Slowdive "Kisses (Remixes)" (2024)

The highlight of last years Everything Is Alive was undoubtedly Kisses! A warm, dreamy track, serine and blissful in its innocent Shoegazing goodness. This EP stitches on three similar length remixes. Surprisingly, they do a decent job furthering the magic of this song. An opening electronic mix trades in walls of Ethereal noise for classic sine wave pulses, a stripped back rendition adding retro flare to the music.

Daniel Avery's remix drops in a pacey Drumstep loop to energize the temperament with stealthy Liquid Drum & Bass vibes. Additional glazier synths accompany too, replacing vocals for the songs later half. A collaboration with Ambient legends Grouper claims the highlight. Dialing up its rumbling ambiguities and retreating percussion entirely, the music becomes washed up in a haze of reverberating clouds.

Ending with the original composition affirms its excellence. Somehow spinning this over a handful of times doesn't tire such a beautiful song. Totally worth a listen if you vibed with it in any capacity. I would however critique a lack of daring to stride in search of new terrain. These remixes played it safe and straightforward, which works.

Rating: 3/10

Enter Shikari "A Kiss For The Whole World" (2023)

 

Two decades have passed since Enter Shikari made waves playing in our local music scene. With an unwavering resilience, they retain a relevancy that took me by surprise, having grown comfortable in the silent interval between records. Re-arranging their youthful character once again, Shikari still have the bite to hook, line and sink one into their party-like carnival Rock-Electronic realm again. With fond familiarity and spicy seasoning, A Kiss For The Whole World blazes by this listener in a whirl of engrossing charisma. Topically flourishing, their restless offerings come woven with compassion and hope, matured out of once angered social political lyrics.

This positivity emanates instrumentally, made starkly apparent by Rou Reynolds' passionate pleas, warm wisdoms and mellow metaphors. Practically every song has an infectious hook, his catchy wordings deliver hope and uplift, arriving on a flush of creativity. Its fun, engaging, refreshing and keeps once locked in with its nimble stride as these apt thirty three minutes sprint by with every moment revealing its purpose.

Their pop sensibilities have matured to a level of class, leveraging the appeal of popular musics most gratifying structures against the rampant creativity of their eclectic musical pallet. Echo's from the web of early 90s electronica still loom boldly, most keenly The Prodigy. Some moments just cant escape their legacy. Shikari are further forging their signature sound, yet not exactly advancing on new territory.

This record signifies a peak in the assembly of Metal tinged Rock, echoing Hardcore. Club music, Drum & Bass weave their aesthetics and components dynamically. Splashes of classic instrumens align with a keen cheek and cheer. Playing a role for narrative and direction to blossom. In short, everything they have done before, successfully re-emerging on a creative high for fans new and old to be taken away by. With each of my many spins I wonder if the cracks will appear. Despite having favorites among the crowd, it plays wonderfully as a complete experience.

Rating: 8/10

Pop Will Eat Itself "The Looks Or The Lifestyle" (1993)

 

I think I've developed a mildly amusing "love hate relationship" with Pop Will Eat Itself! I'm undoubtedly leaning on the love side however their "of the era" occasionally sours. It often depends on the mood. This Is The Day struck the perfect stride of nostalgia, a wild crossover that nailed early Hip Hop and the shape of Metal at the time. Since then, they have not stuck in one place stylistically. Its been hit and miss, The Looks Or The Lifestyle seems like a response to the emergence of Grunge as an update in band chemistry has prominent distortion guitars on almost every track of the album.

Continuing on with the 90s Dance and Electronic scene sounds, the group find a more consistent fusion with grungy guitars, lively percussive breaks and an injection of electronic instruments reflecting the era. Its bold and unabashedly 90s, often a little cringe in its early shout raps, the British accents sung strong. The record rolls out with a strong string of tracks, pumping drums charge forth, a wall of samples and synths thrive between dynamic guitars and powerful baselines. It leads into their most popular charting song, known as Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies!

