Category Archives: Switched On

Switched On – Various Artists: @0 curated by Coldcut & Mixmaster Morris (Ahead Of Our Time)

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What’s the story?

The value of music for our mental wellbeing is fully recognised in this compilation from Coldcut‘s label Ahead Of Our Time.

With 50% of their net receipts going to CALM, Black Lives Matter and Mind, they have set a rather wonderful set of conditions. Not only 8s the ambient music set to ease troubled minds and enhance, wellbeing, but the proceeds will too.

The compilation is available in separate tracks on LP and CD, and also in mix form thanks to Mixmaster Morris.

What’s the music like?

Both relaxing and enchanting. In the unmixed selection, the soft voices of Julianna Barwick give the listener a warm welcome with Star Ray, before the fuzz of Sigur Ros and Rembihnútur.

Laraaji‘s Illusion Of Time is like a comforting breeze, while the friendly tones of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s Mt Baker are like a musical hug.

Ryuichi Sakamoto‘s Aqua is intimate and expressive, it’s piano texturesnicely contrasted by a reworking of. James Heather‘s And She Came Home. The music of Suzanne Ciani is like soft precipitation, as are the consoling waves of Nailah Hunter, while the twisted tendrils of Helena Hauff and Mira Calix suggest icy, ghostly textures.

The Daniel Pemberton and FSOL collaboration Behind The Eyes is like a bubbling spring with its piano and busy electronics, while one of the most distinctive tracks is The Fire Burns Out, a kind of squeezebox drome from Coldcut themselves. Finally The Drift Home offers some lovely stillness from Steve Roach.

Does it all work?

Yes – and even more so in the mixed version, where no fewer than 30 tracks are beautifully blended together. The new talent is notable too – with deserving mentions for Obay Alsharani and David Wenngren.

Is it recommended?

It is – a collection to savour in the small hours, and one that proves easily capable of soothing the fevered brow.

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https://open.spotify.com/album/36ry6OLPgVNFDj7Vx1HCjv&ved=2ahUKEwj-itiD5t70AhU3Q0EAHSeSAE8QFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1ECmTMNRB_rH9pwx_ro3Y5

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https://coldcut.bandcamp.com/album/0

Switched On – Various Artists: Pop Ambient 2021 (Kompakt)

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What’s the story?

Pop Ambient’s place in the calendar is a reassuring recurrence, as is the music it contains.

For more than 20 years now, Kompakt’s beatless compilation series has given a steadying hand to its listener’s, and the Cologne label see no reason to tinker with their formula.

Once again the tracklisting is a blend of familiar names and new talent, curated as ever by Wolfgang Voigt. His question is simple: What happens when the dancefloor is empty, and everyone’s home to drift away?

What’s the music like?

Once again the carefully selected and sequenced music of Pop Ambient takes its listeners to a special place. Voigt has an uncanny ability of choosingmusic that takes the heat off everyday life, but retains an exquisite tension keeping the listener on board.

The steady chimes of Coiling, from relative newcomers Blank Gloss, is a great example before a deep dive into the watery textures of Yui Onodera‘s Cromo 6. Kari, a collaboration between Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth, is absolutely lovely, suspended in a blanket of sound.

The bell-like sonorities of Reich & Würden‘s Grainscan prove unexpectedly moving with the addition of a poignant trumpet line, while the steady pulse of Triola‘s Mutterkorn is dressedwith birdsong. Perhaps inevitably some of the best music comes from Thomas Fehlmann, whose Rosen Fliegen has waves of consonant harmony. Later on the notable Retrospektive, from Max Würden, sparkles around the edges.

Elsewhere the calming selection includes blissful moments from Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer and Weiht, a strong collaboration between Morgan Wurde and Maria Estrella. Closing out the sequence we find Blank Gloss again, further enhancing their reputation with Anticlimbers.

Does it all work?

Yes. It may be a tried and tested formula for over two decades now, but there is surely no need to change the record for Voigt and Kompakt.

Is it recommended?

It almost goes without saying. Pop Ambient is as important now as it ever has been, and shows how Kompakt still have their finger on the reassuringly slow pulse.

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Let’s Dance – Dennis Cruz: Roots (Crosstown Rebels)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This is the first album from established Spanish producer and DJ Dennis Cruz, who is ready to put his own spin on house music through a ten-track long player. He does this with a succession of guest artists, topped by an appearance from the late Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, but also including P. Rivas, Ian Luvig, Josh Butler, Iuliano Mambo and Leo Wood.

What’s the music like?

The propulsive rhythms of La Ratonera start the album, a signal of intent with their persuasive shimmying. The nine-minute track has plenty of room to grow, with sultry flute work and the sound of a party in the distance. This cuts to Los Tamales, an instrumental with a lovely swing to its rhythm and old-time piano riff. Later another instrumental, Bend, plays some games with a trumpet and voice imitating each other over a bouncy beat.

Ian Luvig then steps up to provide the stripped back vocal for Good Old Days, a minimal affair with quite a stark texture but a mission to hit the dancefloor hard. The same could be said for Ecua, with some flamenco flavoured brilliance added to the mix, spliced and diced by Cruz’s skilful production. The temperature stays heated for What U Doing, with Leo Wood’s sultry vocals dressing a heat hazed bed of keyboards.

Go Down will be of great interest to fans of the late Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, who fronts a busy rhythm track. This is a night piece that cuts up his voice inventively, delivering a fluid groove to go with it. It is countered nicely by the raucous trumpets of Ahora Toda Va (Dub), where Josh Butler whips up the crowd.

