V/A :: Quality Time Volume 4 (Bonding Tapes)

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Quality Time Volume 4 slices a deep cross-section through the label’s unique sonic vision; to encapsulate a myriad of abstract electronic music structures and blend them seamlessly in this fourth volume. It might also be fitting to find more quality time and head back to Bonding Tapes‘ earlier volumes again.

Representing a kaleidoscope of sound

The fourth for Bonding Tapes‘ Quality Time series gathers a slew of artistic talent spread across sixteen tracks representing a kaleidoscope of sound from blissful ambient motifs to skewed hip-hop transmissions and lo-fi underground beatwork artisans. Kemek’s utterly beautiful and emotional trajectory on opener “All Of My Loops Are Of You” ebbs and flows infinitely while Mr. Abstract Butta Fingas’ “Conversations With Blockscaria” delivers an avalanche of downtempo drums and fuzzy funk elements. Elsewhere you’ll find chiseled electronic spectrums and peculiar rhythms courtesy of KCPG Music’s “Redacted” and A Typo I Feed Iris Noll’s “Tower Of Silence” with its impacting percussive overload.

There’s such an abundance of music to digest on QTV4 that you’ll be hard-pressed to find a dud—hint, there are none. The San Diego imprint culls dynamic left field electronic experimentalists; listen to Colin Dyer’s “KELT-9b,” Asymmetrical Head’s “Lyn_C_V2,” Dolphinbrain’s saccharine bleeps on “Sound Dunes,” and the calming atmospheric drifts of Kibble’s slow-motion groove on “Imagined Slight.”

Not forgetting the chillwave escapade of Thieff’s “Internal Dynamics,” the shuffling pop’n crunch of E+RO=3’s “Burnin,” the technoid fissures of V N C F’s “F O U N D A T I O N,” the entangled hip-hop projection of The Mothership Collective’s “Hustle Mac,” Alyx Ryon X Jumbled’s “Harry Partch,” and closing instrumental glitch on Tellem Hawk’s “WTFH,” and the results are impressive. SR388’s “Frozen Windows (ft. Spaceman Spliff)”—while seemingly out-of-place—takes us to a more relaxed spot on the horizon with its calming organic flutter while Igor Amokian’s “On This One” is a baffling audio collage of vocal samples/clips run through distortion machines that we simply can’t get enough of.

Quality Time Volume 4 slices a deep cross-section through the label’s unique sonic vision; to encapsulate a myriad of abstract electronic music structures and blend them seamlessly in this fourth volume. It might also be fitting to find more quality time and head back to Bonding Tapes’ earlier volumes again.