Deep, throaty synth voices open the E.P. in a monastery of sound, melodic bottle-necked blips rain in pattering flow before a lead melodic wave snakes its way through the amalgam of the mix. The build up brews further, pressure is added to the already racing monotonous voice sound from the very beginning, now a wavering backdrop to the pitch-bending dynamics of subtle arpeggio and whistling electronic sound shafts. Calm shifts over the soundscape as the rain shower seems to cease, leaving only the representation of sparkles on the soaked surfaces of our eardrums. It's haunting, and organic in flow despite the electronic instruments, and then the sun rises.


Cutting the distortive quality out of the idea yet carrying the theme of flowy melodics, more experimental sounds make an intro for the next track. The use of rhythm begins its purpose after this abstractly joined intro, and the rain begins again but this time with a great beat behind it. The pace is upped for this punchy number, it moves around with frills of repeating melody, synthetic notations in jumpy pulses that make full use of the scale. The dancey element of Nibana comes through towards the end of this second piece, preparing us for the whole.


Echoing chimes resemble a strange clock tower in a ghost town, or maybe anywhere at the specific witching hour, and the eerie sensations drag into strange howling winds that ride some kind of digital pressure wave. The use of electronics has been taken to full advantage, it sounds as if they spent a long time choosing exactly how they wanted their notations to manifest. Slower rhythms make way for a drudge march through some thick and bass ridden sludge that eventually curls over to reveal a high pitched melody that slots between the cubist beat.


Strings make an appearance, a plucked instrument pokes through the beautiful sub-tones produced by a pipe, then the beat adds the layer of sugar that helps the flavours to fuse. More tempo is layering on as a digital repeating melody begins to float in from the calm waves to the shore-line, laden with little shells. Mysterious melodics become the focus point in the following number and some powerful pitch sweeps symbol the entrance to a high energy track. The pace remains slow but the force of the melody is substantial, pieced together from several elements, the combination is like a pounding of many intents in unison.


As an E.P. Fireside Tales is less dance orientated than the last offering, Ask The Universe, but the music has some really interesting depth which hasn't been achieved before. A listen to work of art rather than a get up and keep busy album of choice, we're treated to the musical side of this psychedelic electronic project.

​A funky jazzed up click track opens with a fruity keyboard and some worming pitches that linger for around half a minute. It warm us up, as listeners, and sets a tone of cool relaxation with a subtle kick to keep us interested. Brass fills the spaces left by anticipation and we undergo a slight transformation of sound as it swings into the intense section before falling back into itself, with a little more meat than before.


A jam session of electronic mastery means we get the old time feel with the modern benefits of studio magic. That's what this work is all about, it wants us to take it easy and let the floodgates down, it's a pleasant river of energy that tranquilly sparkles as it laps at our feet. As the second track pulls some more ethnic sounding notes from the silence, a musical laser zap pulls us to the other extreme. A bi-linear approach continues as some reggae rhythms and dub style vocal lines give another perspective to the sound experience.


The progression works into higher tempos, and the swagger is turned up to melting point as some classic brush stroke drumming matches the tone with a saxophone, including some rattles and shakers that give another exotic edge. We're in the upbeat zone but we're leaning backwards. Further into the album and the reggae styling is left to fill the mix and the sounds of other parts of the world are given a chance to lead the mix. An eastern flavour gives a layer of mysterious energy to the sway, as it dances us along with its own time, for a while.


Some acoustic guitar begins a new section and the relentlessly happy energy of the drumbeat feels like it's holding everything in place, the jam feel returns and gives the sonic library a chance to flick its pages. It means that we're entranced and kept afloat by the power of the drum, the waves of music wash over us gently. More bassy numbers end the album, and a rally of worldwide musical extravagance lends its ambient fusion as the music journeys on. We never hit the point of high energy, but the piece as a whole is full of it. A good hour long, the music continually shifts and builds on itself, without ever being the same thing twice.   

Down-tempo ambient drones craft their way around warmed up birdsong and spoken word to introduce this expedition of sound. The slow pace makes listening a pleasure, but leaves our focus available for other things. Rather than taking hold of our senses and chucking them in a room of their design we're quietly (or loudly depending) ushered along a gentle path of notation and atmosphere. Pressing down the keys of the synth for as long as possible before adapting the scope to fit something else can be boring. Luckily, that's only the half of it for Cousin Silas, as the work produced makes us pay attention and it keeps us on track.


