(02.09.08) TEL AVIV based Yair Etziony has long been involved with the electronic
music scene in Israel as an artist, label owner, DJ and producer.
Recording as Vermont and Basic Unit but probably best known as one half
of Faction, Etziony has recent released Flawed, his first album under
his own name for Japanese label Spekk.
First introduced to electronic music by the Kraftwerk classic “Computer
World,” it was the discovery of early 90’s influential experimental
electronic artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre along with labels
like Clear, ART and Likemind that convinced Etziony that electronic
music was the way forward. Further influenced by the likes of Carl
Craig, the precision of Frank Brettschinder, and bands such as My Bloody
Valentine, Ride, the Stone Roses and even punk bands such as Black Flag,
Etziony drew on a diverse range of styles and genres when writing his
own music.
Faction – Etziony and his friend Rani Golan – have so far released one
album, The End of Tel Aviv, in May 2004 for the respected and now sadly
defunct Neo Ouija label. With just two compilation appearances on Mille
Plateaux and Sutemos in the same year and a single remix the following
year, the duo re-emerged in September 2007 with a new track, “Molten,”
on a CD compilation entitled Devil in the Detail on Canadian label
Interchill Records.
Also released in September 2007 was Etziony’s debut album under his own
name, Flawed, which Japanese label Spekk released as their first
beat-based album, illustrating the more personal side to Etziony’s work.
“Its about un-perfect things, we always want the perfect idea and we
want everything to be flawless, but for me as an artist and a person I
love it when it’s not so perfect. That’s where things start to get
interesting,” says Etziony. “For me perfect is an idea, and not
something which you can achieve. We are surrounded with flawed beings.
“Faction is more about complex beats and textures, while in Flawed the
beats are less complex and I try not to use a lot of melodic elements.
Flawed I think is more minimal, dark, and got more dub elements in it.
It’s [a] much more accurate refraction of my own character.”
Ironically, the writing process for the Flawed album suffered its own
setback mid-production. Whilst moving apartments, Etziony suffered a
hard disk crash and lost all the files he had been working on for the
album. By chance he had burnt a DVD of some of the work in progress
elements of the music to test a new DVD burner and was able to recover
at least some of his earlier work. Ever the optimist, Etziony saw this
as further evidence of the album’s theme and simply re-recorded the
missing parts. Originally intended to be two albums; one with smoky
jazz-based beats and the other more ambient and textural, Etziony
eventually decided to merge the two concepts and Flawed was conceived.
The result of Etziony’s reworking of his in progress tracks is an
introspective album of gently shifting textures and carefully considered
atmospheres that slowly introduces subtle glitch elements and the
digital defects Etziony refers to as the theme for the album.
