A great balance of smoothing out the edge of old-school electronica, drawing attention to tempos without sacrificing the smart edge of its pop sensibility.
Cheju‘s latest is chock-full of casual beats making its title fit quite snug, Broken Waves. A bit of a sleeper, this one features three P’s: “Pica” (breakbeat background music), “Pantone” (perfectly paced instrumental, minimalist Erasure) and the stand-out “Pachinko” (delicate Asian harmonies overlain with soft statics and funky staccato). Keeping you on your toes throughout, with lots of tangible and floating tones. Elsewhere Cheju (UK’s Wil Bolton) livens the more noirish textures without losing his rhythmic composure on the extremely lovely “Moiré.” Each short track (all 15 are under 7 mins) is truly a unique composition. This is not a record that flows-thru continuously – so it reads like a set of short films. Not for the couchside listener as the pace changes unexpectedly, but the climax has to be double-header of the charming “Closing In” and “Conduit,” a brightly lit minimal techno piece that grows like a fine CAD design, line by line. It’s a great balance of smoothing out the edge of old-school electronica, drawing attention to tempos without sacrificing the smart edge of its pop sensibility. The disc includes three additional mixes by all that flow perfectly with these broken waves. (Toneshift, 2010)
Broken Waves is out now on Boltfish. [Listen | Purchase]