The space-age and nouveau voice effects merge with warm fuzz to create something a little over static heavy, however this causes the music to fill out at the sides making what would be a simple note fill the space of a band. Harmonics make full use of this too, as the additions come in from different sonic perspectives, creating a dualistic layering effect that crunches through the silence in a relentless slow dance.


The unwavering push of this album could have us hypnotised and sitting staring into our coffee for the duration if we allow it, but it can also happily sit beside us while we get on with things. It takes a while for evolution of the music to make a noticeable change, and perhaps more like nature than we give it credit for, there's nothing rock and roll about this sound. WE are made to sit and wait, relax and enjoy. No discernible rhythm allows us to work and listen at a pace that sits outside the realms of music, but within the soundtrack zone.


Voice synth and eerie strings meld with each other alongside various feedback whistles that creep in from the sides. There are no missing pieces in the minimalist sound, everything is adapted to flesh out the places in which the drums or a moving melody may want to sit. Rather than the busy city, this is a placid country. In total, the room still feels naturally musical but the hectic bustle of more energetic music is left at the door.  

GRACE JONESWARM LEATHERETTE
UNIVERSAL MUSIC

Originally printed in Now Then Magazine issue 101

Abstract, electronically-crafted dub-funk serves up a pretty dish for the melodic musings of super star actress, supermodel and alternative music figurehead, Grace Jones.

The deluxe reissue opens with the title track. It's got bass, neck thrusts, and perhaps a conversation with Grace in the back seat of an old car. A classic by today's standard, the nostalgic allure of leatherette coupling with the artist's own familiarity. As good as she's ever been, the confident and gutsy Jones shows her no bullshit attitude. “The car crash cassette”, and close. We all know the dangers of changing music at 70mph. Imagine knowing it was one of your albums. Do you think? I dare not ask.

The album gets even more fruity as 'Private Life' takes a look at the celebrity fascinations which drive the popular media. It can get quite frustrating, I imagine, and this track appears to be a response to all those phone calls and questions shouted from across the street. She's putting up her boundaries. Now that's all clear, a lighter tone spirals down to meet the party.

'A Rolling Stone' has radio play single written all over it: short, snappy, happy, and all about love. The title is a great mention of another artist, the slightly more rock 'n' roll tempo perhaps is a tip of the hat in that direction. Each track brings new sounds, giving full perspective on Jones's tastes and evolution of era. The bits we left behind are pulled up by the bootstraps and made modern again.

Rowan Blair Colver

​Morphogenetic Fields
Reflect
Green Tree Records


Slow paced and deep reaching grooves span out a horizon for us and the road turns into a lyrical expression of verb and feminine spiral. Manic but well placed synth beats give a sombre element in a dance of feeling that allows the vocals more freedom to express. Rule bending forces of music make great interesting sounds. I like this already.


Build ups similar to The Prodigy but with a lighter tempo give an atmosphere of merging intentions, each ingredient being added at the right time and with the right amounts in order to form the swirling mass we are no doubt about to encounter. Before track one is put to one side, we are given many climax moments and pinnacles that alter everything just a little before slowly calming into the steady flow of sound.


This is a debut release for an established psytrance DJ from Germany called Mikari. Giving the music a new name and sound, this alias gives the artist an almost clean sheet to compose with. When we're known for a sound, in the music industry, fans can be relentless and punishing if we alter it in any way.


Dark craftings of notation bring a chilling atmosphere in with the second track, To High To Die. I did spell that right, and maybe this is something to think about. Getting high can be dangerous. It is dependent on so many things, however, and this music seems to add a touch of the creepy to the otherwise playful and rich offerings from before. The psytrance tools are out in full practice for this one. Everything is just a bit slower.


The EP makes use of its short nature by giving each track as many distinguishable sections as possible, it could well be several more shorter pieces, and we'd be none the wiser. A good DJ never does this though, and will make full use of their mixing talent to form decent length numbers. A track and its remix sit side to side as 3 and 4, which makes an interesting mirror image and distortion effect within the sonic sandwich.


An extended extended play disk, that sounds beautiful, cold, and like a wishing well that's been cried over one too many times. Elastic sensations that tug and pull give it a quality of the tide, which has been created by the use of rhythm, melody, and intensity of delivery. A great record, too much for the chill out section, just right for exploring while we sit down for a cuppa.  

