Category Archives: Switched On

Switched on – M83: DSVII (2019)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Twelve years on from Digital Shades Vol.1, M83 – aka Anthony Gonzalez – revisits his instrumental project. This time, ironically, he chose to use solely analogue equipment in the creation of the sequel, which goes beyond his love of ambient music and shoegaze.

What’s the music like?

While the first Digital Shades volume took its time and created vistas from scratch, DSVII is a much busier affair, reflecting the video games soundtracks of the 1980s that inspired it. Gonzalez freely admits to his wish to recreate the analogue sound of that time, and in doing so emulate or rival the electronic pioneers making music then.

The drone with which Hell Riders begins is a throwback to the first release, but soon enough an attractive set of guitar loops blossoms into what feels like a full-blown set of end credits for a TV series melodic layers piling up on each other.

This is the true sound of DSVII, which leans in towards progressive rock and those synthesizer works from the likes of John Carpenter and Jean Michel Jarre. Gonzalez takes melodic cells and moves them around like the images on the games. It is entertaining and eventful, but sometimes too busy to class as relaxing. It is ultimately background music in this setting, and tracks like Meet The Friends, while attractive, feel like they are playing second fiddle to the images in Gonzalez’s mind. Likewise A Taste Of The Dusk, with more closing credits music, and the sweet flute that fronts Lunar Son. Oh Yes You’re There, Everyday is a good example of the meandering tunes and harmonies we have here, relaxing yet curiously restless

There are some nice diversions though. Goodbye Captain Lee has a sweet air of melancholia, and Colonies is atmospheric, while Mirage effortlessly paints a hazy vista. The piano-led Jeux d’enfants invites comparison with Ravel and Satie, partly because of its name, and is attractive if not as substantial as their writing.

Arguably the best is saved until last, and Temple Of Sorrow, a substantial track that builds through a rush of drums and wordless vocals, cutting out to a soft, bell-like piano. Here you feel is the real heart of how Gonzalez naturally writes music.

Does it all work?

Not all of it. Those who know M83’s music for its power and skyscraper-like builds (Midnight City and We Own The Sky come to mind) might be surprised at the relatively frivolous side shown here – which could of course be seen as an asset too, revealing an artist of several different musical personalities and attributes. Whether you respond to this positively will depend on whether you can take on an hour of instrumental music rooted heavily in the 1980s. If you’re in the wrong mood it might feel like music to eat a meal to rather than immerse yourself in.

Is it recommended?

Yes, ultimately. M83 fans need not hesitate – nor those lovers of 1980s’ instrumental electronica. Those wanting the power of previous albums might want to try before they buy.

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Switched On – Manu Delago: Circadian

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

While Max Richter made one of the standout contemporary pieces of the last few years in his eight-hour epic Sleep of 2015, encouraging us to fall asleep while it was running, this new album is a response to a lack of quality shuteye. The author, Manu Delago, found he was struggling to get lasting sleep while touring in different climates and time zones, but also looked for inspiration in the brain’s creative thoughts experienced during REM.

Circadian explores this phenomenon, along with light and deep sleep, capped with an abrupt awakening. Delago wrote it while on the road with label-mate Björk, The Cinematic Orchestra, Olafur Arnalds and Anoushka Shankar – and the approach is very different to that of Richter, driven as it is by soft percussion.

What’s the music like?

The list of Delago’s fellow artists is instructive, as his own music draws from his creative experiences with them, but ensures an individual path is also forged.

This is one of the quietest albums I have heard in some time, partly because the principle instrument, the handpan, is so soothing. The title track establishes its bright yet mottled colours, pleasing to the ear as a muffled steelpan might be. Yet as the striking and vividly descriptive track The Silent Flight Of The Owl shows, it combines really well with wind instruments and particularly clarinet, whose soft tones create an eerie impression in the half light, together with what sounds like a didgeridoo in the middle foreground.

The colours of Uranus, again with clarinet, are a sleepy blue, while The Moment I’m Still Awake employs the fuzzy drone of the harmonium, as though there were a fan in the room.