Performed by stabbing melodic drum synths hits, its main melody is a turn off in an otherwise decent track. I think its theme that births it success, essentially riffing on tropes from the perspectives of a movie character. The album starts to diversify after. Guitar tones get shaken up. The sampling and synths reach into new territory, arriving at Urban Futuristic. Its a hard hitting mash up of early Drum n Bass, Thrash Metal and bizarre cheesy synth tones. What it lacks for in classic it makes up for in ambition!

Its this string of gutsy tracks, fun experimentation and bold crossovers that get the thumbs up from me. After them, the final four cuts stagnate in quality, drifting into the tired and dated. It feels intentional that the best material is front loaded. Left a little soured, they exaggerate the cheese its great songwriting diverted early on. With just one record left before their split in 1996, it will be a sound place to conclude the journey having been fed to full on this reflective nostalgia exploration.

Rating: 6/10

Arks "Twins / Interface" (2018)

I was searching for the new Tesseract album but happily stumbled onto a record label based in the UK, distributing Drum N Bass music and just the sort I like! There is little to known of Arks but this two track release delves into the atmospheric side of the genre, dabbling with ambiguous spacial, glitched and industrial noises between the hard mechanical jive of the fast tempo beats. It comes together with an astral vibe fit for the mysterious night sky and all the wonder the stars may evoke, however it leans into the cold and heartless reality of the vast voids between sytems.

 Both songs are structured similarly. A hard backbone of tight crunching drum loops pop and snap on repetition as they set a cruising pace for an assortment of sampling to flavor the scene. Between the two a stiff baseline rumbles and both songs go through phases of build up, then dropping out the drums in the mid section to bring it back with the same set of accompanying samples. It ultimately feels rather linear and one dimensional with a lack of flair or oomph on its return to the main structure.

Its atmosphere building samples are devoid of melody. Shimmering noises flicker in and out of existence in a web of intricate sounds with an industrial edge, the likes of glass smashing and mechanical clicks and clanks, sparks and zaps paint the picture of foreign technologies. The main sounds are warping, morphing synths that rattle like a voice and on occasions sound similar to Dubstep wobbles. Its a decent pallet and approach for the vision it encompasses but with just two songs the repetition is a little nauseous. Great music, would prefer to enjoy it in a longer session of tracks.

Rating: 4/10

The Future Sound Of London "Lifeforms" (1994)

Sent to me from a twitter follower I fired up this record on youtube and ever so swiftly did this one reveal its brilliance. As on the first listen and many follow ups I was captivated by such an organic and spiritual musical experience. "Lifeforms" is a gem, a strange oddity of experimentation that abstracts the norm and unites the beyond with the now as if on a psychedelic drug trip, reaching into the limits of the mind. Perhaps its not totally "out there", or anything to blow your mind but given the context of 1994 this record is well ahead of its time, mixing all sorts of sounds into a fluid unravel of imaginative beauty for your soul to explore.

This is one of those records to experience yourself. There are some steadier moments where chilled out, down tempo beats providing a familiar rhythmic setting to nod along to, however its charm lies in a continually evolving tapestry of unusual samples and wandering instruments that find a mesmerizing chemistry in unusual places. Even room for a lofty, dreamy sample of "Cannon In D Major" to drift into the subconscious. At 90 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome, but continually finds new territory and sound to move through, it could of easily gone on for longer.

Almost every moment on this record is fantastic and there are two moments in particular I'm fond of. As one might guess there is black and harrowing track that delves into dark down tempo ambience with shadowy shimmering synths, cryptic distorted voices and rippling sirens in the distances. It evolves into a short lived steady beat that grooves with an evil menace. In contrast "Dead Skin Cells" brightens the mood with with unusual alien sounds juxtaposed against birds tweeting in the distance while a laid back beat drifts on by. Much of the record ebbs and flows at its own pace, through one oddity after another. A truly riveting experience, one I will continue to dive into as time goes by.

