(01.19.05) This one caught my ear. Glitchy, granulated, techno-ee bumps and jumps
from Switzerland’s Spezial Material label.
“DRO” starts the album out dubby and echoed to all hell before a Phoenecia splurb-blap of drum tins away at the heavy Basic Channel atmosphere –drones rise up like
orchestras and slightly ruins the song for me sounding remarkably unrelated to the just amazing splatter klick of the opening number. Simplicity would have kept this track from running dry, dieing out in a drone of downtempo grumbles that do nothing to keep up the brilliance of the opening. “Mixed Media” reminds a little of braindance, it’s naivety and basic Commodore 64 soundtrack meets up with a dubbed-out horn section that really blends quite well, creating a smoky joint in an 8-bit dive –it breathes out a husky breath of exhaustion as if grade schoolers were trying to make a Bogart/Bacall picture then builds up into a rather good video-game soundtrack. “Turbo Daily” lets the bass build a little, giving you a hint of the melody before crunched drums beat industrial rhythms and an 80s thing well –I hate to keep using builds, but things build on this album, and this one could be a rave theme if its melancholy didn’t destroy the tune into a thoughtfulness that makes it more memorable.
“Kitchenstew” is the ambient track required by all Baked Goods produced and distributed labels to be on the album –this track rips hard on Aphex’s originals while standing a notch below now 10 year old standards, but at least it’s got soul, breaking into an electro bass stand in. “Hacki,” yet again, borrows from Aphex –in fact the strings may as well have been sampled from “Hangable Auto-Bulb,” but again Solotempo builds and he builds and you come out with a different track than the start. “Gefuden” hints at an Autechre/Aphex blend, then builds up into something good again. “Closer Xilo” is quite interesting –its frequencies are skewed with no real direction –and it sounds like he may have sampled Aphex’s Selected Ambient Works (Warp) on this one.
So basically 3 tracks that can be called Solotempo’s own and four Aphex huggers that I’m hoping are old.
OCD:TEN is out now on Spezial Material.
