(09.28.07) Bounte’s debut record, One, has been confounding me for some time. Released on Chris Randall’s Positron Records, it’s a disc whose press release intimates that it is too slippery to be confined to one genre. Pop! Hip-hop! Rock! Dance! Jazz! Classical! IDM! However, I’ve been hearing it as a house record, and one that didn’t seem to be making itself very distinct. It just sort of laid there –popping away in the background. Now, Randall is pretty outspoken in his disdain for cheap electronica, and I couldn’t quite figure out the allure of this record. Until I turned up the volume. One is a record that reveals itself when it has some sonic space in which to unfold.
Bounte says he is very conscious of layering his compositions, and as they fill a space, the subtlety of these layers becomes more apparent. “Boat Beat,” for example, gurgles and churns with its primary rhythm–electro-cardiograms doing a sinister shiver up and down tiled hallways–while on the back side of every bass drum thump is a glitter of delicate melody. Some of them are ascending arpeggios of electronic ephemera; some are miniature sirens, hiccuping fragments of love songs; others are bell tones, captured in boxes and released into the wild where they grow metallic wings. “Last Song” does a Transformers trick, where it changes itself from a beatbox with a thousand presets into a 100-piece orchestra, its trip-hop love song becoming a full-on symphonic overture.
“Del Frompson,” snarls up a drum ‘n’ bass rhythm into something more breakbeat–more off-kilter splinters and angular elbows, less of the amen standard–and, with the inclusion of a snake-charmer guitar, a bit of furioso turntablism, and aerial synths that dart like tiny birds, becomes a frenzied floor-shaker. “Voyage of the Blue Robots” morphs into something equally more than the sum of its parts. Kicking into an anthemic bass-driven rhythm, “Voyage of the Blue Robots” thunders about for a moment before the basso rhythms are fractured by wicked wrist action on the ‘table, distorting the thunder anthem into a scrawl of noise. Ah, but that’s not the best part; as it hits the halfway mark, Bounte rolls out a grand piano. And a percussion section of crystalline bells and gongs. While you’re still wondering what is going on, he rolls it all together and shoots it into space. Everything explodes in a noisy burst of light and sound, and the piano player falls back to earth. Still banging on the ivories as he descends.
So, mea culpa. I wasn’t paying attention. Don’t fall into the same trap. Give Bounte’s One a little room to breathe. I think you’ll be pleased with how it takes over.
One is out now on Positron. [Purchase
