ACE TRACKS: June - July 2021

That whole 'heat dome' thing feels like a weird fever dream.

And I know, what a dangerous thought to have. We shouldn't be thinking of such events as 'once in a lifetime', no less than accepting it as some 'new normal'. Heck, there's already another one hitting the States, the edge of which is just kissing my neck of the burnt woods. It may not be blasting hot right now, where radiant heat off the pavement is enough to cook the rubbers of your soles, but it sure is humid and muggy, an almost stinky mank upon the air. I suspect this is what it's always like in those equatorial jungles.

Yet, we're still trying to carry on as if nothing's out of the norm. Folks eager to go on out-of-town vacations they were denied a year prior. Rushing to attend music festivals and theme parks, packing in like sardines in days of yore'. I even did my first day of maskless work, though more because I had an eye-infection that left wearing contact lenses an absolute pain, but at least I could again! I dunno, there's just been this feeling of everyone too anxious to return to our old normal, trumpting our medical triumphs in the face of an uncaring micro-organism, all the while others continue denying its leathality and very existence.

“Good luck, red states,” is all I'm saying.

Anyway, here's the ACE TRACKS from the past two months.


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Darren McClure - On Opposites
Wanderwelle - Lost In A Sea Of Trees
Mohlao - Landforms
Mick Chillage - Intervals Of Light
Sandoz - Intensely Radioactive
Hearts Of Space - Hearts Of Space

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing of note. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy vibes throughout.

Man, even with extending this an extra month, that's still a lot of albums missing out of this playlist. Some of them I'm not surprised by, but the Silent Season ones did. It's not like all the offerings from that label are missing – Segue's The Island is available – just those particular ones. Seems peculiar.

Things continue to be slow-moving blog wise. As I said, feels like we're all playing catch-up to all sorts of things we put on hold this past year, so 'writing inspiration' is just low right now. It'll come when it comes, just can't push these things. At least, not when there's any life-threatening reason to. Now, about that energy-intensive, single-dwelling Arctic Destructor 3000 air conditioning unit I ordered off Amazon...

Captain Hollywood Project - Only With You

Pulse-8 Records: 1993

Though not as impactful as Haddaway's What Is Love, I'd rank Captain Hollywood Project's More & More just as influential on developing my eurodance tastes. Beyond that major hit, however, the musical conglomerate fronted by Tony Dawson-Harrison failed to have much presence in Canadaland, such that it was years before I heard anything else from him. By the time I did stumble upon CHP's debut album, I was well beyond my honeymoon years with the genre, wooed by the allure of goa and German trance instead. Love Is Not Sex sounded hopelessly dated and tired to those ears, and I utterly rejected it as anything worthy of future consideration. Not sure why I had such a knee-jerk reaction to it – was I just too over-familiar with Nosie Katzmann's songwriting?

Whatever the case, those are musings for a future review should I reconcile my impression of Love Is Not Sex. Instead, let's focus on the second single from that album, one that I do remember quite liking at the time. In many ways, it's More & More: Mark II, what with the simple, punchy synth lead, gentle backing pads, rugged eurodance rhythms, and sultry female chorus. Something about this one just hits better though, as though those elements have been further distilled and refined to peak perfection. Why, even the chorus is better, making more sense as lovelorn lyrics than the vague notions of More & More.

Then there's Mr. Captain himself. He was never a fancy lyricist (how many euro rappers were?), but he easily made that up through pure suave, with one of the most gravelly voices from that era. And for whatever reason, he sounds quite fired up here, dropping in with “You. Should. Just. Chiilll.” that sends shivers down my spine. In a totally ironic, cheese-adoring sort of way, of course, ha-rumph ha-rumph. Anyhow, his message is basically “yo', stop fucking up our planet so much”, which doesn't match the chorus in the slightest, but hey, I totally buy his “pleadin'” when he laments that “our Earth is bleedin'”. Poignant content even three decades on, darn it all.

