Sven Laux – Mud Up, Mud Down

Deep House & Techno, House, IDM, TechHouse, Techno & Detroit // By: simiolioliocloseAuthor: simioliolio Email: simon@netlabelism.com
More Authors Posts (41) // 08/03/2013 // No Comments

This chirpy little number is about as tight as glitchy microhouse can possibly get.

Mud Up, a sweating leather bag of broken paper clips, leaking from the bottom. Squelchy and mischievous. Clicky and clattering, yet soft and bouncy. From a distance, I would guess that it was Akufen, especially the barely audible vocal cuts, enveloped right down to barely a microscopic transient. Intricate, quirky, and intense, with the hihats clambering all over each other, fighting for groove supremacy.

Mud Down, a little darker, perhaps a seething duffle bag of drawing pins. The groove on this track is immense. Skitting and swaying like a cornered fox. It is the sound that 39 atoms make when you get a mic close enough. I like the subtly evolving textures, and the kick drum is so sick. Well, all of the sounds in this release are beautifully clear and edgy. I love the very occasional arrival of the bit crushed snare.

Mud Down (The Coffee Boy ft. Vocal Matador Remix), starts weakly, but finds its feet very well. The offbeat hihat compliments  Sven’s two original tracks; the 808/909 type hihat (and the claps) stick out as a little generic when compared to the original, which incorporates such a finely tuned individuality. Only for a minute or two, as the track builds very wonderfully indeed, and before long had my head moving, quite violently in fact. The crowd samples are crazy; I can’t wait to play this in a club…

Mud Down (Tone Def’s Mud Down and Out Mix), back to the space-glitches, starting with a metronomic hihat. Initially the bass part which arrives is not to my liking; at first, the pentatonic / ‘blues scale’ seems a little out of place as a remix for a track which dives so far into the sonic world and leaves average musicality behind. Perhaps this was the idea, forming some sort of balance. However, the drop in the middle came with a moment of clarity. There is something rather admirable about that weak bassline, which I only noticed when it had gone. As it comes charging back in (very expertly I might add), I was shocked at how much I missed it.

Microhouse? Is it even a genre?! It still perplexes me how this music can possibly fit into music society. Too minimal for a successful club night. Too mind-numbing for an evening listen. Too subtle for casual headphone listening. Too hectic to relax to. Yet there is something quite fantastic about it. Would you agree?

Sven Laux – Mud Up

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Deeplink to: Release Page [ALTF009]

Arkhaios – Radial

Audio, Deep House & Techno, Dub, Minimal // By: SimonVBcloseAuthor: SimonVB Email: simon.vanbockstal@gmail.com
More Authors Posts (23) // 04/03/2013 // No Comments

Arkhaios published his original Radial EP on October 16th, 2012 . It contained tracks he made around 2009-2010. Cism – a netlabel  ”focusing on deep electronic music with dub mentality”, based in Smolensk, Russia – has picked up the original EP and given it a fancy new re-release including 3 remixes that were not included in the original.

Arkhaios says he intended ‘Radial’ “to be more immersive for the listener in that it’s more focused on the EP as a whole instead of each individual track.” The very deep, dub-like approach to each of the tracks makes sure he succeeds very well in this goal. Even the three included remixes blend in well, so one could easily be mistaken in thinking the entire EP is one drawn-out minimal set. Overall, the EP evolves from breathy, almost arctic ambient to a darker, deeper minimal dub techno. While there are no groundbreaking redefinitions of the genre, it uses enough of its crux elements to keep fans satisfied: subdued kicks that sound more like heartbeats, slow yet ever-evolving pads and high-frequency crackling conjure up an instant feel of a nightly polar expedition.

‘Surface’ is the most uptempo track of the release, while the title track ‘Radial’ defines the sound of the EP the most (as it also has two remixed versions included). The remixes are considerably longer than the original tracks, but the track length – of well  over ten minutes in some cases – never becomes a hindrance. At any rate, I don’t think fans of ambient or deep minimal techno would be bothered by that in the first place.

‘Radial’ does not reinvent the wheel, but it uses the existing one with enough style and grace to delight both fans of the genre as well as people that do not have too many hours of ambient or deep minimal techno under their belt. A solid release, and we shall be looking forward to more material from Arkhaios. Definitely follow him in Soundcloud and Facebook (the latter shows some nice behind-the-scenes work on his album artwork and sneak previews of more material).

Arkhaios – Radial

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Link to the Release Page
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μ​-​metik – Paths

Ambient & Experimental, Deep House & Techno, Downbeat & Downtempo, Dub // By: simiolioliocloseAuthor: simioliolio Email: simon@netlabelism.com
More Authors Posts (41) // 29/11/2012 // No Comments

 ”…You walk through computer glitch city where everything is dark science fiction but you look to the sky and all you can see is the room where you sleep…”

Chilling words, considering the common album blurb usually contains an offering of extreme colloquial adjectives and directionless comment. I love the inclusion of an album description, and the one for this release acts as an extremely good introduction. I would be interested to know if this was derived by the artist, or by the folk at the bright and shinning IDM Forums. If what is described was the artist’s intention, it would be quite something, as taking a stroll through a dystopian bi-polar computer-generated landscape is portrayed quite skillfully…

μ-metik, as well as having a very cool name, also has some extremely impressive sound-design skills, and equally impressive musical talent. If he were bad at these things, his release would not have gotten close to joining other high quality releases contained within the IDMf label roster. The quality of this release is simply stunning. The depth and reach of the ambience, the squeaky-clean tittering of glitches, the longing layers of deeply emotional pads, all wonderfully executed in a precise and purposeful way. The broad style and adept nature of this composer is a delight to bask in.

A lot of ambient music leaves me feeling a little lost, and questioning the necessity of its presence. The first minute of this release started to shuffle down this road, but ‘Path 01′ has a fantastic sample at 1:00 which on headphones possesses a fantastic binaural-type position in the stereo image, which opened my ears and had me fully focused (I strongly recommend a good pair of headphones for this release). “Path 02″ continues the ambient vibe with fizzing electronics and wide soundscape, but after 6 minutes of deadlocked intense ambient atmospherics, the *Boom* at 2:20 was nothing short of thrilling, and is complimented by the gradual conception of a lazy tempo and swinging beats that shift and morph so subtly. “Path 03″ dives into a deep and gentle dub techno groove, with some beautiful chords and a lush soft kick, rounded and soft, comes to the rescue after the opening bit crushing has subsided. Such an admirable and noble track once it settles; it’s the kind of track which could go on for days as a nourishing accompaniment to a hectic livelihood.

The Path trilogy gives way to the remaining 2 thirds of the EP, which I will not describe in too much detail, as this review could go on forever. Fans of Sigur Ros, Mogwai, and other vast post-rock ambience will love this EP. Even if you have never heard any ambient, this is a fantastic place to start. The playing style, instrumentation and choice of sounds is highly inspiring. The recording quality and diligence evident in the finely tweaked synths is impressive. And the structures, originality, and feeling which flows from this release is remarkable. At this point, I would start the “well, this could have been better” part of my review, but I don’t think any improvement is possible. Another fine release on the IDMf label, and another great artist proving that wonderful and highly professional music can be given away for free.

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Deeplink to: Release Page: (IDMf037)