Porter Ricks – Biokinetics
"The nautical view evokes a clear
vision, something freeing. The club as a diving platform, and techno as a
nautical sound experience, a project that lies between clubs and art."
The Type label has just re-released the
seminal Porter Ricks album “Biokinetics” for the first time in 16 years. The
album by the duo of Andy Mellwig and Thomas Köner was originally issued as a
series of 12”s and then as one of the famous self-destructing metal boxes on
the Chain Reaction label. One curiosity of the re-release that has not been picked
up on is the cover art, more so since a characteristic of the original Chain Reaction
label was the absence of art, only a logo and track names all emblazoned in the
labels trademark steely, cold colours. With so many watery track titles like “Nautical
dub”, “Port Gentil” and “Nautical zone” as well as the group’s name deriving
from a character in the dolphin TV show Flipper, you would think that Type
might have gone for a more aquatic cover image.
The image chosen was a sepia tinted photo
negative of the sky above peeling grey clouds, watched over by a black sun.
Although the clouds can easily be induced to resemble the ocean, there is
something a little stuck-on or last minute about the image, perhaps more so
since after 16 years it is finally receiving a visual christening. But the choice
is difficult since as well as the sea, there are also clear urban atmospheres
within the album, particularly the train noises of the brilliant opener “Port
Gentil”, still one of the all-time great techno tracks. Now all we need is a
more focused Chain reaction release for the releases that have not yet received
it.
Dolphins into the Future - Canto
Arquipelago
Lieven Martens has just released his latest
album as Dolphins into the Future entitled “Canto Arquipelago”. The album was apparently
recorded by Martens in the fishing village of São João on the small island Ilha
Do Pico in the Azores archipelago. “Canto” is a much less electronic outing
than previous records and even resembles a kind of watery jazz at times.
Nonetheless, fans will still find Martens particular musical tropes all over
the album, from wind and wave noises, to imitations of dolphins and the
evocation of the presence of people. There are two lovely videos to accompany
the release, one an animation with text by Zahid Jiwa from the Dolphins official website.
And also a film by Martens under the name
Lieven Moana that serves a trailer for the album.
Scuba – Personality
Scuba’s new album has been ruffling
feathers as far as the eye can see. One
of the biggest problems seems to be either the lack of commitment by critics to
defending it or panning it outright, resulting in reviews with mixed messages.
On the other hand, the public response is also confused with many upset by the
perceived change in direction, something that actually occurred sometime ago as reported here,
something that in the end should be taken as a good sign.
An average score seems to have been about
3-5/5 taken from the various sites, with Pitchfork giving it a more positive
8.1 via the words of RA contributor Andrew Ryce. Check out Any Decent Music
for an interesting overview of reviews. But rather than letting the
critics talk, it is perhaps more informative to look at the comments for where
the album went right and wrong, albeit the language of comments is often a bit
crude.
On Resident Advisor, rezerekted23 maybe gets the politics right, but says very little about
the album itself:
“It's funny, I could tell that their score
for the album wasn't going to be that good because they took so long to get it
out. It seems like the longer they take to put out a review of a super-hyped
album, the lower a score that it will have.
Also, knowing what we do about Scuba, when
has he ever been content to stick to the same sound? Pure dubstep is so far
gone that it isn't just him that's abandoning the sound. As for the
forward-thinking-bass sound of Triangulation, while he could put another album
of that out today... even that sound is starting to fade.
House and techno is what's in right now.
Look at Pinch, Martyn, Instra:mental, Ben UFO, Pearson Sound etc. Everyone is
making throw-back/ retro house, techno and breaks. Maybe he feels like he needs
to keep up with this trend? Also, he's lived in Berlin now for four-and-half
years, I'm surprised that he is only now just making 4/4 stuff on a regular basis.”
Still at RA, Adam420 addresses the musical
pros and cons in a succinct way:
"Also it feels a bit juvenile and naive, but
the production quality is still almost as good as you'll get.”
This hits the
nail on the head: the music is outstanding as ever and in some cases its
colours and rushing floods of sound are quite exhilarating, but invariably
there is a clumsy moment that undermines all the good work, particular the much
derided vocals on “The Hope” and the spoken word opening of “Ignition Key”
which is otherwise a fantastic track.
Funklestiltskin says on RA “What a nice,
shiny piece of shit this album was.” Which is a tad harsh as well as crude. But
taking the analogy further with the phrase “You can’t polish a turd” you can
invert it to become “You can’t polish a great track with a crappy vocal”.
Over at FACT, JD says:
“What's unfair is critics bending over backwards trying to
praise this album with half-assed platitudes like "fun!" and
"honest" and "ballsy".” “I do suppose nothing quite says
"fuck you" like making a tepid electro/prog-trance album and having
no one (that matters anyway) call it out.”
It is hard to call out an album that is let
down by only a few key moments, just as it is difficult to really stand behind
it, but again the problem of JD seems to be that he/she/it is looking for
another moody “Triangulation” and won’t let go. Anyone like JD still doubting
the new direction should see the well selected, but strangely mixed DJ Kicks
set from Photek which also showcases a certain big beat sound to see that Scuba
is still up with the times.
