Pronounce records, a DIY label based in Detroit release their third very limited CD album from electronic composer Sage Taylor who is based in Portland Oregon.
What's hard to Believe is an album of this quality is unfortunately limited to one hundred copies, its a sad sign of todays physical market I guess ? I feel the music on here would appeal to wide range of music fans, if it was given a bigger push.
"Raintime" lies somewhere between the minimal classical compositions of steve Reich and Michael Nyman to the dreamy moments of say John Beltran's ambient techno but without the use of 4/4 beats.
I found the overall concept and theme of the album similar to Yagya's "Rigning" which of course is the Icelandic for rain but Sage's work is a very different affair but equally as hypnotic and deeply calming yet delivering a deep sense of meloncholy and emotions that only those wet home bound days can sometimes bring..
A truly essential release that only one hundred lucky people will get to hear, and I'm happy to be one of them..
Lately there has been a lot of discussions regarding the current state of techno music, thanks to the easy access of music making technology and trends like the new wave of so called minimal techno, many veterans in the scene feel that it has opened the flood gates to a new breed of soulless lazy producers, which is causing a lot of damage to the name of techno. This maybe the case for many of todays new and upcoming producers but its certainly not for Florida based Ryan Parmer AKA Phasen.
I first discovered Phasen's music a few years back on myspace music, I was immediately struck by the level of maturity and emotion in Ryan's compositions, as he was only in his late teens. The most obvious influences in his music at this time would have been acts like Boards of Canada, Tycho, etc..
Around this time Phasen was releasing some CDR's through the highly respected U-cover label so I ordered one of the albums which displayed his awesome talent for composing down tempo IDM hip hop styled tracks with some beautifully composed and played acoustic guitar and dreamy synths and quirky electronics, it was a rather stunning collection of melancholic pieces which perhaps captured the spirit of the endless warm days that Ryan would have been immersed in while growing up in the sunshine state.
Over the last few years Ryan has more or less left his early inspirational sound and moved into the techno/house music arena somewhat, but without losing his unique sense of melody and compositional values. Maybe the influence of going out into the atmosphere of Florida's club life has made an impression on him, whatever the reason is, it really shows that Ryan can produce music of any genre which always turns out to be a deeply moving sonic experience of the highest order.
Today the sound of Phasen is a lethal cocktail of House, techno, electro, disco, dub, hip hop ambient and beyond but somehow he manages to effortlessly blend multiple genres into all of his tracks, which can work equally well for home listening as they would for causing dance floor hysteria, thanks to the combination of his stunning key work, deep spacious tones and intricate beats and often cone busting basses. Unlike a lot of producers today Ryan doesn't really care about neatly fitting in to any one genre or scene, so he makes music that borrows influences from everywhere and makes it all his own.
Autumn 2010 sees the release of "Gainesville" on Dublin imprint Dublin Xpress Recordings its a collection of the most imaginative and memorable deep techno, house club friendly tracks that I've heard in some time, which could make some of the bigger producers to seriously consider hanging up their jack leads.
The album opens up with "The Times we Forget" a deep tech house groover that starts off with dub style chords, eerie strings and earth shuddering bass, giving you a sense of uncertainty but then the track takes a serious change in direction with the introduction of some beautiful flamenco guitar and uplifting pads which erases all of your troubles and sets you up for the great journey ahead.
Next up is title track "Gainesville" think Maurizio meets Hardfloor as deep dub techno sounds and rising acid sequences meet with bouncy old school house style piano riffs which only Phasen could pull off with such ease.
"The Truths we will find" opens up with dark sweeping pads and bleeping melodies before taking you off on a solid mid tempo techno groove, again the dub techno influences are strong here but on top of this we are treated to an array of instrumentation not usually associated with this genre, from tapping wine glass melodies and stunning freestyle piano flourishes that will bring Larry Heard to mind.
Towards the end things go in an even deeper direction with "In My House" an emotive electronic symphony that combines lush pad arrangements, deep tech stabs, blues influenced smokey organ refrains and solid grooves and some rather soulful twists and turns which will delight the fans of producers like Chris Brann and The Timewriter etc..