All these recordings are heading for the centrepiece, the 21-minute track Delta Sleep (Live at 4:33am). This depiction of deep sleep was recorded in the middle of the night through to the early hours, the ensemble combining in a hypnotic whole, their sounds fusing into each other with clicks, bright shafts of light and hints of fitful dreaming.

From this emerges Draem and then Zeitgeber, where our subject sits bolt upright, the music building on a syncopated clarinet which has now acquired a rasp to its tone. Adding broken beats, Delago cuts loose for the first time on a track fizzing with the energy of a new day, even though you suspect a slump might be just around the corner!

Does it all work?

From that lengthy description you hopefully get an idea of how effective and descriptive this album is. It does help to know the story behind the music in advance before listening, and to have the right environment for your Circadian experience. Delago’s colours are lovely to the ear and the handpan has a soothing sound, the instrumental craft and blending with ensemble members clear for all to hear.

Is it recommended?

Yes. Circadian could itself work as a sleep aid, providing you bail out before the last track. Delago’s picture painting is exquisite at times, and the relative lack of movement early on is not a problem once the subject has been established. It is a unique approach to an aspect of life that troubles and fascinates us all.

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Switched On – Deaf Joe – Love Stories (Church Ceilings)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

When Deaf Joe released his third album Stuck in 2018 he promised a ‘slew of ambient music’. True to his word, the Edinburgh-based Irishman delivers a sequel just over a year later, its eight tracks spanning just over half an hour of music to calm the soul.

What’s the music like?

Ambient but emotive with it. In his own words, Deaf Joe is ‘chasing memories of special places with lovers and loved ones he’ll never forget’. The scenarios include ‘the sound of the ocean roaring on an Icelandic black sand beach (Reynisfjara)…swimming in Copenhagen harbour at the height of summer (Havnegade)…and the sight of a kaleidoscopic sunset over a volcanic lake in the Philippines (Taal Lake).

There is a gentle but insistent thread of deep emotion that runs through the music because of these associations. Taal Lake opens the musical photo album with the purest chord of all, a rich C major wall of sound. As it gets louder the wall starts to oscillate a little, in keeping with ripples on the surface of the water, effects sweeping across the stereo picture.

It is an indication of just how descriptive Deaf Joe can be. Reynisfjara is similarly watery, depicting the waves on the Icelandic beach spoken of above with rhythmic patterns of subtle power, while Ocean Beach revisits the same key as the lake but applies more movement in the form of a quick four to the floor beat.

Not all of the tracks are purely ambient. Cambodian Sirens has quite a shrill treble that is highly effective, especially when the following Phnom Bakheng / Disintegrating In Lowtown returns us to C major and floats timelessly.

Does it all work?

Yes. Deaf Joe is a talented artist whose pictures with sound are descriptive and richly rewarding, giving listeners a gallery of colourful pictures in which to immerse themselves.

Is it recommended?

It is. This is ambient music looking around the world for its inspiration, but bringing its wide canvas together in one stream of sonic invention.

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Switched On – YACHT – Chain Tripping (DFA)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This is the seventh album from Portland trio YACHT, their third release for the DFA label. Given that their name is an acronym for Young Americans Challenging High Technology, it feels entirely appropriate that this record should embrace AI and machine learning.

As the press release explains, the trio ‘used neural networks to break their patterns apart into infinite variations, which they re-assembled into new songs that they then learned, performed, and recorded live. Rather than rely on a single tool, they brought together several distinct AI processes: text generation (Char-RNN), latent space interpolation, raw audio generation (SampleRNN), and a ‘neural synthesizer’ called the NSynth. They were inspired by the long history of generative composition, from William S. Burroughs’ cut-up writing method to David Bowie’s custom ‘Verbasizer’ lyrics software from the ‘90s.

What’s the music like?

It is ironic to use the word ‘deadpan’ given the AI involvement, but there is a flatlining aspect to this record, a straight-faced approach that Chain Tripping has to electronic music.