The question is still why all this naivety?
Why such a fun and dare I say it “teenage” album from Scuba? (There is a CD
version and a poster of the cover art included in the vinyl by the way, if I
needed to justify the teenage angle more – and is the cover really a hand in
the air and a sun as I thought it was a burning match?). Is all this “fun” due
to a reduced work ethic and a “that will do” attitude? The production quality
and excellent sequencing doesn’t sound like it to me. Was it part of the big
change that crystallised around “Adrenalin” and/or a new way to enjoy
producing? Maybe. Dubstep has certainly been dour and paranoid at times, like
drum n bass used to be (and maybe still is?). Scuba’s output has also been
prolific for a guy who is also playing out a lot and running a label, so maybe
something a bit lighter is necessary for state of mind if nothing else. But
this also answers the question to some degree: a look at where Scuba has been
playing will show his rise from dark and dank dubstep clubs to the big stage
and now beyond. Last year he headlined Sonar in Barcelona and this year he will
play indie rock festival Primavera Sound. Scuba’s audience has changed, his
environment has changed, even if some of his fans didn’t move on. Finally,
after so many years of hard work and making cutting edge music, I would not
begrudge him commercial success at all. At least he has done it with a decent
album.
Scuba himself can have the last word,
posting on RA:
“Posted by Orbital316It: "honestly doesn't
feel like a big radical departure from his other work to me, as some people are
making it out to be".
Yup, people saying the opposite obviously
haven't listened to either the old or new stuff in much detail. Adrenalin
definitely was a departure, that was the point. There's as much continuity as
there is difference between this album as the last one.”
Not bad, even for an Arsenal supporter!
Finally two curiosities. The squeaky
chipmunk intro at the start of “Ne1butu” intones
“I’ve never heard you break it down like
this”
There is a striking similarity between this
and the end to the Mouse on Mars track “Polaroyced” from their new album “Parastrophics”
when a similarly high pitched voice whines
“Jesus, what happened to Mouse On Mars?
They’ve departed so far from their beginning!”
The actual vocal line is edited out from
the end of this simple, but great video sadly, but the main riff of this track
also sounds like it might be a homage to Manuel Göttsching’s "E2E4". But this
micro-trend for self-reference is quite curious.
Scuba’s album has many trance
elements to it, without quite stooping to stereotype, a genre I recently wondered whether it would ever
surface into respectability again. Similarly, one of the last questions asked
in my 2011 round up was whether or not Drum n Bass might make a comeback this year. There are a
few moments on “Personality” that hint at a more drum n bass direction, none
more so than “Cognitive dissonance”.
As well as this Scuba track, there is the
DnB sound of Monolake (see below), the widely reported news of the demise of Commix and reviews of their “Dusted” collection as
well as recent positive reviews of Kasra’s “Fabriclive
62” mix amongst others. Not quite enough to suggest a comeback, but maybe a few
archival releases and a few more cross-over singles and we might be there.
Monolake – Ghosts
Speaking of DnB, and also of genre
confusions, Robert Hencke’s brilliant “Ghosts” album for his own Imbalance
Computer Music imprint has ruffled few feathers while simultaneously causing
critics to drool. While it represents another impeccable release, one can’t
help but feel more sympathy for Scuba given that “Ghosts” doesn’t really go
much beyond “Silence”, or even the jittery sound of earlier Monolake releases,
and yet is still lauded, whereas Scuba cops it for trying something different.
Similarly, Henke seems to get away with appropriating maligned genres like DnB
without negative consequences, whereas the audience is indifferent to Scuba.
Perhaps the difference between the two is
the same issues as before, just a few crappy vocals makes the difference
between brilliant and good. It is of note that the title track is the opening
track and bears the unmistakable robotic lyric:
“You/do not/exist – Get out of my head”
Somehow this opening seems like a portal:
the rest of the album resembles as much literal landscape as soundscape, with
the ghostly protagonist left to wander through the smoky, skeletal world,
wondering if he/she is truly dead. It is tempting to try and interpret the text
of the inner sleeve and the track titles, “Lilith” the first woman, “the
existence of time”, “Aligning the daemon”, but the mystery only unfurls
further, just like the music itself which slips further and further into textural
detail with every closer listen. The cover images of the two releases are also
outstanding. “Silence” converted what should have been the blue and white of
sky and snow into pink and yellow, not so much sickly as vivid and more alive. “Ghosts”
cover should be a spectral black and white, but shimmers with faded green and
sepia tones as if blooming in reverse.
Drexciya – Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller
Clone Classic Cuts have just announced the second instalment of
the lovely Drexciya re-release project. While we wait for this, it is worth returning
to two things brought up in The Wire issue 321 (2010) which features a Drexciya
primer, but also a story about Turner Prize-nominated artists The Otolith Group who created a
film work “Hydra decapita” based around the mythology of Drexciya. No excerpts from the film
are available, but there is plenty of other material and interviews available
for the curious.
The Otolith Group are not the only artists to
take inspiration from the myths of Drexciya. For the last few years, Ellen
Gallagher has been exhibiting a series of paintings called “Coral Cities”
also based on the underwater world of abandoned slaves created by Drexciya.
