sampledelic

Adventure Time – Dreams of Water Themes

/ David James / 2 Comments

Dreams of Water Themes is the stupendous result of a collaboration between Daedelus and Frosty, who christened themselves Adventure Time and cooked up a nautical stew of jazzy undercurrents, waves of turntablism, sampledelia swells, and clipped vocal crests, cut through with a crackling, frothy breeze.

adventuretimedreams

Check the end of this post for the full album stream.

It’s a unique project in the canon of modern beats, with the title and artwork indicating the type of hefty thematic glue unifying this far-flung enterprise – in other words, it’s one of the more cohesive electronic/hip-hop releases floating around. Fans of Daedelus’ opus Denies the Day’s Demise are in for a real treat; this LP hews closer to that record’s heights than any project he’s been involved in before or since. Loosely roiling keys, dizzy horns, vaguely mideastern strings and incisive, impeccably placed spoken samples drive the narrative thrust, while the constantly evolving yet self-referencing palate keeps two feet planted firmly on the deck through the half-hour-plus of churning beat seas.

There’s a certain whiff of Since I Left You rising off the whole affair, though it’s more respectful nod than straight homage or borrowed nostalgia; the pair acknowledge their forebears in the turntables-set-sail department without constantly reminding us of that towering landmark. Adventure Time created an ambitious – but consciously playful – musical journey which begs to take listeners out on a freewheeling voyage through the high seas of rhythm exploration.

[spotify https://play.spotify.com/album/45uDj7nLn5vusHupk8ZUxQ]

[snag a digital copy at 7digital or get the cd at amazon with its attendant cool packaging]

Disco Inferno – The Five EPs

/ David James / 5 Comments

Here for all to witness is the wonderfully fleshed out evolution of one of the premier bands of modern times, Disco Inferno.  I’ve already shared their greatest album – DI Go Pop – so now it’s time to realize the full trajectory of this majestic yet mind-bogglingly ignored outfit from post-punk innovators to something altogether more advanced, alien, and never since equalled.

040618-disco_inferno

Between 1992 and 1994 this band singlehandedly expanded the concept of what rock music could be, influencing countless other forward-thinking artists while remaining shrouded from the public, and as it turns out, history’s gaze.  The five EPs collected here represent some of the most staggering artistic growth a single group has ever achieved in a lifetime – and Disco Inferno accomplished this feat in only two years.

DISCO INFERNO - SUMMER'S LAST SOUND EP F

Summer’s Last Sound

82427

A Rock To Cling To

DISCO INFERNO - THE LAST DANCE EP F

The Last Dance

DISCO INFERNO - SECOND LANGUAGE EP F

Second Language

DISCO INFERNO - IT'S A KID'S WORLD EP F

It’s A Kid’s World

[normally this is where you’re pointed towards a purchase point.  unfortunately none of these EPs have been reissued since their first release and are currently unavailable commercially.  if you find used copies please bring it to my attention and that will be shared here.  for now just enjoy the music.]

Caural – Mirrors For Eyes

/ David James / 4 Comments

Caural is the artist name of Chicago native, multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire Zachary Mastoon.  This is his latest, and most fully fleshed out full length release.

Mirrors_for_Eyes-Caural_480

Mirrors for Eyes is deeply saturated in hazy tones and heady, soulful beats.  Spinning this is like dropping down a mental slide through treated drums, live guitar, organic synth lines; the slightly fragile production feels held together by the grooves of an ancient (but well preserved) vinyl from a connoisseur’s original Blue Note collection.  Managing this fine balancing act is what makes the record so astounding: projecting a thoroughly modern and forward-leaning style while retaining the crackling edge of some classically forgotten gem – one recently unearthed from a hermetically sealed time capsule.  Mixing fully instrumental and vocal tracks (some rapped, some sung) with a casual ease, this LP will eat 50 minutes and ask for more, stealthily working it’s way under the skin until the ghostly tones emerge in dreams and every paused, reflective moment throughout the day.  The draw is narcotic and can relentlessly stick for weeks.  Give it a spin; there’s no fear of addiction when the product’s this pure.  For instant convincing, spin Re-Experience Any Moment You Choose and quickly find yourself hitting restart to get the whole picture.