Claire Evans’ vocals are treated carefully to sound like the intervention of a machine, meaning when she sings a lyric like “I was born to lose control”, on the single SCATTERHEAD, the irony is heavy. Hers is a great voice for this sort of album though, dueling with trimmed beats and riffs. Given the nature of the album it is perhaps inevitable that nothing feels left to chance, the rigid instrumentation and content all closely monitored.

There is still time for funk, however. Blue On Blue is a really catchy track, while DEATH has a great bassline to take away from its darkly murderous lyrics. Stick It To The Station is also excellent, with a slow but really loose bassline and a track that gains heft as it develops.

(Downtown) Dancing, the first track, bids us “welcome to your pleasure” but has a bit of a disembodied feel. It works well though, as does the cooing from Evans at the start of Hey Hey. Loud Light adds a heavy slab of irony, with the line “I’m so in love I can feel it in my heart”.

If you didn’t know that the album had its origins in AI you would think it was a very solid piece of work, deriving a little from English electronica such as Human League or Yazoo, but with Evans at the front always packing a strong personality. She saves us from death by automaton, a charismatic presence.

Does it all work?

Not all the time. The technology does to a large extent prevent the personal from getting through, especially when you compare Chain Tripping to previous YACHT songs such as the brilliant Walk The Line. Yet maybe this is the intent, to show that technology might be able to help create a good set of beats, riffs and songs, but what it can’t yet achieve to 100% capability is a full emotional canvas.

As a result these songs would sound great in a club, but only in the context of others that live and breathe more.

Is it recommended?

Yes, for devotees – it is certainly a record of interest, and still good enough to keep YACHT fans happy. Newcomers are better directing themselves to slightly earlier in the band’s canon.

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Switched On – Defected presents Most Rated Ibiza 2019 (Defected)

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Various Artists – Defected presents Most Rated Ibiza 2019 (Defected)

reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

It has been another memorable summer for Defected. 2019 has seen their head Simon Dunmore and a collective of starry guests return for a third consecutive residency at Ibiza’s Eden club, and the label’s presence grows ever stronger on the island in their 20th year. Most Rated embodies that upward curve, with 30 excellent floor fillers.

What’s the music like?

Very, very good. There are two mixes here that make nearly two and a half hours of paradise for vocal house lovers. The choice moments arrive right from the first track of the first mix, Roberto Surace’s Joys, with its lifting of vocals from the Richard X & Kelis collaboration Finest Dreams. From there we can enjoy another superb Todd Edwards moment, Deeper presented in remix form by Gorgon City. As the momentum builds Riva Starr’s remix of G-Flame and KCC’s Heaven and Melba Moore’s My Heart Belongs To You (the Ferreck Dawn remix) double up effectively, before the piece de resistance of the first mix, Mattei & Omich & Nathan Nicholson’s superb track Doors, with its tagline ‘you close one door and another one opens’.

Finally the swirling strings of Cinthie’s Mesmerizing leave a mark…and if you’ve any sense you’ll head straight on to the second mix. Here Andreya Triana shines on vocal duties with The Vision’s Heaven, while Bless Me Toda from Alan Dixon adds a spiritual high. The music heads deeper with the Heller & Farley Project with Cevin Fisher, the Fire Island remix of We Built This House, and Dave & Sam’s Till The World Blow Up, featuring Mike Dunn. Dunn reappears with the bouncy If I Can’t Get Down, and there’s a similar spring in the step of Alaia & Gallo’s Trippin, featuring Dames Brown. It’s great to see Cassius present, remixing Oliver Dollar’s John’s Church, before the final winning double from Horse Meat Disco (Joey Negro’s remix of Falling Deep In Love) and one of The Shapeshifters’ very best tracks, Kimberly Davis powering the vocals for Life Is A Dancefloor.

Does it all work?

Emphatically so. Hands in the air, smiling faces and dancing feet are all symptoms of the Defected approach, and it transfers effortlessly to these two hot weather winners.

Is it recommended?

Yes, without question. Defected are riding the crest of a wave at the moment and this compilation sums up all the label’s qualities at the moment.

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