If y'all haven't all turned away in contempt at getting my cheddar on, how about some 'serious' remixes then? The Faze II Mix was apparently done by a guy called Paul Newman, whom you may know as Tall Paul. It's certainly trancier than the usual fare I've heard from The Tall One, though not as trancey as the Trance Mix at the end of this single. Sort of that middle-ground where anthem house and trance could meet back in the day. Speaking of anthem house, Rollo's here with two remixes as well! They're... not as interesting, the Piracy Mix sounding like it wants to be a Jersey club option, the Relentless Mix adding some acid and anthems to the fray. And where's Captain Hollywood in all these remixes? It's weird hearing him just in the Trance Mix, where you'd lest expect him.

Darren McClure - On Opposites

Neotantra: 2019

I've mentioned before that Darren McClure is something of a label journeyman, almost never releasing more than one item on any given print. The only exception Lord Discogs lists is an EP and a collaborative album with José Soberanes on Éter Editions. So it continues with Neotantra, as obvious a label he'd find his way on as any these days. 'Cause when you're down with the Lee Norris fam', you get all the sweet label bumps. Seriously, someone really ought to create an interconnecting chart with Mr. Norris at the centre of it all, just to discover how far reaching his influence stretches. Like, it wouldn't be Brian Eno levels of convolution, but at least on par with a top tier hip-hop producer.

Anyhow, On Opposites is Mr. McClure's contribution to Neotantra, and I cannot deny, there's little I've heard like how this one plays out. Yeah, yeah, I say that often, but seriously, there's something remarkably unique about this album. Even when I think there's some other producer's influence sneaking in (Strange Slip In Time had my John Beltram triggers flaring), I struggle placing this album in any tidy compartment.

Part of it is there's such diversity going on here, I sometimes forget this is all the work of one man as things play out. Many artists show off musical variety within their LPs, but they typically have a specific aesthetic tying everything together. Darren practically pulls a one-eighty with each track here, a pleasant melodic number followed upon by an experimental dark drone piece. Opposites indeed.

If there's any unifying theme with On Opposites, it's sonic exploration in unknown territory. Not that the sounds Darren uses are terribly unique, but it does feel like I'm excavating some future-shock archaeological discovery. Otaru Box and Strange Slip In Time are bright and spritely, like benign reflections of what once was. Meanwhile, Reflecting and Charmonia feature a low, thrumming pulses, like ancient machinery breathing, as distant airy synth pads paint pictures of a lost civilization farther advanced than we could comprehend. To say nothing of the straight-up field recordings of Snow Lapse, where something is literally being excavated (Geir Jenssen would approve). Elsewhere, Darren shows off his more experimental side, but never indulges things for long, serving more as sonic respites. Yes, even the six-minute long Slow Juno, essentially nothing more than perpetually layering synth drone, and unlike anything else on this album.

Are all of Mr. McClure's albums like this? The couple I've taken in were collaborations (with Porya Hatami and Lee Norris as Memex), so I don't have the strongest frame of reference there. I did dabble some samples of his other releases, but clearly it didn't leave the same impression as On Opposites has. I'm almost afraid to check them out, unsure if they could top the weird, captivating journey this one took me on. While not every track is a winner, it certainly kept my interest in whatever different turn it might take me on.

Motionfield - Luftrum

Carpe Sonum Records: 2015

Then suddenly, Motionfield. Without listening to anything more than a few snippets, I now have four of his albums within my CD collection. Yet I still can't be bothered springing for even one Orbital record, darn it all.

Is Petter Friberg's project some revelatory new talent lighting the ambient world up? A dope underground prodigy only a select in-the-know are keeping to themselves? Ask some folks, and I'm sure they'd say that, but I cannot front. The reason I've gotten four Motionfield albums before even listening to one is because they're being released on labels like Neotantra and ...txt. You know, those prints that print such limited runs of CDs, they sell out fast, so you gotta' get in while the gettin's good, b'gar. Still, I'm fairly certain they'll turn out good. Fairly certain...