Favorite Songs: Dead Skin Cells, Domain, Spineless Jelly, Vertical Pig

Rating: 8/10

Enter Shikari "The Mindsweep Hospitalised" (2015)

Remix albums are rarely a favorable listening choice for me. Seeing one of my favorite records of 2015 remixed, "The Mindsweep", I didn't get particularly excited. Enter Shikari have always filled there discography with EPs, remix records and mini albums that rarely have more to offer than the full lengths. With strong electronic influences in their sound its no surprise they turn to a host of different electronic artists to dissect and rebuild their tunes. Drumstep, Dubstep, whatever you want to call it, a few distinctive elements of the Mindsweep songs are reassembled into new entities.

Most of the songs here consist of high fidelity, temperate drum kits hammering away between atypical dance grooves and more intricate arrangements. Decorative synths and un-intrusive melodies fill the void above the thick baselines and occasional dub drops. On there own the songs hold up well, but feel over-shadowed by the deliberate inclusion of samples, mainly vocal, from the main record. It feels like a forceful tie and the memorable lyrics and delivery style of Rou have the originals playing out in the mind. With each listen the better aspects of the record began to show but as a whole this felt like a collection of mediocre Drumstep stitched to the original record with little inspiration. I could of enjoyed this much more without the needless inclusion of sampling to tie it to a great record.

Rating: 4/10

OverClocked ReMix "Doom II Delta-Q-Delta" (2008)

 Here's a record I almost passed over but curiosity got the better of me. "OverClocked ReMix" is an online community of musicians who re-imagine the soundtracks of computer games in their own vision. Despite hearing nothing but praise it didn't appeal to me much, but how foolish could I of been? I picked out the Doom soundtracks since its my favorite game and just after a couple of listens I was sucked in! The vibe and atmosphere was very fitting of the game, and the instrumentals had a level of craft and care similar to the C&C soundtracks composed by Frank Klepacki.

As a community driven record there are many musicians at work here, sometimes collaborating but mostly working on their own, each with a level song to rework. Despite a range of aesthetics and approaches, the record has a strong flow as the themes and mood shift through track to track. Even going from chirpy electronic led tunes to pounding on metallic guitars the record flows well with one exception, "31 Seconds" sounds out of place, its indie guitars, bright pianos leads, light drum kit and voice samples had me thinking I was listening to "Public Service Broadcasting". I thought id messed up my records playlist!

The atmosphere is ripe and the songs stroll through with an ambient quality that has subtle leads, chords and arrangements working around one another a typically soundtrack fashion, letting your attention focus to whatever is at hand while these songs steadily build and grow with a few distinctive melodies and moments cropping up in between. The whole soundtrack is a mash up of styles that has many dynamic components working together. You can hear elements of Metal, Noise, DnB and Big Beat around the predominantly Electronic and Industrial tracks.

The chemistry between these styles is executed with a vision and on "Icon Of Sinewave" we hear samples of our hero and the demons that create a dark and gruesome scene of the game before crashing into the main theme which amplifies the grueling intensity before breaking to an uplifting fast tempo beat that reminded me of being "in the zone" playing Doom. The samples could of featured more but it may have been overkill to do so. This is a fantastic soundtrack that produced a couple of real gems I will be returning to fore times to come.

Favorite Tracks: Westside Archvile, Crushing Headache, Silent Healer, Icon Of Sinewave, Ablaze

Rating: 7/10

Fractal "Luminate" (2013)

Consisting of just three tracks, this short EP from Baltimore based DJ "Fractal" serves as chilled yet energetic amalgamation of styles that pulls from House, Drum & Bass, Dubstep and Ethereal through a dreamy ambient overtone. The tracks "Breath" and "Same Side" have a fluid, dynamic flow, sharing a comparable pallet of airy vocal leads, bright Ethereal synths and a warm robust bass that glues the Dub like snare and kick into the fold. The two share similar leads and melodies, but "Breath" steals the show with its progression and climax to an almighty moment that conveys a stunning, beautiful lead vocal that conjoins with a surreal wave of oozing Ethereal synth and pounding energy from the bass and drums that leaves one feeling unsure if they want to dance or lay down.

