Vinyl and Digital reviews: Aril Brikha, Sedge Warbler and Mosaic Volume One

These are reviews originally submitted for Clash, reproduced in their unedited entirety below.


Aril Brikha - Deeparture in Time - Revisited (Art of Vengeance)
... Departure in time but not in quality

Rating: 4 out of 5

A Swedish-Iranian with several releases under his belt for prestigious labels Transmat, Music Man, Kompakt, Poker Flat, and Peacefrog, Aril Brikha took a unconscious side step from Scandinavian DJ tool sounds to make deep and soulful Detroit techno and catching the attention of Derrick May. He released ‘Deeparture in Time’ back in 1999 on Transmat to global applause and ‘Deeparture... Revisted’ is the first outing for his Art of Vengeance label, which has been in the making since the 90s. Remastered by Jesper Dahlbäck, it is a 10 year anniversary double-CD release of the original and features unreleased and rare tracks from DAT tapes dating between 1995 and 1999. That fact alone brings home the timeless qualities of his music - no-one would bat an eyelid if he released this as new in 2011. As a complete collection, the set builds on the soulful, deep house and techno sounds, awash with acidic tones, hypnotic drones and interesting textures to techno that packs a punch, and taking it back down to rising sun grooves. Aril’s own classics such as ‘Groove La Chord’ and ‘Embrace’ are high points, and you sense subtle reminders of where acts like the Junior Boys gained inspiration with ‘On & On’.

Release date: 24th January 2011


Various Artists - Mosaic Volume One (Exit Records)
…more than just DnB

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Created in a bid to find one outlet for a multitude of tunes, ‘Mosaic Volume One’ is a double LP compiled by dBridge, capturing the various styles of Exit Record artists. Established artists sit amongst new talents for a broad theme of experimental drum and bass, but this also extends to ambient, dubstep and ethereal electronica in a few brush strokes. Drum and bass tends to be a genre associated with a very typical rhythm pattern - the build-up, the explosion, the breakdown, but after listening to Mosaic it’s a little hard to determine what is DnB when it branches out into so many other sounds. The first CD, featuring names like Scuba, Distance, and newer artists like Synkro and Dan Harbanham takes a gentler position; deep, soulful and melancholic IDM even at times, and dare I say it, post-dubstep. They aren’t as club-orientated as you might expect, but CD2 fulfills rhythmic needs with Commix, Abstract Elements, Instra:mental and Skeptical throbbing deep with the sub-bass and dubstep-tinged productions; one of the more interesting tracks comes from Skream, who captures the sounds of the ‘Motorway’ with saw-sliced strings and mechanical screeches. ‘Mosaic’ is all about demonstrating the sounds that fall between the boundaries of related genres.

Release date: 31st January 2011


Sedge Warbler - Welcome to the Universe (Skanky Panky Records)
…Striking similarities, but leave your worries behind

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Sedge Warbler are Dank and Disko, a South African producer and emcee team taking their interest in space-age glitch hop to bass, dubstep and wonky lovers. Fans of Playdoe will recognise and enjoy the popping electro against smart and catchy lyrics, and ‘Fett’s Vettes’ (MC Chris) fans will chuckle at the sci-fi themes. Vocoder and manipulated voices herald opener ‘Welcome to the Universe’, which takes a chopped and screwed approach and filters this drag element into ‘Paranormal Ox man’ - the latter features soap opera muzak breakdowns amongst deep electronica; an awkward sound! Despite the weaker start, the LP is a strong finisher once crunky glitch-hop thumpers like ‘Face Rap’, and ‘Octopus Lover’ make their appearance. Sometimes rap appears as another rhythmic layer in dance music, but the lyrical content takes equal focus here forcing simultaneous enjoyment while Vitalic-esque thick chords and lazer bass tickle your fancy. The only thing that raises a question is how similar the keys on ‘Octopus Lover’ mimic a well-known track. Indeed, amongst the DJ Shadow, Format and Moroder influences it is difficult not to be struck by another musical reference while grooving out to Sedge Warbler. Nevertheless, deactivate those niggles and you’ll have a fun time.

Release date: January 2011

New digital release from Texture - Synaesthesia EP

I have to admit to being down on some elements of Scottish hip-hop in the past - sometimes the guttural and clipped Scottish accent distracts rather than flows with the beats - but I felt ashamed after listening to Texture’s ‘Non-Sequitr’, debunking the idea that Scotland and hip-hop as married concepts do not follow. The track kicks off Texture’s new EP ‘Synaesthesia’, available for a donation (or free) on Black Lantern Music, a netlabel offering DRM-free mp3s from independent musicians.

It’s the second part of Texture’s trilogy of EPs, and follows January 2010’s ‘Asphasia’ release which tipped reviewers to declare him a “bookworm emcee” - a title which holds true on the chemical-compound, philosophical quipping ‘Synaesthesia’.

As Texture says: “Synaesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Synaesthetes may experience smells as colours, or sounds as flavours - they may mistake indie for house music, or rap for dubstep.”

