The rapid emergence of micro-genres has a long history in music, but the Internet has intensified the process. Online communication creates a situation where young artists, separated by geography but brought together through the web, can share the same obsessions and quickly develop remarkably similar aesthetics. The umbrella of music sometimes called witch house is perhaps the most obvious example of this in the last few years, since it combined musical concerns (moody synths, slow tempos, warped vocals, allusions to Southern rap) with a specific visual aesthetic (anonymous producers shielded by hoodies, Christian imagery, deep knowledge of the computer keyboard's symbol keys), and so many artists with these exact qualities appeared simultaneously. Unusually, the bulk of the movement could be traced to precisely one source, Salem, demonstrating how much sway that sometimes reviled outfit had over the minds of budding young producers who spend way too much time online.
Once a scene or sound crystalizes, you can bet that the most interesting artists to emerge from it will quickly set off on their own and develop an individual voice. Balam Acab, the project of 20-year-old Pennsylvanian Alec Koone, was rightly slotted with witch house when he released his See Birds EP in 2010. He has the warped voices and the slow tempos, he was on the right label, and his IRL identity had a cultivated air of mystery. But the careful construction of See Birds hinted that his musical ear was a cut above, and now his excellent full-length debut, Wander / Wonder, confirms it. This is a personal and distinctive record with its share of current reference points that nonetheless doesn't need a scene to prop it up.
A few things set Balam Acab apart from the pack, first being the overall mood. The post-Salem «dark and creepy» crawl became a cliché in record time, but Wander / Wonder, despite the spectral voices that take the lead on every track, has no hints of nightmares or grim violence. Instead, its primary concern is simple aesthetic beauty, the way a small and specific combination of sounds, carefully arranged but given room to breathe, can have a deep emotional impact. It's pretty, in other words, but its prettiness never feels manipulative or overbearing. It's the sort of music that exists at the intersection between art and design, but it manages to avoid feeling sterile.
There are eight tracks here in 37 minutes, the perfect length given the consistent mood. They have vague titles like «Apart» and «Now Time» and «Oh, Why» that serve as a light tint but don't really point to anything in particular. In fact, differentiating between the tracks seems sort of beside the point, since so many of the same motifs pop up over and over again: The album feels very much like one sustained thing. The basic elements are twinkly keyboards and and music-box chimes, dusty crackles floating on sounds of shifting liquid, and deep basslines bumping into the occasional drum machine clap. Floating above it all are the voices, pitched up to accentuate their delicacy and set loose in a cloud of echo. While the current vogue is for sampled vocals that allude to R&B, Balam Acab's mostly have a classical feel, sounding like they are pulled from recordings of ancient hymns and airs. Accentuating the «chamber dub» qualities are liberal samples of orchestral sections and nylon string guitar. But the most important instrument of all is silence, which frames every note and brings it to the foreground.
Where the ghostly dubstep of Burial, an obvious antecedent, has a crucial connection to the urban street, Wander / Wonder is pastoral, more likely to bring to mind sunlight slanting through a window that overlooks a rural garden. And you can't have a garden without water. As anyone who has ever knocked over a cup next to a computer knows, water is the digital sphere's mortal enemy, the thing that can bring our precious electrical circuits down in an instant. In line with recent productions by Clams Casino and AraabMuzik, Wander / Wonder has has an obsession with the sound of the life force: Laced throughout are samples of lapping currents, slow drips, and light splashes. These accents reinforce both the bucolic feel and, with the complexity of the natural world that computers still envy, liberates the music from the computer grid. They also make Wander / Wonder an immersive experience, like something you lower yourself into, inch by inch. And in the end, that seems to be the overriding idea: This is functional music that highlights the simple pleasure of artfully arranged sound, the kind of gorgeous and evocative record that fills up the room and shifts your perception for 37 minutes and then brings you gently back to the surface.
Опубликовано: 4 июн. 2013 г.Tycho's first EP «Science of Patterns» — Way back on 2002 this electronic artist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_%2...) started his solo project with not much more than a laptop under his arm. Look what became of that project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_56q.... A little suggested masterpiece, enjoy !