The records production has its instruments tightly packed together and competing for volume in a compression heavy mix that is becoming rather commonplace in post-Dubstep electronic music. Its well executed on this record and has the kicks and leads punching through the dreamy wall of synth effectively. The first track "Luminate" is a great example, a song littered with samples, noises and glittery leads that continually pound through the bass lines backing. Its a tight composition of numbers that ends before it gets going and the disappointment, as often with EPs, is the length, a lack of substance, however that can't fault the songs here which are charactered and immersible.

Favorite Track: Breath

Rating: 3/10

Enter Shikari "The Mindsweep" (2015)

For me, Enter Shikari are no normal band. They were once thee band in our local scene, playing at our schools, pubs and clubs we saw this band grow from the back garden to headlining festivals. Back when they were the unsigned hype in the UK we all knew where this band were going, they had heart and charisma, a sound they could call their own and a determination to live out their dream. I have an immense amount of respect for these four friends who started the band while still in school back in 2003. Through relentless touring and commitment to their music they have built a large audience across the world from the ground up with a DIY ethic, creating their own record label to release their music on and touring constantly, playing many clubs and venues across the land. Eight years on from the release of their debut major release Shikari have matured as musicians and this, their fourth, is their most structured and diverse record to date.

The record start of with a familiar feel as Rou gives another rousing speech regarding the state capitalist society and the problems we face with the need for social awareness, the music steadily builds intensity before breaking out into rocking riffs emphasized by sporadic synths and climatic melodic vocal leads. A warm opener for a record that got a lot to offer, Shikari's diverse sound is know for pulling many elements together, Alternative, Rock, Post-Hardcore fused with Techno, Trance, Drum N Bass and even tinges of Dubstep. The group are not afraid utilizing electronic club sounds alongside their traditional instruments. More so than ever we hear a dynamic fusion where the glistening synths and noisy glitch sounds compliment the core of the songs, giving them a rich musical dimension that never falls short to deliver delight. Whether rocking a guitar heavy breakdown, a moving rock ballad or slamming drumstep break, they find cohesion between the diversity of styles and write effortless music which further incorporates raps alongside the scream and clean vocals, even a Symphonic element is present with some soft strings dropping into particular tracks.

The albums production is classy, with so many instruments at working its great to hear them meld effortlessly, aided greatly by the production from Dan Weller of Sikth. Beyond the flush sound, the music itself is positive, upbeat and full of good vibes as the album courses through tracks that focus of the best of their diversities. Each track feels characteristically different from its predecessor and all of them are pack with musical moments you look forward too, whether a melody, riff or hook every song is filled with something to enjoy and despite being such a varied record is flows effortlessly. Its the first time I had listened to them and not yearned for something like the old classics "Sorry Your Not A Winner" etc. Shikari have matured, but here it really came together, firring on all cylinders. There was only one downside to this record, the lyrical content. Not much resonated with me, or even grabbed my attention, but that is no fair critic as words and lyrics often go right through me. Its been great to see the band progress, but here I hear their flame grow strong, a terrific record that sets them on a path for great things.

Favorite Songs: Anesthetist, The Last Garrison, Myopia, The Bank Of England, There's A Price On Your Head

Rating: 9/10

Love Spirals Downwards "Flux" (1998)

Love Spirals Downwards are an America duo from California who produce Ethereal Dream Pop. On this their forth album the duo incorporated Drum N Bass into their sound. What may have seemed an unusual move turned out to be a fruitful endeavor, a work that could be respected and enjoyed by fans of both geners. After writing about LTJ Bukem's "Logical Progression Level 1" I was reminded of this unique record I found a few years back and decided to give it another spin.

