Described as a ‘remixed collaborative album’, this is an update for the 2010 release made by The Orb and David Gilmour, Metallic Spheres.
You may remember that the original has just two tracks, which sit either side of the vinyl release. Producer Youth recently revealed that “The idea for Metallic Spheres In Colour was that Alex Paterson could have done more on the first version, and he didn’t really have the opportunity because we had a philosophy of making the music like the Blade Runner soundtrack meets Wish You Were Here. So, I asked him why don’t we remix it and make it like an Orb classic? And in doing that, it’s almost like a completely different album.”
Have a listen to an excerpt below and see what you think:
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom revisit their 2022 album Reset in the company of dub royalty, producer Adrian Sherwood. Sherwood took the album through his On-U Sound studios in the company of musicians Doug Wimbisch and Skip McDonald.
Panda Bear (aka Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox) and Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) wrote the original downtempo album with strong Caribbean influences, and Kember spoke of how Jamaican rocksteady played a big part in his thinking for the original Reset album. When the opportunity for a dub album arose he immediately thought of Sherwood.
The artistic respect is mutual, as Sherwood himself is a fan of Animal Collective. He describes how they wanted to keep “all the elements of trippy fun, but with added menace, groove and an ultra-active mix for the ‘heads’.
What’sthemusiclike?
Rather special – and in some cases it transports the listener overseas almost immediately. That much is clear from the lead single Edge Of The Edge, where the sighing motif sounds like the tide lapping gently at the shore. Elsewhere Sherwood gives us a mind-expanding treat, whether attending to the saxophone sound on Gettin’ To The Point Dub or overseeing a healthy dose of funk to the mix for Everyday Dub. There is a lovely breezy disposition to this music, especially in the likes of In My Body Dub and the dreamy piano of Go On Dub, where the wide open textures complement Panda Bear’s rounded tones.
Danger Dub is especially good, firing up a quicker tempo, while Whirlpool Dub is full of cleverly worked sonic displacements. Livin’ In The After Dub has a folksy melody with a harmonica which gets the Sherwood reverb treatment, the drums setting us in a woozy fireside spot. Perhaps the best is saved for last, Everything’s Been Leading To This Dub an epic production, booming low vocals twinned with glittering guitar and bright brass.
Does it all work?
It does – effortlessly so. This is music that creates its own hot weather, and the stripped back approach works a treat. So too does Sherwood’s instinct on when to throw the perspectives wide open or bring them up close, using Lennox’s voice to its full potential.
Is it recommended?
Enthusiastically – but only on the assumption that you’ve already purchased the original album!
Berlin label Tresor Records have announced that Moritz von Oswald, one of their longest-serving artists, will be releasing new album Silencio on 10 November.
Its outline is intriguing, with von Oswald looking to explore the differences between human and artificial sound, particularly using the voice. To do this he will be referring to a lineage of works from composers such as Varèse, Ligeti and Xenakis, in the company of Vocalconsort Berlin. Here is a short teaser for the album:
There is also a sizeable excerpt in the form of Infinito, the first single from the album. It is an intriguing and eerie meeting point between synthesizers and voices, music that carries very little weight in the form of bass but a good deal of intensity as it slowly unfolds. The synthesizers carry a short motif of five notes that underpins the hypnotic vocals:
Silencio will be released by Tresor Records on 10 November, while the new single Infinito will be followed by Colpo (6 October) and Opaco (20 October). For buying options and more information, head to the Bandcamp page below:
The ‘Shapes’ compilation series has been an integral part of Tru Thoughts’ make-up throughout their 24-year history. Robert Luis’ label continues to bring a wide variety of music to the table, and this is the ideal platform on which to showcase it – whether soulful, song-based, cosmopolitan or beat-driven, a flavour of the label is here.
Luis curates the selection, bringing a healthy mixture of label staples, remixes and a few rarities to spice things up.
What’sthemusiclike?
Eclectic and open-minded, as the label themselves describe.
Among the many highlights are a couple of sassy numbers in MELONYX’s Melanin Queens, which is soul music with an edge, and The Sindecut & Ijeoma, whose club mix of Stand Tall is firmly uplifting. The combination hit the jackpot a second time with Different, where multilayered vocals combine with a big screen backdrop.
Meanwhile Running Loving Something contribute the breezy I Love The Feeling, while there are two rather special remixes of Anchorsong – the Salamanda take on Windmills and the Azido 88 Remix of Common Ground, which makes a play of the wordless vocal and broken beat.
Label stalwart Rhi impresses with the close-up intimacy of Craving Your Love, while Luman Child – via the North Street West Vocal Remix – sing out a gospel house treat with Robert Gee in Grateful. Sunny climes are explored by STR4TA in an excellent remix of Anushka’s Bad Weather, while once the sun goes down Bruk Rogers impresses with the nocturnal LDN 313.
Does it all work?
Pretty much. There is such a wide variety of music on show here there is something for everyone – and to be honest there are many more hits than misses.
Is it recommended?
It’s a no-brainer – 2 hours and 40 minutes of the best of a wide-ranging label, available for the cost of a pint of beer. What’s not to love?
Speaker Music is the work of writer and producer DeForrest Brown Jr., who describes his work as “abstracting Blackness through information overload” or, in the first track, “Black music that sounds technological, rather than music made with technology.” He does this through a combination of live and pre-edited music.
Techxodus is designed as an epilogue to Brown’s book Assembling A Black Counter Culture, or – as he describes it again – as “an extension of the Drexciya Mythos; researching and reimagining the artefacts and stories of Drexciya with new maps, ideas and music, in particular reflecting on the ‘Seven Storms’, seven albums that came out in quick succession around the death of Drexciya member James Stinson, which seemed to herald Drexciyans in the attack mode.”
What’sthemusiclike?
Brown Jr. sets out the principles behind the album over a single, thickly textured chord – an oceanic drone, if you like, and the ideal way into the album. Gradually the wholeness starts to break up, with muted trumpet and flickering percussion that carries into Techno-Vernacular Phreak. The percussion cuts loose, the harmonies start to wander, and a certain tension is introduced.
The treble lines have a piercing, acidic qualities that Brown offsets with these lovely, deep-dive drones such as the one that starts Holosonic Rebellion. This track grows into a depiction of an uprising, thrilling on one hand but disconcerting on the other. The intensity grows through Dr Rock’s PowerNomics Vision, threatening to spill over as the drumming becomes more insistent and the vocals edgier. Jes Grew brings this to a peak, with thrilling walls of sound from the brass that sound like insistent train horns, broken up by the frenetic drumming. Our Starship To Ociya Syndor returns to the rich drone-based approach, with wordless voices borne on the airwaves beneath shrill sonic signals. The intensity subsides – but only a little – before the scattergun drumming and distortion combine to bring Feenin’ to a coruscating peak. Finally Astro-Black Consciousness returns us to the mood of the opening, journey complete but with the wailing of gospel voices in the middle ground.
Does it all work?
It does – because Speaker Music has a style all of his own, a fascinating intersection of experimental jazz and techno that proves difficult to break down. New technology provides part of the thrill, but also a hidden menace.
Is it recommended?
It is indeed. Techxodus is a powerful and highly emotive listening experience, which only grows in stature the more you hear it.
Arcana.fm 