We did not plan to do an after movie for PRSPCT XL 21 but the guys from Slice Of Film and Got Karma decided otherwise and made one any way.
Tbh they did a fucking great job!
Want to relive The Mother Of All Raves?! Here is your chance!
Big thanks to the guys for putting in the time and effort to do this!
Music credits:
Desolation by Lucy Furr
Tuh Tud Duh VIP by Sinister Souls & eRRe
1. Diplo — Bird Is The Word
2. Critical — Hype The Funk (LunyP Moombahton Edit)
3. Zeds Dead — In The Beginning (Zeds Dead vs 8cto Bootleg )
4. Major Lazer & Chong X — Original Moombah Don (Babylon Rocker Edit)
5. Nadastrom — Say My Name (feat. Munchi and Jen Lasher)
6. Noisia — Tommy's Theme (Munchi's Fear Is Weakness Remix)
7. The Parliamentalist — Race Riot Meta-Narrative
8. Flubba — Rare Pokemon (Jimi Needles Moombahcore Blowup)
9. Vamos — Fnl
10. Datsik — Nuke 'Em (Raydah's Moombahcore Bootleg)
11. David Heartbreak — King Kong
12. Jan Driver — Gain Reaction (Raydah Moombahton Edit)
13. Jack Beats — UFO (Townspec Moombahcore Re-Fix)
14. Neo1 — Master Blaster (Gash Remix)
15. Kanji Kinetic — Masamune
16. Audiodact & John Disco — Fake Fred Perry (Munchi Is Muito Random Remix)
17. Lenkemz & Axewound — Kitch's Retreat
18. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs — Blood Pressure ft. Riko
19. Tomb Crew — I Go Sick
20. Krissi B — The Sound Of Now (Roll It)
21. ScrambledEd — Easy Screwface
22. Lenkemz & Axewound — Supersharpbasslinz
23. Phatworld — Any Bozo (ft. Dubzee)
24. Yeahhbuzz — Fuckingbassnasty
25. Blu Cantrell ft. Sean Paul — Breathe (Tomb Crew & Whole Sick Booty)
26. Hadean — Like That
27. Krissi B — Like Diss
28. Project Pat — Keep It Hood (Bird Peterson Remix)
29. Krissi B — My Hooooooood
30. Emalkay ft. Road Azlan — Flesh & Bone (Dismantle Remix)
31. Heapy — In The Zone
32. Submerse — Agepoyo
33. Simtek — Big Bam Boo (Gash Remix)
34. Yeahhbuzz — Curly Wurly
35. Traxman — Pacman Juke
36. Chrissy Murderbot — Braaain
37. Africa Hitech — Out In The Streets
38. Sarantis — The Problem ft. Parly B
39. Phillip D Kick — Sound of the future — Lighter (footwork edit)
40. DJ Lil'Tal — Pop Yo Back (Squire of Gothos Remix)
41. Leatherface — Chase
42. Redlight — Source 16 (Gash's Jukebox Edit)
43. Kanji Kinetic — Bang Harder (Z-Kat Remix)
44. Heapy — Listen
45. General Waste — Man A Rise
46. Vandal — Fatty Fatty
47. Katch Pyro & Dr Roman — Informa
48. DSC — The 13th Der Fire Remix ft. Demolition Man & Avitar
49. Dr Roman & Skaggy — The Gasman (Katch Pyro Edit)
Опубликовано: 4 нояб. 2012 г.[01] Blessed Brambles [0:00]
[02] A Little Bit Sometimes [6:00]
[03] They Made Frogs Smoke 'Til They Exploded [9:51]
[04] Those Eyes are Berries [13:53]
[05] Moon Pulls [16:55]
[06] Marmelade Fires [19:27]
[07] Rhuubarbidoo [24:30]
[08] Dancing Behind My Eyelids [26:05]
[09] School Song Misfortune [30:13]
[10] I Was Her Horse [32:52]
[11] Guilty Rocks [35:01]
[12] Winter (What We Never Were After All) [41:52]
Technics SL-D2 turntable with Audio Technica AT95E cartridge.