The album comes nearer to a close with the club friendly strains of "Floridian" a bouncy tech/house tune which is full of massive build ups and breakdowns, wobbly basses and sometimes a little on the edam flavored side of melodic.
things finish off with the beautiful but short "Outroduct" which sounds like it could have come from the Icelandic producer Yagya's back catalogue.
The album also comes with a collection of remixes of the title track, the most outstanding remix is from Germany's Nachklangmusik which has the potential of dominating dance floors across the globe.. F.L.O. turns out a lovely mellow ambient dub tech mix, while Ireland's Captain Random keeps it minimal and DJ friendly with his rendition. The collection concludes with a Nacim Ladj remix, which brings it back to a retro acid flavor, with a touch of influence from the likes of UK acid pioneer A Guy Called Gerald.
Over all "Gainesville" is a great and somewhat original collection of groove based electronica that should change a lot of peoples perceptions of what techno and house music has to offer and it also gives you a reason to keep a close eye on Phasen, as I'm sure this is only a little taster of the diverse and emotionally rich music that he has in store for us in the near future and in many years to come....
In May 2010 Irish electronica master Colin Cloughley AKA Anodyne returned after a lengthy hiatus with his Corrosion album on Dublin Based Psychonavigation records, "Corrosion" is journey through the dark side of dance music, full of apocalyptic orchestrated synth arrangements with truly dancefloor devastating caustic beats and growling basslines which pays respect to early 90's artists like AFX, Autechre, µ-Ziq and many many more. "Corrosion" is certainly a contender for many electronica fans as one of the best albums for 2010.
August 2010 sees the release of The Corrosion remix EP firstly in the digital format consisting of seven tracks and then in september a limited three track 12" vinyl release featuring remixes from Autechre, The Black Dog and Lackluster. The digital release includes extra remixes by Ed Devane, Mr Spring, Anodyne and Mick Chillage.. This is certainly the greatest collection of big league elctronica names ever seen on an Irish release!!!
Autechre's remix of "Close Your Eye's" sees Manchester's finest go in an old school direction with the use of the infamous "Funky Drummer" break yet paying close attention to keeping the spirit of the original track by adding further key changes in the lush pad sequences and other intricate details.
The Black dogs remix of "Corrosion" starts off in a minimal techno terrain accopannied with bleeping synths and other electronic tones which develops into some deeply cinematic synth action of epic proportions. reminiscent of early Reload/Global communication tracks.
Lackuster turns out probably the most technologically advance remix of them all on his reworking of "707" with his trademarked edited beats and experimental electronics but with that melodic and emotional feel that only Lackluster can deliver.
Ed Devane treats us to a hardcore breaks and bass mash up of "Haze" which should appeal to fans of Venetian Snares etc, while Mr Spring keeps his eye on the dancefloor with his rendition of "Wasteland"
Manchester based Gerald Simpson AKA, A Guy Called Gerald is probably one of the best known and respected artists from the UK electronic music scene and one that certainly doesn't belong to any one particular movement as over the years he's jumped from acid house, techno to Jungle etc..
In the late 80's Gerald started out by trying to emulating the electronic sounds of Chicago and Detroit. The results where an infectious mixture of alien sounding afro acid grooves which sounded very unique with only the bare blueprints of the Detroit techno sound left intact. 1988 saw the release of his seminal "Hot Lemonade" album and at around the same time Gerald also worked with fellow Manchester based techno outfit 808 state on the heavily acid tinged techno album"Newbuild"
"Hot Lemonade" featured a version of the 1990 hit "Voodoo Ray" but overall the album really displayed an artist bursting with electronic innovation and it still sounds soulful and futuristic even today.
The early nineties saw Gerald in the top of the Charts with the Haunting tech mantra "Voodoo Ray" and then the release of his second album "Automanik" on CBS records, the album continued with a similar feel to his debut but sounded more polished and accomplished. One of the tracks titled "Untitled" was originally going to be called "Specific Hate" after the alleged lack of credit Gerald got for his creative input on 808 State's chart hit "Pacific" but the record company decided it was better to go with "Untitled" or "Subscape" as on the vinyl edition.