Motionfield did kinda'-sorta' pop up out of nowhere though. He spent much of the '00s releasing and self-releasing music on various ambient net labels, even getting a CD release out on the short-lived Somnia print. Eventually he landed a deal with Carpe Sonum Records, this particular Luftrum the result. Ah, so he was undoubtedly a contributor to that label's immense, indispensable Pete Namlook tribute box-set Die Welt Ist Klang, helping him gain a larger presence within the contemporary ambient world? Nope! Surprisingly, Motionfield came into the Carpe Sonum family the old fashioned way (if the old fashioned way is luck and pluck), Luftrum essentially a debut. Or re-debut, if you'd been following his career prior. Given that he's since appeared on all the Very Important modern ambient techno labels, I'd say it was a very successful (re)debut indeed.

And I'll give Petter this: he definitely has a unique sound. Luftrum doesn't waste time getting things going, the first track (they're all eponymous) instantly hitting you with a filtered, sweeping backing pad that sounds like ancient machinery breathing, all the while a simple, crisp trip-hop beat plays. I almost want to make a Boards Of Canada comparison, but the more I listen, the less apt it sounds. It's not really dubby either, at least in the traditional warm way ambient dub goes, yet just as relaxing. A Moogy jingle joins later, and if you don't want to find yourself swaying in a summer breeze, dozing in a hammock, I guess this just ain't the music for you.

The album carries on with subdued twee melodies, sparse field recordings, floaty radio sampling, gentle pastoral chill, subtle glitchy sounds, and all that good stuff. In fact, there's almost too much spacious downtime on Luftrum, which makes sense given the title, but does leave one's attention drifting at times. And I can't say Luftrum 8's attempt at a more rhythmic tension builder is effective at shaking things up, that whirring pad and clicky glitch comparatively annoying compared to the album's general tranquility. Knocked me out of some pleasant dozes, it did.

It that's the extent of my quibbles, however, then I can't wait to hear my remaining stockpiled Motionfield albums.

36 - The Lower Lights

3six Recordings: 2019

Wot d'is, then? Even more 36 music, a double-LP at that? Is there any limit to how much material Dennis Huddleston can kick out anymore? Well, sure there is – he isn't Merzbow or something of the like. If inspiration remains hot, however, may as well continue capitalizing on it.

Unlike most of the other items I've covered from him, this particular album didn't have a particular theme in mind. Rather, it's a series of sonic sketches and ideas explored over a period of a year (an 'audio diary', Dennis called it while releasing them on Patreon), freeform music making at its purest. And you might be thinking, gosh, aren't there a bunch of those already in the 36 discography? Of a sort, sure, like those Version rubs he did for the Sine Dust sessions, but that was still working from an original concept. Nothing of the sort exists with The Lower Lights, each piece created as it came to him, with no thoughts of how it may fit within a broader, thematic album context. Ah, so it's like that Nine Inch Nails Ghosts album, then? Yes, yes it is, Mister somehow talking to me as I write this. I mean, obviously it's not exactly like Ghosts - ain't no harsh guitar tone going on here – but the core approach remains the same.

So seems like a fun concept for an album, and it certainly resulted in plenty of music. When The Lower Lights was initially released, the tracklist was culled down to just ten tracks, making it easier to fit on the spiffy vinyl option. Why let all those sessions go to waste though, so Beneath The Lower Lights gathered up the remaining pieces for a cassette release. And now, with all the music available, here's a nineteen tracker for the digital version. Um, oh dear, that might actually be a bit too much for one sitting.

The thing about 36's music is it can be rather draining. He seldom holds back on laying the emotions on, which can be a turn-off for those who prefer more subtlety in their ambient dronescapes. His albums understand this balancing act quite well, a run of major emotional pieces followed by some downtime to recharge. As these Lower Lights tracks weren't crafted with that in mind, hearing them all play out one after the other, relentlessly bombarding you with sweeping synths, unfortunately grows tiresome. It isn't until the Beneath... pieces that things taper off some, and only three tracks of which I'd consider 'soothing', one of which being the closer Signing Off at number nineteen.