The latter part sounds like a condition which can commonly effect reviewers - after the 30th release of the day beats start morph into other genres and the definitions become so blurred you do start to become hazy about what makes a genre.

Through this haze comes four tracks which have visited Earth in some format or another in previous months; ‘Non-Sequitr’, ‘Silver Age’, ‘Echo Boomers’ and ‘The Dawn View’. If you’re a listener to Vic Galloway’s Radio 1 show, you might have caught ‘Echo Boomers’ when Texture performed it live, and followers of Texture’s previous work may notice that ‘The Dawn View’ is a reincarnation of a track on Texture and Morphamish’s collaborative LP, ‘Future Proof’, released under the Double Helix alias.

But back to the creeping feeling of shame and ‘Non-Sequitr’! The track looks at not so much the ‘plight’ of Scottish hip-hop but of a realistic view that it’s sidelined in some way by the over-hyped US dominance and bling culture - something which very much does not exist in Scotland. He name-checks other Scottish artists who have helped carved the way for Scottish hip-hop, but there is a slightly sombre note to this when considering they have all yet to make breakthroughs on a multi-national scale. Texture’s lyrics make reference to the stark differences in US / Scottish culture; working night-shifts; spitting rhymes in over-crowded basements; being told by people like Kayne to dress in diamonds, “when all we can afford is costume jewellery”; and drinking cheap mind-numbing substances like Buckfast. It’s a slow swagger of hip-hop to a 6/8 beat, decorated by acoustic guitar - composed and produced by Salem Anders and will definitely hold appeal for Scottish hip-hop fans, but will the rest be ready for a rebuke at popular culture hip-hop, bling and all?

Kid Ritalin, co-manager of Glasgow’s Little Rock net-label and artist, joins Texture for ‘Silver Age’, featuring bassy glitch-hop, broken beat and sparks of wonk, and encompasses the ‘bookworm’ title with its digs at TV and ‘cultural’ distractions. The beats help to impose the feeling of urgency in the message, so the track works well in a holistic sense. Long-time Texture collaborator, Morphamish, steps in to do beats and production on this track and the following two.

Previously performed on Radio 1, ‘Echo Boomers (Generation Why)’, is warped electro hip-hop spitting you questions on Generation Y; questioning whether you’re “human or consumer”, just as I try to surreptitiously slide my new android phone under a cushion. The ironies of smoking cigarettes while driving through Bhopal (site of serious chemical disaster); bank balances growing and swelling like tumours; Starbucks authors; romanticised Woodstock; we are all “wikipediphiles”; and living out the carcinogenic inheritance of Baby Boomers - from chemical-laden technologies to surviving on celebrity gossip. This song has the potential to chip away at international boundaries given that it nails issues which stretch into lots of different cultures.

‘Synaesthesia’ closes with the revamped ‘The Dawn View’, taken from ‘Future Proof’, and taking an optimistic view of what I prefer to call ‘the walk of shame’ - that walk home from the club while still bedraggled from the night’s partying on MDMA, just as the milkmen appear. It’s an upbeat fusion of indie and jazzy cumbia tinges with added guitar by Richard Lindsay that would have you dancing home ‘Singing In the Rain’ style rather than the obligatory hood up, eyes down, shuffle quickly routine!

The trilogy will be completed with ‘Parasomnia’ due for release on Black Lantern in January 2011.


If you're stuck for a gift for your nearest and dearest hip-hop-lovin' friends, download the EP here and watch the video (filmed in Edinburgh) for ‘Non-Sequitr’ below:

Vinyl & Digital Reviews: Offshore, Jargon V.A feat. Killa P and Narstie, and Manu Harmilapi

Originally reviewed for Clash Magazine, October 2010, 'Electric Selection'

Offshore - Aneurysm EP (Big Dada)
... but not out to sea

Offshore delivers four bass-heavy tracks for Big Dada, with metronomic drum ticks, cues from early Autechre and nods to future funk, crunk and synth-pop. 'Round and Round' is especially interesting, bringing a manga quality of the innocent and childish together with the dark and tainted.

Release date: 18 October 2010

Jargon V.A featuring Killa P and Narstie - Crime Scene / Shottah (Cheese on Bread)
... chaotic yet likeable

Jargon V.A and Killa P collaborate for 'Crime Scene', akin to sped-up dubstep and grimy hip-hop thundering away: the chaotic quality is quite likeable. Narstie helps rub stadium rock guitar on grimy and gruff vocals for 'Shottah'; always a welcome break from the polished vocals saturating music.

Release date: October 2010

Manu Harmilapi - Drei (Elektronik Milieu)
... ein, zwei

The Elektronik Milieu debut delivers sound designer techno, bringing a banging British quality of unrepentant movement to 'Something's Gonna Happen', and jittery beats for the aerodrome texture of 'Don't Call Me'. Title track 'Drei' - meaning three - clarifies the triplet beats, building intensity to melodic tinkles of emotion.

Release date: 1 October 2010

Have you got the Urge?