[grab this at boomkat or cd universe, or the reliable standby amazon]

Air France

/ David James / 11 Comments

With only a handful of released tracks totalling over 30 minutes, Air France have become the favorite new artist many forward-thinking and fun loving music fans.  Swathed in sun drenched woozy atmospheres and grounded with a fundamental understanding of beat centered propulsion, this enigmatic duo has managed to become both the hottest ticket from Gothenburg and the leading light in a balearic trance pop revival stretching around the globe.  This is the pair of unfathomably striking EPs with which the group has garnered so much attention.

air_france-no_way_down

First we have No Way Down.  Released in the summer of 2008 with little fanfare, it was luckily picked up on pitchfork‘s radar and received a glowing review, now echoed in hundreds of like minded gushing writeups.  This is dangeously addictive electronic love-sound nirvana.  Cutting through multilayered samples with the ease of Avalanches, they’ve also got an ear for pop hooks that would make other recent (and excellent) Swedish exports blush.  There’s not a second wasted among the six equally brilliant tracks.  Forced to pick a standout, Collapsing At Your Doorstep would fit the bill for it’s dreamlike sampled refrain, “sort of like a dream. no – better” flitting over weeping romantic strings and a beach party conga line of percussion.  Truthfully, the entire record is required listening.

air_france_1168788999_1651480

Speaking of beach parties, here is the first release, On Trade Winds, dropped in 2007.  Beach Party is practically the group’s manifesto, the snowball which has since grown into an avalanche of attention.  Too many people have listened to and loved the new EP yet remain ignorant of the burgeoning genius on display with these four tracks.  Honestly, it should have gone first but recognition beats propriety.  Flip these tunes on, line up the second record, and take the whole 36 minutes and 7 seconds in one hit.  It’s as simple as that.  Words, however eloquent, aren’t equipped to convey the blast of fresh air and heartpounding excitement this music evokes.  Once it’s over you’re nearly guaranteed a repeat play.  The only problem arises when the craving for more sets in.  Hopefully Air France can keep the momentum and swing for the fences again with a new release in the near future.  Is a full LP too much to ask?

[available separately as Swedish imports, and download-only from various outlets including klicktrack.  Best option is the UK edition at Amazon which contains both EPs for the relatively low price of $17.49 us – an option I wish were available when I discovered them]

The Field – From Here We Go Sublime

/ David James / 4 Comments

Two years ago, The Field (aka Axel Willner) dropped this masterpiece of maximized minimalism from the sky to explode notions of what infectiously catchy dance music can be built from.

The_Field_-_From_Here_We_Go_Sublime

Pure, ecstatic, sustained immediacy.  This album hits your aural pleasure centers with laser precision from the first moment until the final echo wash.  Using clipped, compressed, shifted, exploded and otherwise modified samples to not only transmit a distinctly amorphous energy, but construct the beats – with each set feeling like micro-worlds unto themselves, tiny galaxies streaming by at high speed.  When Willner slows things down, as he does halfway though the aptly-named title track, eureka is the only natural response.

Grabbing throats and forcing attention, each song proceeds to evolve into a hypnosis-inducing pattern.  The best ones come on feeling hardwired into some primal wavelength in the hypothalamus, unrelentingly catchy until the last moment when elements unravel and a synth stab reveals itself as a pitched vocal, organ lines deflate into a rhythm bed.  An entire song tips over, unravels like a suture, and spills out The Four Tops.

Residing naturally at Kompakt,  his sound is pitched somewhere between the progressive ambient techno of The Orb and the ‘pop ambient’ of label founder Gas (Wolfgang Voigt); of course, to fully visualize you’ll have to imagine Willner floating in some sort of dirigible far above the proceedings.  Not to say that this is objectively better than either of those artists, of course – The Field simply aspires to loftier atmospheres than his forebears.

To put things laconically:  this is four on the floor dance music with enough inner life and microscopic detail to satisfy the deepest of psych connoisseurs, infused with the energy to keep a party stomping though it’s hourlong runtime, and entrancing to the point of total willing surrender.  So let go.  Put on those headphones.  Succumb to the kinetic charms.  From here we go sublime, indeed.