There are variations among all the tracks – some even have rhythms in them! It's just the lack of any structure or narrative in their presentation that leaves me longing for the concise nature of a Void Dance or Black Soma (or even Dreamloops). Which, again, was the point of The Lower Lights' exercise. Maybe should have stuck with separate releases.

Wanderwelle - Lost In A Sea Of Trees

Silent Season: 2017

Another significant item from Silent Season's 'let's shake shit up' period. Not only was Wanderwelle's debut among the first forays into LP vinyl releases, but the first to try original artwork too. Okay, I've already said that on the Gathering Of the Ancient Spirits album, but that was a whole two years ago, which in 202x time, may as well be half a decade. Still, I bring it up again because all things considered, Lost In A Sea Of Trees was a major item when it came for the label. Maybe not Pacifica significant, but certainly up there.

Which leaves me feeling just a tad disappointed by it, if I'm honest. I still vibe on it, but Gathering Of The Ancient Spirits was my introduction to Wanderwelle, and I like that one more than this. With more attention paid to soft, mythical tribal percussion, the duo's sophomore effort had a remarkable affect upon my headspace, transporting me to a place and time upon Polynesian islands that never really existed. Lost In A Sea Of Trees attempts this too, focusing on the darkened woods of old Europa, but the music adheres to minimalist dub techno aesthetics just a little too rigidly for me to get those same feels.

Saying that this album 'feels off' isn't really a detriment either, Misters Bartels and van Dulm specifically crafting the music to create a sense of unease. Indeed, ancient forests of their homeland often imparted such unnerving imaginative tales, which seems at odds with Silent Season's usual manifesto. Yeah, we have our own dense, untamed foliage in the Pacific Northwest, but little of the fearful folklore associated with it. Our forests are not cavernous domains filled with the vile and abhorrent, but a primal, purer place, where concepts of civilization are simply subsumed by towering pines, flowing ferns, and thick mosses. You are not consumed by it, but merely merge with the nature surrounding you, becoming part of it. At least, that's how the hippie, mystical sorts in the region tell it (not to mention those who've lived here thousands of years prior).

Guess you gotta' be here to truly experience it. Point being, when I get 'lost in a sea of trees' out in the hinterlands of British Columbia, it doesn't come with feelings of apprehension, but wonderment. And Silent Season's many releases expertly capture that feeling.

Anyhow, opener The Starry Night does a good job setting the mood, a gentle pad lead riding on subtle sounds and soft rhythms. Things go more mysterious on Where The Wind Howls and Through The Meadow, while we get into more ominous dub techno territory with Lured By An Unsen Presence. We actually stay in this vein for much of the remaining album, only lifted out of the darkened woods with closer The Domovoi. In all, a neat sonic jaunt through foreboding terrain, but for me personally, not as captivating as I was hoping for. I've taken far too many forested trips, I guess.

Dynatron - The Legacy Collection Vol II

Blood Music: 2016/2019

A slight correction on the previous Dynatron Legacy Collection: these compilations just recently saw hard copy editions released, digital versions first appearing in 2016. That would explain why it took me so long to actually pick these up, what with holding out for CD options and all. I'm not sure what surprises me more, that it took Blood Music three years to make said CDs and vinyl, or that it's taken me two additional years to actually review them.

Okay, probably the former. You'd think the label would have wanted to capitalize on the trendy interest in all things synthwave while it was still hot. Were the pressing plants booked so far in advance for up-front material, that poor Dynatron was simply shuffled that far down the queue? Or maybe they were trying to time it such that a pair of re-issue compilations would drum up interest in the artist's return? Sadly, the former still seems more likely. It's been two years and still but a single EP from Dynatron.