Gerald was pretty much respected for being one of the key acid and techno music UK originators but in 1992 he embarked on a new direction and this time possibly single handily invented the Jungle movement with his proto junglist album "28 Gun Bad Boy" which was full of clattering breakbeats deep sub basses and rude boy ragga chants and of course his trade mark melodies and electronic sound. By the mid nineties "Black Secret Technology" hit the scene, again Gerald displays a truly unique vision of the Drum & Bass/Jungle sound, a deep and dark tribal funk oozing with blues and ethereal ambient vibes yet retaining a street wise sound which certainly set him light years apart from the rest of the jungle scene.
Through the late 90's and early to mid 00's Gerald released some more albums and various 12" etc, his Junglist sound became a little more accessible somewhat, as he ventured into a kind of mature soul vibe which was particularly evident on the "Essence"released through K7 records but he managed to keep his position as a legend of British electronica.
In 2006 Gerald releases an new collection of techno on the Berlin Based label Laboratory instinct, the album "Proto Acid the Berlin Sessions" is a collection of deep techno acid jams with that distinct Gerald Simpson feel, Incredibly programmed drum machines emitting poly rhythms in perfect harmony with synchronized bleeping and buzzing circuits with a dark and soulful edge.
May 2010 saw Gerald returning with another album for the Laboratory Instinct label, this time titled "Tronic Jazz The Berlin sessions" initially I was expecting some sort of conceptual jazz electronica album but we are treated to another excellent collection of moody and soulful floor movers and right from the opening Gerald sets the tone with the stunning dreamy Detroit inspired "People moover" the album pretty much moves effortlessly from gem to gem, the dubby technoid flavor of "The Dip" sees Gerald mixing up the genres of techno and house and beyond with the greatest of ease, then we have tracks like the minimal bass driven stomper "Wow Yeah" The album also includes yet another version of "Pacific" in the shape of "Pacific Samba" well you can never have enough versions of this classic!!!!
The album finishes of with the eerie pulsating arppeggiated sci-fi soundtrack of "Merfed" Ok so Gerald may not be currently releasing groundbreaking material like he did in the past but he has proved that in world full of unidentifiable techno clones that this Guy from Manchester is still more relevant than ever, and he also proves that there is still plenty of life left in this beast called "techno".
Yet again the internet has given birth to another overnight sensation, this time its actually a 35 minute piece of ambient music ? What baffles me is how this fairly interesting piece of music has taken off ? I mean most ambient music on the web by a well known artist would be lucky to get a couple of thousand hits per year with one of their tracks, so for an unknown electronic artist with 203 followers on soundcloud to reach half a million in one day its hard to understand how ?
Well I guess the name of teen pop idol Justin Bieber and his hit song "U Smile" has helped somewhat in drawing an audience to this genre of music usually ignored by mainstream followers or could it be the mastermind of some major music marketing executive to further boost the profile of J Bieber by causing a viral sensation ?
Seemingly The track in question was achieved by simply importing the original 4 min pop song into some free software and slowing it down by 800%, which I have to admit the results are pretty interesting. The track now reminds me a little of John Foxx's "Cathedral Oceans" album but without the deeply emotional impact. Some people are claiming this to be the most beautiful ambient track ever created, like the music that could possibly be played on the PA system at the pearly gates ?? Seriously though you wouldn't have to search for a very long time on youtube etc to find ambient music thats far far superior.
Ok so this track could be a very positive thing for the ambient music scene in general or more than likely it could start a worrying new trend, I can imagine already thousands if not millions of people around the world already trawling through their pop MP3 collections frantically time stretching track after track in the vain attempt to find the next instant ambient hit..
So where does this leave the producers of real ambient music ? will everything we produce from now on be judged as some pop song we simply slowed down and called it our own ? or does this open us up to a whole new audience of ambient lovers ?