Te Quiero Cantar takes us back towards the pool, a really nice Mediterranean flavoured instrumental, before Back Again hooks up with Iuliano Mambo for a woozy, sun soaked jam with a big bass sound.

Does it all work?

It does. There is nothing staid or square about Dennis Cruz’s take on house music – the rhythms sway and sashay their way around the dancefloor as he applies plenty of flavour to the mix, keen to show off his Spanish heritage to the max. The vocal guests are the icing on the cake.

Is it recommended?

For sure. Cruz brings warmth to the winter with a set of grooves that prove pretty much irresistible.

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Switched On – The Black Dog: Music for Photographers (Dust Science Recordings)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Over the last two years, The Black Dog have been documenting their home city of Sheffield in visual form. If you follow them on social media you will surely have seen some of the city’s brutalist architecture featuring in moody black and white. Those images came at a price though, for the duo had the frustration of having to revisit some of their subjects to get the optimum results.

What they needed was a restful soundtrack to help them deal with the frustration or the anguish of developing and choosing the right photos, and so Music For Photographers was born.

What’s the music like?

Over the course of their careers The Black Dog have shown themselves to be incredibly versatile in their music making. This album brings a slower style to the surface, but one that shows the intensity of their working.

Dust Bunnies creates a lovely space, on the bleak side to begin with but gradually revealing a warmer musical language. Sensor is open and beautifully weighted, while Norman Foster Knew sounds like an ancient slow chorale rendered on an old organ. Bokeh Bokeh Bokeh takes a slightly bumpy rhythm as the clouds gather, and it cuts straight to the excellent Re-Pho-Kuss with Oliver Ho, a slightly dubby but highly atmospheric track.

We Are All Memories holds its poise really nicely, suspended on a consoling chord, while by contrast Lightroom Lies, Darkroom Doom is a study in sonic displacement, its long held notes laden with menace and darkly ominous. The clouds do eventually clear a little, however, as the track enters its last quarter, and we end in a suspended nothingness, as though the sky has turned an unusual colour. Finally Lost In Lines enters a trance state, gently pulsing mid range still quite darkly shaded but offering consolation.

Does it all work?

It does. The Black Dog hold a very impressive poise throughout this album, and the statements are shot through with an elegance and intensity.

Is it recommended?

Yes – another successful long player to add to the impressively long list the Sheffield duo have now clocked up. Watching their development is proving to be a rewarding experience – if a slightly expensive one for fans because of their prolific form!

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Switched On – Jon Hopkins: Music for Psychedelic Therapy (Domino)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

After two albums driven by rhythm (Immunity and Singularity) Jon Hopkins had the wish to branch out in a different musical direction, turning his focus away from a ‘cosmic party or a set of festival bangers’.

His musical direction took him to a more classical approach, with no electronic drums in evidence and a musical language operating under much larger structures. Hopkins has openly admitted that the resultant workings are “more emotionally honest than I had been comfortable making before”, and has talked about the liberation of being cast free of traditional rhythmic structures.

The music was recorded in the dark of winter in early 2021, looking for brightness amongst the gloom. It is instructive to hear from the composer again: “Psychedelic-assisted therapies are moving into legality across the world, and yet it feels like no one is talking about the music. but the music is as important as the medicine.”

What’s the music like?

Right from the start it is clear Jon Hopkins is ploughing a very different furrow with this album. A treble-rich texture, with the regular ‘tsing’ of a tuning fork, sets out a scene more like the beginning of an extended yoga or pilates session. Woozy background textures blend with primary colours in the foreground, as musical phrases make themselves loosely known.

There is an immediate warmth to Hopkins’ musical language, and as we move into Tayos Caves, Ecuador i, the natural world takes over. A rush of water places the listener right in the middle of the action, with drips from the ceiling of the cave, a torrent of constant spray and the calling of a bird. The simplest of drones and long, drawn out phrases is added by Hopkins, but here we are all travelling together well beyond the studio.

We are in fact in the first part of a near 20-minute suite in three parts, which gradually introduces the thick ambience more common to Hopkins’ earlier work. The second part is a single, slowly shifting melodic sequence, while the third brings in a resonant treble sound. The structure is ideally paced, the listener slowing to the natural rhythms of the cave.

The album takes on the form of an entirely through-composed affair, lending weight to Hopkins’ observation of the similarity with classical music forms. Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves is every bit as serene and comforting as its title suggests, while Deep In The Glowing Heart is the resultant balm, sat squarely in the tonal centre we have occupied for the last half-hour.

Such slow-moving music has a deep, rapturous message to the listener, and the more you become immersed in Hopkins world, the more intense the session. Ascending, Dawn Sky takes a step back, surveying the scene from a greater distance with the cool lapping of a quiet piano, and segues gently into Arriving, where the sound of chimes is complemented with a softly humming vocal – the nearest we get to words on the album so far. It is in effect a gentle warning for Sit Around The Fire, where we get the closing thoughts of Ram Dass, who speaks on the importance of inner connection in the company of meditative thoughts from musician East Forest. If Hopkins’ music has done its job, that has already been achieved.

Does it all work?

It does. Hopkins has a natural instinct for large structures but can also break them into smaller units, so there is enough going on in the short and the long term to keep the listener compelled. The hour passes just like a yoga session, so you may arrive feeling fraught and stressed, but you will leave with your mind on a higher plane.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. Jon Hopkins has been threatening this album ever since he signed to Domino, and it is gratifying to see him make it. A document for our stress-filled times.

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You can listen to clips from the album and purchase in CD or download form at the Domino website