Urge Mode is a new Scottish net-label, assembled as part of the "single unifying outlet" Black Lantern Music; artists from all walks of life and different scenes have the opportunity to release their music - think of a mall for goods, divided into different stores. Indeed browsing round the Black Lantern site is like rifling the rails of dance, and the remit is so broad that head of sub-label Urge Mode, Morphamish is not sure if there is one at all - "there's room for any interesting music."

The website is a three channel collaboration, and he explains that each channel can be considered as different points on the same map; Neverzone, Weaponizer and Urge Mode "fulfill overlapping functions within Black Lantern Music." Neverzone looks after the experimental hip-hop and electronic side of things; Weaponizer holds the trip-hop and art-rock slant, and Urge Mode keeps a keen eye on the dancefloor. "Again it does overlap a fair bit - we don't want to be majorly strict with ourselves. Weaponizer puts out some dubstep and Neverzone some electronica, but it's always in keeping with its identity. It's just nice to have faith in each other's choices, and not entirely needing to confer about decisions regarding what to release, while still collaborating with each other taking the label as a whole forward," says Morphamish.


Three channels are up and running (Urge Mode the most recent of these), outputting 18 releases to date and enabling the team to "get a diverse output that still hangs together as a label." Urge Mode itself was "born out of a love of all bass music, and not feeling the need to stick to a style; to draw from anywhere and everywhere, as long as it's compelling."

To date the label has had three releases, described by Morphamish as "hard-edged and dark", a style Urge Mode dearly loves, but insists that another side will be shown over the next few EPs, sporting melodic, deep and warm tracks based around the experimental dubstep, breakbeat and techno scenes. Pencil in these forthcoming beats in your diaries now, and note the names of Drokkr, Shatterfreak, Tactus, Boondock and Supasub, the latter of which is Morphamish's own collaboration with Club Volume! resident Paranoise. "Overall there will be mellowness, grooviness and outright mentalism in equal measure - many diverse, weird and wonderful releases, plus some special super deluxe guerilla events", he tells Lo-Quality.


How do Urge Mode select these artists? "Natural selection - if they can survive seven death-defying tasks to bring me an exquisitely flavoured delicacy from the very edge of the world - providing it sounds good we'll put it out!"

One thing you will immediately notice about the site is a lack of pound signs or 'add to cart' labels: indeed the music is free download, and it's difficult to see where the money-making element comes into it. "The ethos is just to put out great music without compromise, to as many people as possible," he explains, "It's all free download. These days unless you are pretty big you are only going to make money from from live shows anyway, so why not give people the music, we want it to be heard." And with that, Lo-Quality is astonished at how easy and uncomplicated it almost seems; in the battle for distribution rights and peer-to-peer clashes here is a division of labels who will let you access music for free, on the reasoning that it if you dig it you'll probably make the effort to see the artist live. As a portion of illegal downloaders will agree, downloading is similar to Fopp Record Shop's 'Suck it and See' policy - why spend money on a track you'll detest, when you can make a decision prior to purchase and spend your money in the right places; like on a gig you actually want to see, than a CD you may end up using as an indoor frisbee.

So what urges will we feel when we hear the new Urge Mode releases? "Whatever feels natural at the time, you'll know when you feel it. Most often it's to frolic naked, grinning, skipping and shouting for joy into the great beyond for a bright and beautiful tomorrow/tonight."

Grab live Urge Mode action when Morphamish and Texture perform at the Wickerman festival's poetry stage this month.



Urge Mode Artists and Releases

• The Crooked One A.K.A. Blackmass Plastics (Rag and Bone, Combat) - 'The Spinal Conflict EP'
• Drokkr (Stupid Fly, Crossroads)
• Paranoise (Volume, Nerve, Apparition)
• Stick 430 (Irridium, Cube) - 'Don't Forget The Mixer'
• Tactus (Jungledub, Abaga records)
• Leith Weapon A.K.A. Operator (Scandinavia, Mighty Robot)
• Morphamish+Texture (previously Double Helix) (Audiodacity, Labrat) - 'The Urge Mode EP'
• Boondock A.K.A. The Coldharbour Crackhead (Confusion)
• Shatterfreak (Subversus/Stomp) - 'A Stitch In Sine'
• More TBA

Help for Haiti

Edinburgh hip-hop crew Capitol 1212 gave Lo-Quality word of their intent to do something for the Haiti earthquake disaster back in January, and now the fruits of their determination are out on the web for digital download.

After gathering MC Profisee, Serocee, Mr Bang On (Big Dada) and Boston hip-hop head ED OG, the collaborative efforts of all went into producing 'History of Silence', a four track EP featuring remixes from Nasty P and Dema. All proceeds will go to Médecins Sans Frontières to help Haiti's survivors.

Tracklist

01 - Fiyah feat Ed OG Profisee Serocee and Mr Bang On
02 - No More Deceit feat Profisee
03 - No More Deceit feat Profisee [Dema Remix]
04 - Fiyah feat Ed OG Profisee Serocee and Mr Bang On [Nasty P Remix]

Available from:

Amazon
DJShop.de
iTunes
People's Music Store
Juno