As we drift downstream, the bliss only continues, and makes it harder to fathom how such a coherent and beautifully flowing album can come along and feel like an old friend from the first listen.
The beauty of angst captured like a beautiful Polaroid of youth gone by
Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! I feel like that white rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice… I was asked to provide my feedback on this release some time ago, and I had an imperfect personal storm preventing me from delivering. This made me very sad as this is now for sure my favorite release of 2022! So let me now try to deliver the justice this release deserves.
Five albums in 3 years, all quality, each showing growth, never any drop in quality or inspiration. Is Inkipak becoming one of my favorite current producers—simply yes! This is a whopper double CD, with the 2nd disc being remixes by some of the most interesting current talent around the UK: extended family connected with Jon Mace (Inkipak), and his very own Fourier Transform label. From legends like Yage aka The Future Sound Of London, to the ever-exciting exm from the Netherlands, Drøn who have some brilliant releases on Móatún 7 and mindcolormusic, the delightful ReKAB, a Fourier Transform label-mate, the eccentric and esoteric sounds of Myoptik, Sound Synthesis from Malta, MOY, Idiac and more! This is serious quality for money. Buy, buy, buy!!!
+ve (positive) serves up the listener with a smörgåsbord of delights and delicacies. From the opening bars of “Familial” I was hooked. Those opening synth notes, hovering over these deep as you could dream of drums, provided the foundation for what would be added to my essential—new speaker tester—playlist. Enter that classic smooth and silky Inkipak bassline, and you have a track that is really putting the desert first in the forthcoming meal which this album is. I’m always happy to have sweet things, and who doesn’t want meringue with strawberries and cream before their Sunday roast?
“Fink,” the 2nd track, just compounds the initial impression that this is a special release. Arrangement wise “Fink” is a close relation to “Familial,” sharing many of the building blocks, but with a completely different delivered product. The choral notes appearing here also deliver that epic bliss, that feeling of unrequited love we all had as adolescents, somewhere between ecstasy and despair. The beauty of angst captured like a beautiful Polaroid of youth gone by.
I won’t go blow by blow through every track, but I will make some special mentions for personal highlights. “Toulouse” (I now it’s only track 3) gets my body moving; quality electro beats and synths that speak of Detroit nights, warehouse parties, and owes something to LFO. I have no doubts Gez Varley, or the late (and sadly missed) Mark Bell, would both have given this their seals of approval. This feels like a lost 90’s Warp Records classic.
Music for pleasure, music to share ::
As we drift downstream, the bliss only continues, and makes it harder to fathom how such a coherent and beautifully flowing album can come along and feel like an old friend from the first listen. Jon must have done some deal at a crossroads, involving souls, fiery underworld lords, and epic duel with electronic fiddles. Track 6, “Out Of Bounds” delivers us our 303 fix, with all the deep and fruity layers of a good Malbec. This is drinking music. Music for pleasure, music to share, an experience to relish, and not just another electronic album by just another guy who probably needs more sun than the Malbec grapes ever got.
Forgive my claw back on not doing a blow by blow, but this is how special this is; no fanfare missed out for such special tracks. “Niatune” comes out of the speakers to hug and slap you at the same time. Synth lines with that old tape feel, drums any great DJ would be happy to drop into a set, which isn’t made from entirely basic 4×4 simple rhythms. 303 layers which comes and go, lows and highs delivering rumbles, squelchy floating melodies respectively, cut up vocal snips. It can’t get much better, can it?
So we are about half way through on Disc 1 and there is not a filler in sight. Pure class. 100% high grade product Scarface would bury his chops in before reaching for his guns. I don’t want to spoil the plot by revealing too much more except that this has firmly cemented itself as my favorite release of 2022.
Jon (Mace) continues to intrigue and delight me, as I hope it does for anyone walking down the +ve pathway less traveled by. I hope this album brings Jon to a wider audience, more people deserve to know his music.
Whilst I could write another full review on the remixes CD included with this release, suffice to say, all brilliant artists, and a well chosen and curated list, each breathe new perspectives and second lives into 12 Inkipak tracks, and not just ones from this original album list, but from across a range of Inkipak releases.
So for a who’s who in modern electronic music check this name list: Drøn, Yage (aka FSOL), Idiac, Sound Synthesis, GProd, Self Oscillate, Tarsiform, MOY, EXM, ReKaB, The Vast Profound, Myoptik. I have releases by each of these artists in their own right, each produce excellent work, and having a selection of their reinterpretations of Inkipak tunes is fantastic. Highlights for me include the remixes by exm, MOY, Drøn, Yage, ReKaB, and Sound Synthesis—but that is just me, and artists who’s work I know better than others, and can hear the meeting of minds in the remix efforts.
So, my favorite release of 2022. Need I say more praise for this epic release? Last comment is to get in there and order your physical copy from Fourier Transform before they are all gone. Many, like myself, missed out on the first Inkipak album on CD and whilst there was a vinyl pressing after the fact, a CD repress has not happened (yet!). Looking forward to what Inkipak / Jon Mace shares with the world in 2023.
+ve is available on Fourier Transform.. [Bandcamp]
