Category Archives: Switched On

Let’s Dance – Various Artists – Future Disco: Mirrorball Motel (Future Disco)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Future Disco has proved to be an incredibly popular series over the years, presenting a number of different takes on the house-disco interface. Part of its success is down to the ability to keep fresh with its selections, and true to form Mirrorball Motel includes five new tracks.

What’s the music like?

Consistently strong and rarely generic, this is a really enjoyable set of tunes.

The new material performs strongly. Daisybelle & Tasty Lopez’s Starlight (in Future Disco Ballroom Dub form) sashays onto the floor with confidence. Boys Shorts‘ Suburban Love Affair has a strong West Coast vibe, while Italoconnection dazzle with interlinked synths in the 1980s throwback All Over. Charlie Hepworth‘s It’s Satisfaction has an enjoyable rough edge to its tone. Best of all, arguably, is the heat-soaked You Understand from the brilliantly named Clive From Accounts, a track full of atmosphere and promise.

The other tracks are hardly fillers – not when you consider the addition of Roosevelt, Breakbot, Irfane & Yuksek and Digitalism – as well as strong contributions from the likes of Storken and EYNKA, who throws in some Bicep-friendly shimmering synths.

Does it all work?

It does – Mirrorball Motel takes you to a different place pretty much straight away, impressing with its fusion of poolside house and deep, clubby dance fodder.

Is it recommended?

Yes, enthusiastically – taking its place alongside the most successful instalments in an impressively durable series.

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Switched On – Agents Of Time: Universo (Kompakt)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Italian duo Andrea Di Ceglie and Luigi Tutolo return with their second album as Agents Of Time. Having boosted their profile with recent single Afterlife and a remix of The Weeknd’s Take My Breath, the pair return to an approach blending techno knowhow and song-based structures – with a few instrumentals thrown in for good measure.

What’s the music like?

Strong and assured. Agents Of Time are pretty consistent in their marriage of full bodied, club-based beats and song structures, and get a satisfying variety in their choice of material. The net result is a set of what can only be called ‘moody bangers’!

There is a good deal of versatility in this music. Dream Vision, for instance, makes a really strong impact with its cinematic strings, while Blu proves its worth as one of the strongest vocal tracks.

Clipped beats and moody vocals from Audrey Janssens in Fallin’ hark back to the UK garage sound at the turn of the century. Janssens reappears later on the tougher Poison. Interstellar Cowboy goes for a futuristic approach, the vocal accents balancing a solid instrumental backing.

On the instrumental front, Pulses and Ciao are both excellent in the way they channel evocative lines through driving beats with a sharper edge to the bass. Finally Dinasty signs off with no beats at all, succeeding through a trancey loop instead.

Does it all work?

Mostly. There are some curious vocal additions (The World Is Dump, for instance) but most of Universo squarely hits the mark.

Is it recommended?

It is, if you like a dose of vocal pop against melodic techno as part of your dance music experience. Expressive and cinematic, this is an album well worth trying.

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Switched On – Daphni: Cherry (Jialong)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Daphni is the alias under which Dan Snaith – also known as Caribou – lets loose and allows his musical instincts to run free in club-based music.

This is the third album he has made under this alias, and it is a no-nonsense affair of 14 tracks, wrapped up in 47 minutes. Initially Snaith was not thinking of an album, but found that the music he had been making with Daphni in mind had satisfying links and logic in their order – and so Cherry was born.

What’s the music like?

Liberating and colourful. With its roots in dance, this is an album that generates a good deal of positive, kinetic energy, becoming all about movement. Yet there are plenty of riffs and bright colours to hang on to as well, Snaith working plenty of material into his busy constructions.

The title track goes busily on its way, with a metallic glint to the percussion, Snaith employing some of the bright colours he sprinkles liberally through the album. Always There uses what feels like a twisted mariachi section, and cuts straight into the pinball synths of Crimson, which themselves blend in with a nice, piano-based loop.

Mania has some really nice spacey effects, while the urgent beats on Mona make a strong impression. Clavicle glints in the half light, while Cloudy is arguably the best of all, with a lovely, rippling piano cascaded over a clipped, glitchy beat.

Does it all work?

It does – and if anything it’s a shame Snaith doesn’t develop some of the shorter tracks. Falling especially would have made a good, clubby track, while the jagged Karplus could have been a springboard for something substantial.

Is it recommended?

Yes. This is the sound of an artist having fun in the studio, going where his instincts direct him to go, and coming up with something colourful and melodic that his fans will love.

