems like a prime environment for some vintage retro-future synth pulses.

But nay, Separation's primary sonic domain are subtle droning pads that ebb and swell, likely emerging as you come across some new landscape or ruin in your sojourn through the game's world. Some of it is ominous and mysterious (Ocean Of Nothing, Requiem), others tranquil and relaxing (Into The Air, Unlearn, the titular cut), while a couple could have been the mellower moments in a Vector Lovers album (Foregone, Requiem again). Such distinct markers of Mr. Wheeler's music seem few and far though, Separation a much different outing than the usual Vector Lovers fare. It's fine on its own, but undoubtedly would be enhanced with associated stimuli from the gaming experience.

And the game itself? Oh, I've obviously never played it, but did check out a few reviews. I've seen opinions range from "immersive masterpiece" to "tedious... treasure hunt". Always positive things to say about the music though.

ACE TRACKS: October-November 2020

So I made a Topster.

And you may be wondering, what even is a Topster? Just a simple little chart app that lets you put images of music albums however you want. Most have been doing it to make Favourite Albums collages, which I figured, “When in Rome...” Only, I have no idea what my favourite albums are. For sure there's one's I like quite a bit, but I've never thought about ranking them or paring things down to a Top 40 (or 100, or 1000). There's just so much in my collection, it'd take some serious study to figure it out, and I don't care to rank my albums that much.

Fortunately, there's a handy little place that tracks which albums you listen to the most often, and while not the most accurate of apps, should be representative of what my favourites are. So off to the Last.dot.fm I went, scoped out which were my top scrobbled albums, and selected just the top from each artist that came up (there'd be quite the bunching of FSOL otherwise). The result... wasn't what I expected.

Oh, absolutely many of these albums are favourites, but I can't say they're my absolute favourites from each artist. I'd put Big Men Cry over Maya any day, or Demon Days over Plastic Beach, or Dead Cities over Environments 2, or U.F.Orb over The Dream. Plus, I'm missing whole genres here (house, techno, d'n'b, rap, almost all of rock), which is just ridiculous. What gives?

Methinks this scrobble information is so skewed because this is a lot of stuff that I tend to play at home, on the downswing, sometimes when I'm ready to nod off. I generally don't get scrobble information for music blasting on my main stereo or MP3s on the go. Others likely got high scrobble info because they have so many tracks to scrobble from (I see you, Pete Namlook tribute box-set; you too, Neil Young box-set).

Still, I feel like this is an app that could be toyed around with some more, given the time to do so. Stay tuned for future Topster pics! For now, here's the ACE TRACKS for the past two months of reviews. Seems like enough to make a decent playlist out of now.


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Autumn Of Communion - Reservoir Of Video Souls
Various - Recycle Or Die (Electronic Mind Music)
Skanfrom - Postcards
Vector Lovers - Pale Blue Star EP

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nope, can't think of one. Even the dark ambient stuff is comparatively tame.

Aw man, I go and say downtempo, ambient, IDM-chill stuff really isn't my only port of call, and here's a playlist that's filled with it! At least there's a little more variety in here though, what with Technical Itch, UNKLE, and, um, Fictivision. Wow, relying on eurotrance to break up monotony. Strange days forever more.

Atomine Elektrine - The Second Moon

Old Europa Cafe: 2016

No doubt about this one. Browsing through Peter Andersson's Bandcamp, spotting cover art of celestial objects, and I'm on it like a wook with white powder. Just the concept alone gets my astro-dork endorphins going. Think about it, a whole other moon orbiting Earth, one that has somehow gone undetected in all of mankind's star gazing. Or even better, an Elseworlds concept, where there's always been a second moon, one woven into the very fabric of our culture since cultures began. We've set so much of our society around the regular rotations of Luna, could you imagine what else might be added to that with a little sister of sorts? The possibilities are mind-boggling!

Even ignoring the cultural implications though, the astronomical ones alone are fascinating. Where would such a moon feasibly be? How would its gravitational pull affect Luna and Earth? How large would such a body have to be to even sustain an orbit without other astrophysics interfering with it? There have been transient bodies that have, for a time, shared Earth's orbit, and even briefly come under its gravitational pull, but most of the time is kicked back out into the cosmos by that jealous hanger-on Luna, forever dominating our skies for attention.