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Operentzia
Far-far Away




Ethnic origins splash together in an electronic shin-dig reaching well into the realms of psychedelia. Crafty rhythms that loop in seamless spurts are glued up with swirling strings and oddly arpeggio forming keys which seem to bounce along like rubber ducks, peeing this way and that, scanning the musical bars for somewhere to warp over to. And that they do, everything is evolving all the time with this sound and it makes the sometimes dry aspect to digitally produced beat based music sit firmly on the back seat. If we listen, we detect the lack of organic feel, but we don't usually listen to trance psychedelia for the organic feel.


Hungarian music has its own folklore, scales, and rhythms, and these create the flare which distinguishes Operentzia from any other group of this genre. This is a positive aspect, as the traditions provide an extra layer of cultural heat, which when used properly as an add-in to the progression make something unique. Sometimes the sound is left asking for something new, and these bald spots in dance music always draw my attention to the DJ who needs places like this to do their creative work.


I'm not a DJ, so I just sit and wait patiently for what comes after. Something brand new starts the race once the teetering sonics are ended, and a fancy energy with a higher pace picks up from where we last heard something worth moving to. Perfection forms in the fills and frills added by all manner of percussion instruments and sonic effects, snappy beats catch the airwaves in easily honed in steps while fancy footwork from the synthesiser showers us in tingling sampled pulsations and formulate melodics.


Taking it easy with this album is a fine choice for any music fan but I do feel it has been written and produced for high volume maximum energy situations, it's versatile enough to suit the living room or the whole house and when it's sat down and listened to, the craftsmanship is something else again. A lot of work has gone into this, and it really sounds like it might have been worth it.  

Vertical Amigo
Ridge
Coldtear Records


Musical sound effects with splatterings of pulsing jazzy underscoring mean this ambient and abstractly produced E.P. carries a ghostly but mellow edge which gently rests on the airwaves. Echoing from left to right with gusts of digital breeze and pinned to the music with tiny sharp rhythmic nails, we are treated to a slow and progressive thrust into Ridge, track one of the four which make up the extended play mini album. An underwater world element is given as the hard reverb and drawn out echo means everything swirls together in a spiralling draw down into relaxation and stillness.


Melody begins to make itself available when Valley enters the playlist. It is simply made, and nothing is done to excess, however after the first track, the application of tune and a more rounded edge to the voice makes the step in the direction of the sky. It raises the vibration without adding pressure, an album which increases in depth but feels like we're in a well made mini-submarine, floodlights piercing the dank and murky waters of digital exploration.


As we progress even further into the realms of Vertical Amigo, a beat is slapped down onto what has already been built to mark the entrance of track three, Plateaux. A new level of energy finds itself worming into the mix when the cool but excited drumming sits like a decorative icing on the stable and well defined cake. Tunefulness makes another cameo appearance in the pause between sections, a gear shift means that we can turn around and take a different perspective. A new distance forms and perhaps the current is letting us glide a little.


Resurfacing requires a complete reversal in the engine's power output, and when showing this musically, a different form of wave needs to be applied to demonstrate this change. It is no surprise to my ears that a saw effect begins the journey for the last and fourth track on this short but interesting collection of sounds. Peak marks the top of the mountain, as the album art shows a green hill with windswept edges, my journey has been a reversal of what perhaps the artist intended. For me, we are in the mirror. Taking ourselves to a place where the view is unique in the workings of music and rhythm leaves the imagination wide open to our own suggestions.  

​Ticon
Mirage
Eboga Records


Freshly engineered trance-techno music with an uplifting euphoric heartbeat enters the room within a few moments of track one. A relentless bass pulse with accompanying drums that match to a digital pinpoint, electronic music with the fully computerised production technique can only mean that someone has spent a very long time, with many dials and controls, crafting something that sounds amazing. Mostly, it does, and Mirage is already on the way to success before we meet the second instalment.


A much more progressive standpoint begins to wash over the original underlay of scene setting entry level sonics. When we reach around ten minutes in, the playful element of the artist's escapades begins to shine, and we're given some interesting sound effects and a much less full on delivery. Melody doesn't meet the same levels as a classically composed piece, we're more considering the beat with this genre of music, but tunefulness is a part of what we are getting here, if only just.