Anyhow, The Legacy Collection Vol. II rounds up all of Jeppe Hasseriis' wayward compilation material for a tidy nine-tracker. Which honestly isn't that much music, making me wonder why this wasn't just lumped in with the first Legacy Collection as a double-LP. If there's enough interest to buy two separate volumes, surely there's just as much interest in buying the same amount in one package? Maybe so, but when regular pressing plant time already comes at a premium, can you imagine trying to get a double-LP pressed? Just ain't worth it, mang!

Still, I was interested enough in this material to spring for it. After all, it includes the track that first got me intrigued by Dynatron, Jovian Giants, as appeared on the digital-only Aphasia Records compilation Artificial Afterlife. Surely the rest would be just as dope! Well, the other Aphasia item that opens this CD up, Stars Of The Night from Futura Compilation, is nice enough. Doesn't quite hit with the same cosmic adventure other Dyantron tunes do, but maybe this was meant to be a stargazing tune.

Can't say I was as keen on follow-up Dust Of The Saturn, which already hurts my grammatical senses. This one comes from The 80s Dream Compilation Tape – Volume 2 on NewRetroWave (not actually released on tape), and if this tune's anything to go by, taps into the cheesier synth-pop vein of synthwave – too retro, not enough future. I kinda' want to say the same for Out Of The Center, but because this came out on a compilation called PLUTO: a synth odyssey from the non-N.A.S.A. affiliated New Horizons Records, I just can't hate on it. The little planetoid got dumped on enough by the 'proper' planet community, it needs all the love it can get!

There's some okay stuff after, including a few tunes with guitar action, but far from Dynatron's best work. Guess he saved his choice material for the albums.

Dynatron - The Legacy Collection Vol. I

Blood Music: 2016/2019

Those initial re-issues of Dynatron's first two albums must have done well for Blood Music, as following their release, we got The Legacy Collection. Two whole volumes of it, in fact! Or they were simply stop-gap items tiding us over until Jeppe Hasseriis released another long-player. Hey, it worked for Perturbator, one of the label's hottest talents at the time. Only trouble is the Dynatron project went relatively silent after that. I believe he did some touring, but on the production front, practically nothing since 2016's The Rigel Axiom EP. It was four years before he put out another EP, Surveillance, which in synthwave years may as well be a decade. I'm sure Jeppe has his reasons for keeping Dynatron on hold for so long, but in a scene filled with fly-by-night artists, absence does tend to lead to forgetfulness.

Which is partially why it took me so long to check out these Legacy Collection albums. I honestly thought another LP was right around the corner from Aeternus, and when it did not materialize, thoughts of Dynatron simply drifted on by. It was only another of Blood Music's CD sales that I spotted them and thought, “Oh yeah, Dynatron. Haven't heard from him in a while. May as well snatch these up while they're still available.”

And you may think, he only put out two albums, just how much odds 'n' sods material can he possibly have to warrant two Legacy Collections? Not that much, to be honest, which makes both volumes rather odd. For instance, Vol I takes most of his assorted EP material and serves it up as is. That includes Throttle Up, Flashbacks, plus a track from the Fireburner EP (not Fireburner though). These are arranged as though you're playing the EPs one after the other, which isn't that big a deal, except Flashbacks included an Intro of starship ambience, someone (or something?) inquiring a computer over the status of cryo-sleeping crew. Hey, cool beans and all, but this comes smack in the middle of this CD. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have the Intro at the start?

Eh, whatever, it's not a big deal, just niggling nitpicking for its own sake. What matters is the music on hand, and the two EPs featured here deliver. The Throttle Up material is all about that cosmic adventure vibe, space synth played at a synthwave tempo – yes, there is a difference. 37 Million Horsepower even features a little guitar shredding, perfect sounds for hot-rodding on meteorites. Following that mid-LP Intro, we're into Flashbacks, a much slower, chill collection of tunes. While Save The Moment has me reminded of Weather Network muzak, Cruiser is really getting in on that Jan Hammer stylee. The lone Fireburner cut that isn't Fireburner - Cosmo Black - is fairly standard Dynatron stuff, but a nice capper on this collection. As is Looking Back Part II, if you sprung for the CD. Which I did. Both of them, in fact!