[check this grand record out at boomkat or, of course, amazon]

DJ /rupture – Uproot

/ David James / 13 Comments

DJ /rupture is a flat-out musical genius. Preternaturally adept at crafting singularly pure mood explorations whole-cloth out of disparate samples, producer Jace Clayton is nearly as well known for his insightful writing on music.  He’s one of my favorite electronic artists working today.  One of my favorites of all time, in fact.  He’s often lumped in with the humble ‘mash-up dj’ category, which is a grave disservice to the prodigious talent he displays, especially on this album.

dj-rupture-uproot

First things first:  just put the album on now, with a set of headphones (or good stereo with some bass presence).  Press play.  Absorb.  This way, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Uproot is an album which feels so cohesively unified, hypnotically of-a-piece that one could be forgiven for assuming it’s not sample-based upon first listen.  Every single moment has so much attention paid to the connections and frictions between beats and vocals, synths and strings, pacing and flow, there are simply no seams in the production.  That fact alone places this lp miles above anything traditionally recognized as ‘mash-up’ – this resides on a level closer to Endtroducing or Avalanches than Girl Talk.

Conjuring the ghosts of reggae, dub, afropop, techno, grimy hip hop, dubstep, idm, and even post rock precedents/outliers like Dif Juz or Seefeel, Uproot is a smoky mix of pulsing, impulsively grounded head-nodding beats and extraterrestrial atmospheres.  Vocals and orchestral phrases shift in and out of the mix while a constant bed of low-end throb envelops perception.  The deeply narcotic sense of comfortable oblivion is overwhelming.

By the final withering reverberation Clayton has taken a journey from flute-peppered break beats through modern avant composers to melancholy post-apocalyptic ambience, conveyed en route by dub ideals and echo-laden empathy.  This is an evolution of the soul.  A journey of the mind.  A fucking incredible mix.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Note:  when you obtain Uproot the tags may be crazy – a predictable result with complicated artists like this.  For the proper version check (strangely enough) the last.fm page and simply copy what they’ve got.  This will help you know the prominent sample(s) on each track as well as the proper names.

Be sure to read his blog as well:  mudd up!

[purchase this, as Clayton himself offers:  at iTunes or amazon]

Cornelius – Fantasma!

/ David James / 1 Comment

Cornelius is the music pseudonym of pop wunderkind Keigo Oyamada, a true maverick and leading light of his nation’s music community.  He was first, unfortunately, tagged as the “Japanese Beck” – unfortunate because he’s so much more than this reductive catchphrase could encapsulate.  He initially traded in pop-sound mashups and collage song structure, as Mr. Hanson did, but most similarities end there.

fantasma

One reason the Beck comparison fails is simply that Cornelius was working within a music scene he helped create – shibuya-kei.  Starting with his group Flipper’s Guitar, and popularized by Pizzicato Five, the sound thrived in Japan throughout the 90’s and is still the basis for many new projects – everything from Buffalo Daughter‘s trance-rock disco confections to the utterly sublime Katamari Damacy game soundtrack.  [Which reminds me, I’ll be writing about that strange treasure of an album soon.]

Since you’re here about the album, I’ll get to it.  Fantasma is considered by most fans to be the crown jewel of Cornelius‘ recorded output.  As a lover of Point, I’m personally on the fence, but there is no question that this is the place to start if you’re curious about the man and his amazing work.  Imagine a musical genius being exposed to all manner of 20th century music – from the bleeding-edge avant garde composers to the purveyors of sixties pop majesty – all at once, with no distinctions drawn between ‘art’ and ‘fun.’   Then imagine him fusing everything he hears into a cohesive shape, focused through a lense of 80’s hiphop irreverence and carved with a DJ’s ear for pacing and transition.  Then imagine he makes a record with the ambitions of Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson.  You’re close.

Now, play this album and realize that Keigo Oyamada shares not only the ambitions, but talents of my favorite Wilson brother.  This is no mere cheap analogy:  Repeated close listens to the nuanced and fractured pop ecstasy he’s made reveal the truth in my words.  He may never be as lauded, much less well-known, as those Beach Boys he worshipped as a youth.  But he deserves it, and this album is Exhibit A in making the case.

[grab this at amazon or for only $8 from matador themselves.]