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Switched On – Ian William Craig: Music for Magnesium_123 (Fatcat Records)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Often, when considering a new score for a TV show, film or game, the listener is presented with a series of short, inconsequential cues, with little of musical substance to make for satisfying listening. Ian William Craig is on a mission to change that, returning with a bold approach to soundtrack writing.

The Vancouver-based artist has written a substantial piece of work to accompany a computer game, Magnesium 173. This creation from Graham Johnson is described as ‘an elegant puzzle game inspired by quantum mechanics’. In response, Craig has fashioned a dozen pieces of music running for 80 minutes. The tracks evolve with the use of modified tape, electronics and Craig’s own voice, multitracked and manipulated to create a series of choral perspectives.

What’s the music like?

Haunting and otherworldly. There is a peculiar intensity here, taking hold as the sound begins to grow in volume at the start of the soundtrack, and barely letting up throughout. The presence of the human voice is deeply powerful, for although there are no obvious words the vocals command the music’s direction and colour.

Blue Suit Glitch finds a glitchy response from modular synthesizers, while a haunting choir hesitantly rises up out of the weather-beaten tundra on It’s A Sound, Not An Ocean, their sonorous voices soon dominating the landscape on the album’s longest track. A Crack And A Shadow is much shorter, but benefits from a distinctive, sighing motif that gets cut up and worked against a steady rhythm of snowy footsteps.

Viridian is another ambient yet intense piece of work, with falsetto and deeper bass vocals set in contrary lines. The music drifts through thick electronic clouds, as it also does in the weightless Sentimental Drift. Prisms is warm and fuzzy, while Attention For It Radiates exhibits a brighter, wide open choral sound. Meanwhile a wall of bright musical ambience awaits the listener on Sprite Percent World Record, richly coloured with heat-soaked drones, pierced on occasion by a solo voice.

Does it all work?

Yes, it does – and although the emphasis is on the ambient properties of Craig’s writing, there is intensity and poise throughout, along with a keen sense of direction. In spite of its slow moving trajectory, the music is always travelling somewhere.

Is it recommended?

Yes, enthusiastically – fans of Tim Hecker, Fennesz or the Glacial Movements label, to name just a few like-minded sources, will love it. Ian William Craig has made something rather special here.

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Switched On – Back To Mine: Tycho (DMC)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

For the latest in their long running Back To Mine series, now 23 years old, DMC turn to Scott Hansen, the San Francisco producer, artist, designer and songwriter better known in these circles as Tycho.

He is a completely logical addition, already known for some incredibly relaxing chillout music through albums Dive, Epoch and Weather, which offer sunshine-infused meditation to even the coldest listener.

What’s the music like?

As so often with the Back To Mine series, it feels like DMC have caught the right artist at the right time. Tycho’s specialities tend to lie in the electronic field, and that is well represented here, but there are some really nice contrasts and bends in the road to navigate as the mix progresses. It hits just the right balance of moving forward but also enjoying the musical scenery on the way.

Bibio’s remix of Tycho’s own Spectre is the ideal place to start, setting a nice walking pace within a woozy dynamic as the guitar ambles along. Some spacey productions follow, with an excellent bit of serious electronic pop from Panama standing out, the clean textures of Destroyer dating from 2013. Happily the music never veers too close to the mainstream, as Schneider TM’s hybrid track Frogtoise testifies. Tycho’s remix of Little Dragon’s Little Man is the perfect fit to bridge from this to the hypnotic cross rhythms of Luke Abbott’s Modern Driveway, after which the amiable grooves of Weval’s You Made It (Part II) are ideal.

Ulrich Schnauss is a logical inclusion, his brand of weather-beaten electronica leaving a strong impression with In All The Wrong Places, before Tycho’s PBS brings a cool groove to back its probing riff. By the time Slowdive’s Sugar For The Pill kicks in we are more or less horizontal, a feeling reinforced by Octo Octa’s Beam Me Up, the Please Take Me Away mix by Eris Drew panning out rather nicely.

Does it all work?

It does – as you would expect from someone with Tycho’s love of perspective, foreground and background. Like the best Back To Mine compilations it brings a satisfying juxtaposition of familiar names and unfamiliar grooves, sitting alongside each other with the maximum ease.

Is it recommended?

It is indeed – another excellent addition to one of the longest running compilation series around. Even in this era of online mixes and playlists, there is still room for an hour Back To Mine.

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