400 Million Pieces of You is four tracks seemingly destined for the darker dance-floors while giving the casual listener a bit more to chew on than normal.
The last I’d heard of Si Begg he was creating very deep, melodic IDM-twinged music. In fact this is what I said in this very publication two years ago about his album Blueprints (Shitkatapult, 2017): “The burbling, self-oscillating synths may remind one slightly of vintage Tangerine Dream but the hints of Rephlex Acid Krew sneaking through indicate there’s more modern reasoning in place. There’s deft work in crafting the reverb here, reminiscent of Tonikom and the masters of convolution, Autechre.”
Apparently in the last two years he’s been listening to more Surgeon and deep techno as evidenced by the four on the floor stompers that comprise his new extended player 400 Million Pieces of You for Love Love. And that’s not a bad thing.
“P1 Tek 2 Neu Anfang” opens with a 303 style swelling, stinging bass over 808-style kick drum and claps to propel your heartbeat into shaking your feet. “When We Were Young” throbs into view with looped samples, kick drum and synth bleats, swirling and blending into a mix of wild and divergent sound—bell-tones and synth squelch give it a unique twist on what could otherwise be familiar and cliched terrain. Banging kick and claps cements “Elektronisch For Pleasure” in dark terrain with muted bells and burbling, arpeggiated synth bass as it rambles through a land of brutish arrangements and constructions. “P1 Voltage 2 Repeater” is a quieter banger, with gentler drums though no less frenetic a tempo, which wields 303 style synth and bass into a mix at once cerebral and organic. Four tracks seemingly destined for the darker dance-floors while giving the casual listener a bit more to chew on than normal.
400 Million Pieces of You is available on Love Love.
