Soulful sounds from the verdant forests of northern Spain.
I don’t know if it’s my living here, but I’m constantly coming across more and more Spanish artists and labels. Vagon Brei is not new to me, but his latest enterprise is. Now the artist has turned label owner, setting up his own Mystic and Quantam Records with a solid name to start.
DMX Krew, Ed Upton, haunts speakers with Standing Stones. This Electro trailblazer is leaving the dancefloor for the hills and moors for pagan electronics. Synthesizer spectres ghost through tracks, “Keuswack” stalking rainsoaked plateaus and aging ruins. Grounds shift. Ambient whirls into playful abstraction, piano keys spiralling “Glantane” before the aquatic murk of “Lady of the Lake.” Standing Stones exemplifies a style that hasn’t been heard from Ed DMX very often, a whimsical and mysterious brand of druid machine music. Towards the end Upton is on more familiar ground with the funk laden “Avebury” and “Merry Maidens.” The close comes in the video game title theme of “Beltane.”
Following Mr DMX comes San Laurentino aka Lóránt Talpai, an artist who has graced imprints like Mathematics Recordings and Let’s Play House. For M&Q Talpai delivers textured House richness in the form of Contemplations of a Castaway. Beats rattle for the bass punctured “Hammock With a View.” Smoothness flows. Warm melodies amidst hopeful harmonies and tapered percussion. In parts electronica is the overarching sound, such as in the airy “Starfish Thong Movement.” Acid arises with “Car Chase 303” before the fluidity of “Rolling Bones.” There is a heartfelt emotion running through the LP, a fragility and vulnerability that comes to a close with the slow Electro of “The Last Corridor.”
Vagon Brei’s vinyl imprint has set the bar high. Mystic and Quantam Records is traveling through some of the lesser heard styles in electronics. DMX Krew conjures analogue wraiths with just a whisper of Electro. San Larentino comes from the history of Chicago, utilizing those historic machines to paint a scene of hope and humanity. Soulful sounds from the verdant forests of northern Spain.
For more information about Mystic & Quantum, visit facebook.com/mysticandquantum.