Hopefully though like all internet sensations, it will be forgotten about in a few days, the major record labels will continue to spew the same old shit, artist like Shamantic will probably never make a buck from his own music and the real ambient music world will continue pleasing their small group of dedicated fans..
Heres my first ambient mix, since the "Best Served Chilled" tapes of 94 & 95 and a rather lengthy four hours in total thanks to developments in technology & a substantial collection of ambient music. I decided to split them into two parts and offer the files at 320kbps after getting some feedback on various forums on what is the perfect ambient mix.. I may upload the whole mix in one piece later..I feel this mix is more suited to personal listening rather than trying to chill people out at a social gathering, as it shifts from very dark minimal drones and deep environmental sounds to gentle classical pieces to pure space music & occasionally returning to earth with more emotional compositions . Fortunately due to the very long running time of the mix I was able to included full length versions of most of the tracks while using a repeated theme at various intervals using multi-tracking additional looping & effects.
I hope to create many more "Ambient Journeys" although a title probably a little cliched by now ; )
Mick Chillage June 2009
Ambient mix 1 part A
01 Hal 9000 intro 02 Cyorgy Ligeti: Requiem For Soprano..... "2001 A Space odyssey" O.S.T 03 Jack Dangers : Burbidge Chain "Music For Planetarium" [brainwashed] 04 Lustmord : Metastatic Resonance " The Place Where the black stars hang" [Soleilmoon recordings] 05 Lull : Whiteout "Like A Slow River" [Glacial movements] 06 J.S. Bach : Italian Concerto BWV 971 "Cello Suites" [Apex] 07 Steve Hillage : Garden Of Paradise (excerpt) "Rainbow Dome Musick [Virgin] 08 Aaron Martin and MachineFabriek : Cello Drowning "Cello Recycling / Cello Drowning [Type] 09 Irezumi : Endurance Part II "Endurance [Snowblood] 10 Dots : Dots "Dots" [Rather Interesting] 11 Cluster : Cluster 71 part II (excerpt) "Cluster 71" [Sky] 12 Selstram and Strahler : Waldschrat "^ö^" [Source] 13 J.S Bach : Orchestral Suit No.3 in D Air On A G String "Cello Suites" [Apex] 14 John Foxx : Infinite In All Directions "Ocean Cathedrals I" [Edsel] 15 Johann Johannsson : IBM 1403 Printer "IBM 14CI, A Users Manual" [4AD] 16 Stars Of The Lid : Even If Your Never Awake (Deuxième) [Kranky]
17 Murcof : Cosmos 1 "Cosmos" [Leaf] 18 Evan Bartholomew : Reborn We Fluctuate And Fade "Caverns Of Time" [Somnia] 19 Mark Van Hoen : Untitled "Playing with Time" [Apollo] 20 Miles Tilmann : Middle Fields "3D Concepts" [Toytronic] 21 Adagio : Gayane Ballet Suite "2001 A Space Odyssey" O.S.T. 22 James Bernard : Mars Rain "Atmospherics" [Rising High] 23 Gel-Sol : Rainboze "IZ" [Psychonavigation] 24 Goldmund : Anomolie Loop (1960-1969) "Corduroy Road" [Type] 25 Chapterhouse : Beta Phase "Blood Music Retranslated By Global Communication" [Dedicated] 26 Stevie Be Zet : Passion & Hope "Archaic Modulation" [Recycle or die] 27 The Fires Of Ork : The Facts Of Life "The Fires Of Ork" [Apollo]
The Highly talented German based producer Nachklangmusik releases his latest EP this time for Irish based DXR recordings.
The EP is released in three parts, featuring six original tracks of deep melodic and moody tech/house groovers effortlessly blending dub IDM and experimental touches throughout. The final EP features three remixes, Artist on Remix duties are F.L.O, Phasen and myself..
Pronounce records, a DIY label based in Detroit release their third very limited CD album from electronic composer Sage Taylor who is based in Portland Oregon. 
What's hard to Believe is an album of this quality is unfortunately limited to one hundred copies, its a sad sign of todays physical market I guess ? I feel the music on here would appeal to wide range of music fans, if it was given a bigger push.
