(06.26.06) If industrial robots have their own blend of funky music to listen to during their
breaks on the
assembly line, then Consumer vs User is likely to make fluids boil in their
servo valves. Glitchy
and groovy are indeed two words that go together well in the music of Andrew Duke on
this release
(published 2006 on Phthalo Records), and it had been a long time I hadn’t listened
to something
with a feeling both as mechanical and dancy at the same time – maybe since Cabaret
Voltaire, but
it was eons ago, and in a quite different genre.
At first, this album won’t sound funky or groovy at all. Raw distorted beats, some
weird sounds,
and when you think that’s all then you realize that all this is deceivingly
repetitive, and there
is definitely something more. Andrew Duke starts where minimal techno ends, and
against this
minimalist background (a heavy bass – sometimes very heavy, like in d’n’b or dub -,
saturated
drumloops and sequences) something else is slowly built, through weirdly vocoded
voices,
electronic noises imperceptibly coming up, lots of processed samples that seem to be
based on
audio electronic interferences, and almost unnoticeable at first listen.
But, though this
could read quite experimental, the way it is done gives us 11 tracks that qualify as
real IDM
since it is both intelligently done and sometimes catchy as hell.
Well, this won’t come as a real surprise for those of you who already know Andrew
Duke: an audio
activist based in Halifax, Canada since nearly 20 years, he has gained international
recognition
through the years both as a musician and for his consistent investment in the worldwide
development of the IDM scene (see for instance the Cognition Audioworks label). Again he proves here with this very good and
coherent album
that he deserves all the praises for what he does best: electronic music, both as a
producer and
as a composer. Groove ex Machina.
Consumer vs User is out now on Phthalo.