I find it interesting that Mr. Andersson chose an image of Charon for a stand-in of Moon Two. This image was extremely new when he released this album, the New Horizons probe having done its Pluto flyby barely a year prior. And while the make-up and orbital mechanics are quite different between the Pluto and Earth systems, there is some similarity, in that they're both examples of a double-planet system. True, the Pluto-Charon relationship is more a true double (dwarf) planet example, each always showing the same face, their the barycenter outside either body, whereas that's not the case with Earth and Luna. Still, it's the only shared example within our solar system of a proportionally large moon orbiting another body.

Oh dear, have I ever gone way off topic here.

As mentioned before, Atomine Elektrine was the alias Peter used when exploring music outside the confines of dark ambient's domain. That initially meant skewing closer to techno, but when he relaunched the project with the Nebulous album, it's become more about space ambient and dronescapes ever since. Unsurprisingly, this has led to his music inching ever closer to Berlin-School, because the never-ending fascination with Tangerine Dream's early works is forever etched into space ambient's DNA.

The Second Moon definitely has that vibe, lengthy pieces built around pulsating synth melodies. For sure opener Sepharial's Lilith harkens more to the darker drone of raison d'être, but beyond that, it's spaced-out sounds with slowly evolving arps. By the time we're at final track Green Crescent (or even bonus Bandcamp track 2006 RH120), it's upper astral all the way, gazing back at the pretty pair of Earth and Luna from the surface of an ignored, forgotten sibling's surface. Always lonesome, the second child.

Fictivision - Ringworld / Outpost

In Trance We Trust: 2003

Yes, I admit it: it's totally the cover art that drew me to Fictivision's Ringworld. Just the retro feel of it is enticing enough, though being among the most unique images of ITWT's catalogue doesn't hurt either. Like something out of a '70s astronomy book, before we had amazing telescope photography splashing across our pages, relying on the imaginative guesswork of painters.

Arny Bink typically used beauty shots of various Earthen locales and scenery in his photography for the label, giving the early In Trance We Trust releases their distinct character over so many other trance prints of the early '00s. I wonder what inspired him to go so cosmic with Fictivision's debut? Also, did Arny make it himself? The legal details say the artwork is owned by Black Hole Recordings, so maybe so.

Anyhow, I wouldn't have acquired this single if the music within was rubbish – lovely artwork can only take things so far. Fortunately, Fictivision was one of In Trance We Trust's unsung heroes of the label's golden age, each of his singles among the classiest a bloated Dutch scene could offer. Heck, it was his pairing with Phynn on Escape that clued me in that there might still be some worth in a genre I'd long since abandoned. But while his partner would go onto a decent little career of his own, the Fictivision project ended after just four singles.

Instead, the man behind the moniker, Bart van Wissen, focused his attention to producing proggy electro house after, as was the style at the time. I listened to a few of those singles, and they're fine for what they are, but I get more of a kick from his darker, dubbier prog from before the Fictivision years. In any case, a genuine talent that could have offered so much more if he'd gotten a similar break as his buddy Phynn did.

And how does Ringworld go? Right, it's honestly a fairly standard epic trancer with a cosmic bent, including a mild breakdown for the main lead to go a little quiet for a tasteful build. It's still a lead that triggers the Proper Trance synapses in my brain matter though, which can happen provided its not surrounded by a bunch of bollocks. The flipside Outpost is more straight-forward, leaning on that Ton-TB brand of tech-trance that was making the rounds of Black Hole at the time. Not bad, though I've heard better out of Fictivision, including that pairing with C-Quence in Symbols, not to mention another epic cosmic outing in Out Of Orbit, his final release with In Trance We Trust. Man, that's another one I wouldn't mind having. Shame you can't even buy these in MP3 format anymore.

Erm, yeah, full confession I nabbed Ringworld from the Seeker Of Souls, all my regular options exhausted. Still, between his Fictivision stuff, and the material released under his own name, Mr. van Wissen has enough to compile some sort of retrospective on Bandcamp. Would definitely drop dollars for that.