Dance music of any nature needs to carry a continual rhythm and this means the pace seems to be very dry if we're expecting something else, but once we appreciate the need for consistency, and maybe begin to move something of ourselves, if not all, to the beat, everything becomes much clearer in the listen. It can feel that we're being let go of at times as one section builds over and down, working into the next, but for an album, it's for the best. Mixes tend to allow for overlay, but of course to give one, there must be an element of break down in order to mix it in. Techno has a lot of rules, and if they're not followed then the tracks wont be played as often and in the right places.


Soundtracks for the imagination, from mindful strolls to shuttling throttle jumps, we can work on something manual and tedious like the washing up as well as enjoy the journey gifted to us by the means of this album. Vocals begin to make an appearance, drifting in another layer to the previously purely synthetic sounds, yet they don't make so much noise to qualify as a section really, just phrases to fill the spaces, the perfect choice I think.


Back to the groove with every fresh perspective, this is an album of predictability and drive that probably deserves to be re-mixed a few times, used to create other things, and do well by itself. Love for the tribal part of our psyche is most suited to making music to dance to.

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​Tycho
Epoch
Ghostly International


Ambient music has to have a flavour, when mildness is the call then it is important to distinguish it from another, perhaps this is the biggest challenge in this genre. Tycho has been able to craft some wonderful home sounds with an effected guitar and synths which resemble that of M83 or Ulrich Schnauss. The space age sweeps and cerebral spirals of beat form a droplet of watery textured music that flows like a calm river.


Glider is a wonderful escape into the stratosphere upon the silken wings of arpeggio and basic movements of tone. It melts over the room like slightly warmed butter, and flicks of light seem to dance on the runny lather as the pressure rises a bit more with the oncoming of track two. Horizon keeps us afloat but the gliding person has by now become accustomed to the flow of things, and the sky meeting the land is the outlook. Winds come along and jolt us, in places the bars find a new level of franticness which can occasionally be a little jumpy. Not for meditating to really, it's just not that ambient. This is definitive music for enjoying as is.


Slack and Receiver have reduced the power and flow and replaced the energy with a higher reaching melody, skillful organic guitar echoes, and a freshness that keeps us interested. Once again, with this kind of music, finding the balance between boring and beautiful can be a little tricky. Much deeper in the mix is a nicely knitted distortion which warms everything up, but it really needs to be listened for, otherwise it simply fills the gaps between the music.


By the time we find ourselves listening to Local, we find that time really flies when we are having fun, and the album is almost at an end. Continuum feels like a new morning, in which everything is given a fresh perspective. Field being the last track, takes us to that place inside where the grass is green and the books have already been read. It is a delightful ending to the album, and when the ending comes like the scratch of a record, it simply feels like a cue to press repeat and listen again. 

Erudite Stoner
Self Titled Album
2015


A cup of nectarous melody is poured gently over the hot coals of wistful self dancing, as acoustic and pretty guitar work drape the room with a beautiful and natural vibe. Spiritual Deliverance sounds a very apt name for this short but memorable opening piece. Alienist continues the edge and follows the path into darker waters, descending into abyssal depths and capturing the glimpses of life that flitter in the bioluminescent shades of temporal existence.


Real feeling is worked into each phrase and bar, the organic and man made element to this music makes it so easy to connect with the artist and sense a fraction of the moment within the composition. We can tell also, that during the performance for recording, that same passion and feeling was stirred up again. The microphone does a great job of detecting this extra ingredient. Maybe the mixing has been left to the minimum, and the earthen flow is kept alive.


With grace and humble adaptation to style, Erudite Stoner completes the demonstration of talent with yet more diversity but stays true to original musicianship. The mastery of the steel string and plucked timing is clear, and by the time we get half way through this relaxing and at the same time moving album, it's clear to us that we're listening to a person who has spent a long time working on their sound. The reality of working with steel and finger is that we can place our whole body into the playing, and with the slightest touch, adjust the feel of everything the instrument produces.


Waiting for the Storm is perhaps the most touchable track, with a nostalgia and a folklore feel that really reminds us of something that we don't actually remember. When the distortion kicks in, the fuzz creates another layer which actually makes it more slippery and easier to digest. I love this about music, and this one guitar sound has been able to touch on so many ghosts with the simple tunes and timings that go alongside the human and analogue way in which the album has been produced. Traditions seep across this work like clothes.


Erudite Stoner can be listened to for free and  bought as a digital download from Bandcamp.

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