The Miraculous Melting Man: An EMC Update

So that was a month.

And you may be thinking, it ain't my fault my region of the world decided to go through one of the hottest heatwaves this planet has ever seen, rendering doing anything productive an impossible effort (thank God for MellVerse 'First Time Watch' vids getting me through it - sweet find!). Or maybe it is my fault, in that we are all culpable for unprecedented temperatures messing up our fragile ecosystems. Mm, nah, that's getting way too deep into it. Besides, all that happened in the final week of the month. What excuse do I have for the lack of activity here in the three weeks prior?

Distraction, mostly. Like, finding another podcast to binge-listen. Getting the ol' Rise Of Nations working on my computer to binge-play. Feeling invested in playoff Sportsball to binge-watch. All that good stuff. The stupid-hot heatwave was just a melting cherry on top a liquefied sundae of procrastination.

And I can't say things will be picking up soon either. Next week I'll be going on an honest-to-God, real, out-of-town vacation! Okay, not a major one, but just being able to leave town, go for a drive in the interior, stay at a hotel, all vaxx'd up and everything. By g'ar, it's been a while! Been having to get my fix in by playing GeoGuessr, which while neat, doesn't quite fill the void of cruising down long stretches of remote road. Ain't nothing gonna' keep me from doing this though, nosiree. Unless a ridiculous amount of forest fires shut down all the mountain highways. That'd do it.

Mohlao - Landforms

Silent Season: 2017

This album feels like Silent Season going back to its earliest dub techno roots. No, earlier than Pacifica. No, earlier than the first Wandering Compilation. I'm talking those initial digital singles, before they added Pacific northwest artwork, giving the label its distinct style. Back when dub techno was more a hot trend than a way of life, erm, a brand to build a label out of. And while Silent Season wouldn't outright abandon the sound, more elements of ambient and melody would continue creeping in, such that the more clinical mid-'00s style became a mere afterthought.

In the back-burner the genre was kept though, such that when Silent Season started feeling that vinyl itch, it made sense to release techno tools of this sort in the format. There was even a ten year anniversary roll-out of numerous vinyl, letting folks know they were serious about providing fresh material for the black crack fiends who'd been clamouring for the format. Naturally, I skipped out on all these because I don't buy vinyl, yet held out going digital just in case Silent Season opted for a CD option at some point down the road. That still hasn't happened, and I guess I'm just deluding myself into thinking it ever well happen – this label isn't really known for its re-issues. Very well then, some digital buys of items I've missed, then.

And Landforms from Mohlao felt like a no-brainer for yours truly. Artwork reminiscent of Ultimae's forays into geological porn, dorky track titles like Rotar, Neptune, and Vector, a relative unknown I get to discover. The man behind Mohlao, Samuel van Dijk, has a few aliases under his belt, VC-118A leaning more Detroit, while Multicast Dynamics treads into abstract ambient drone. So behind these and Mohlao's dub, you have a nice trifecta of techno from mister van Dijk, none of that trendy business bosh.

We even get a taste of the experimental stuff with opener Rotar, where a bunch of drippy, minimal sounds slowly emerge over the course of two minutes. The arrival of a subdued rhythm just adds to the sparse arrangement, this track all about the noises that are barely there. Follow-ups Voltool One and Neptune do more to get things moving along, but even then these are dub techno tracks more as tools than music.

Some traces of backing melody do make their way into this album in tracks like Vector and Outline (ooh, big synths!). This mostly alternates between pure dub techno works, and while not bad, doesn't really do much to ignite this album beyond an exercise in functionalism. I cannot deny this left me a little wanting, Silent Season releases typically offering more than that. Like that titular closer, that's the sort of floating headspace dubby techno I wanted to hear more of.

I dunno. It just feels weird coming away from any release on Silent Season with such lukewarm feels. There's 'returning to the source' but maybe it's not best going all the way back.