This album
is a gem.
According
to Wikipedia, the Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or a
dragon eating its own tail. It is said
to represent cyclicality in the sense of re-creating itself. I can go along with that – there’s nothing
groundbreaking on this compilation, but, what is here is actually very, very
good.
If you’re a
fan of Faithless then this could well be a tonic for you in the wake of their retirement. There are clear influences from the camp of
Maxi, Sister and Rollo here (with the exception of Jazz’s incisive rap), and,
at times bits of early electronica resembling Depeche Mode, and maybe even a
splash of Chemical Brothers.
Ten tracks
from ten North American artists, all with a love for dance music from several
genres. It’s a lovely collection and from
the opening track it’s great listening.
For me,
Speak Easy by Background Sound could have been lifted straight from Reverence
or Sunday 8pm by Faithless. That
incredibly danceable, feel-good beat that became an instantly recognisable
sound. There’s a definite Depeche sound
circa Speak & Spell/A Broken Frame with Sex Chat from Ghosts On Tape – a
track that’s been around for almost 10 years, bordering on techno but steering
clear from getting to the silly, throwaway ‘dance’ tracks we had in the 80’s
and 90’s. The track Cloud Turtle uses
slightly acid house sounds but with an updated feel, and, Machinedrum’s,
Whatnot, again has that Faithless feel.
Slightly hypnotic with a looped vocal sample and subtle guitars.
There’s a
house leaning to En Route by Braille, but, done with a more up-to-date feel,
and, Tomorrowland by Clicks & Whistles is a sparkling number, again with
easy samples and a swirling synth making brilliant use of stereo speakers.
The track
of the album comes in the shape of You & The Sky. I’m a bit of a sucker for a bit of dub, and
this is a really interesting use of the art-form. Techno induced dance dub – it really is a
cracker. Lazy, free and interestingly,
reggae-less. Many artists claim to
produce ‘dub mixes’ and they rarely are – instead opting for an instrumental,
and, in my opinion doing dub a huge injustice.
It’s nice to see Sweatson Klank make a track with obvious leanings in
that direction and not actually make any claims.
The
remaining tracks, Nightmare Cafe (Obey City), Gelatin Silver (Anenon) and
Uppercut (Low Limit) continue in a similar vein – loosely connected by dance,
but, varying sufficiently to make the album cohesive enough as a ‘project’ and
a good compilation.
As the
record label quote – “It’s ok to be unique, even while giving a nod to those
before”. Well said.
No comments:
Post a Comment