The four tracks on offer at times simmer in a melodious symphony, at other times they boil over into weirded out wackiness. In this tilt-o-whirl of sounds and shapes one thing can definitely be said, with an electronic innovator at the helm, the TB303 will never sound out of date.
I’ve admitted my blind spots on more than one occasion. Most of the time they are fairly innocuous, at others they are that little bit more glaring. Luke Vibert, for some reason, has not come up on my radar. Of course I know who he is, I know his monikers and his music, but for some unknown reason he has neither featured in my writing, my mixes and only makes the briefest appearances in my collection. In an attempt to make up for lost time and to right this wrong I’ve sat and spent sometime with the Cornwall man’s latest 12” on De:Tuned.
Digging through his extensive collection of DAT tapes and hard drives, Vibert has selected four tracks that summarise his undying love for all things acid. The opener, “Balath,” is a high velocity 303 bullet. Beats zip on flashing currents of tumultuous squawk in an all too brief track that balances those racing rhythms with subtle undertones. “pHlacid” is a squirming, wriggling and writhing number. Somewhere between fairground frolics and darkened dinge, this is a piece that shifts from playful kitten in one instance to black eyed man-eater in the next. The title track keeps that little silver box ticking over, this time playing a more peripheral role as chugging drum patterns are draped in cascading chiptune chords. The frenetic fury of “Worry Ledge” end the quartet with a sliding selection of slippery acid lines stumbling and staggering on a tilting seesaw of high octane beats and twinkling notes.
Arcadia is less of an introduction to Luke Vibert for me and more of a re-introduction. The four tracks on offer at times simmer in a melodious symphony, at other times they boil over into weirded out wackiness. In this tilt-o-whirl of sounds and shapes one thing can definitely be said, with an electronic innovator at the helm, the TB303 will never sound out of date.
Arcadia is available on De:Tuned.