What may seem like an experimental fusion of styles turns out to be a dynamic and effortless relationship. Down tempo break loops and bold sub base lines bring an energy to liven up dreamy, Ethereal sound scapes painted by sweeping, jittery synthesizers and reverb soak guitars that compliment and work with Perry's dreamy voice. Her sister even appears on the track "Psyche" which for me was a highlight vocally. Warm synthesizers drift gently through these energetic break loops as slowly strum chords echo out in reverb soaked glory. The track "Sunset Bell" features a great vocal hook with an inaudible snippet of a word being sampled and pitch shifted in a jittery nature, a memorable moment for me.

Neither of the two styles are compromised on this record which has a sizable amount of variety. Each track utilizes different break loops, with the classic Amen Loop finding room for an appearance on "By Your Side" which is a bit out of step with the bass line and pace of the song. Production wise, its warm and charactered. A great balance is achieved as the sound finds its place for both styles to do their thing. The break loops are crisp and bass lines very bold and audible, the Ethereal synths and guitar leads have great cohesion as the reverb soaked instruments melt together under the warm voice of Perry. It just crossed my mind that on first listen this never felt like two styles were being fused together and that itself is testament to this record and a great note to end on.

Favorite Songs: City Moon, Nova, Sunset Bell

Rating: 7/10

LTJ Bukem "Logical Progression Level 1" (1996)

The world of Drum N Bass is one I am not too familiar with, however I am always keen to listen and explore this genre which is an important part of England's musical Heritage. DnB emerged in the early 90s alongside Trip Hop, Jungle & Breakbeat music from the southern parts of the UK where the Rave scene had hit and Electronic music was flourishing. The principle of DnB is in the name, high tempo break beat loops and loud baselines at the forefront of the music, this leaves a lot of room for diversity in style and mood. Following a recommendation from a friend I picked up this lengthy double album which I revisited today.

 This record explores the moodier, ambient side of what is possible. High tempo break loops contrast dreamy, melodic instrumentals, creating a unique energy where the intensity of fast, pulsating loops is fused into loungey, gentle instrumentals that have an almost Jazz Hop feel to them in moments. This transference of energy and bipolar nature is charming and very characteristic of this record which i do believe LTJ Bukem acts as a DJ mixing together his own tracks with others. Even though there is an array of musicians involved the album flows seamlessly from start to end.

The production is class, crisp clean drum loops have room to breath on top of deep moving baselines that groove gently in their own world underneath this bipolar relation between samples and loops. The calming nature of these songs and the high intensity of the break beats give this record room to fit for many moods and overall it feels like a classic record, however my ears are not as experienced in this line of music. On a note, the song "Pharaoh" is "Rings Around Saturn" from Photeks "Form & Function" released 2 years later. Bit of a mystery to me, but DnB is a place where the album is not the primary release format. Great album, loved all 2 hours of it.

Favorite Tracks: Links, Bringing Me Down, Horizons, Pharaoh

Rating: 7/10

Photek "Form & Function" (1998)

I found Photek through the song "Rings Around Saturn". It was the only song featured in a football managing game i used to play, it would spin endlessly as i enjoyed the fantasy of taking my team to the top and winning the league. Maybe through this i have attached some positive emotions to this song, but better yet i think its a masterclass track that never gets dull. Maybe over 10 years had gone by and i would still dream of this song, so one day i decided to dig around and find out who's song this was. With music so easily accessible via YouTube it didn't take me long to track down this album, which comprises of two sides, the first a remix of the second half which i have never particularly enjoyed and have always been a little baffled as to the reasoning behind this, the remixes in my opinion add next to nothing to the original tracks. The second half consisting of 6 unique ambient Drum N Bass tracks.

These songs all follow a similar principle, clean cut drum loops and abstract noises, together they create a chilled atmosphere and memorable hooks despite there being no melodic or vocal leads present. This is music striped down to effect. Tracks like "UFO" & "Rings Around Saturn" inject so much into this minimalist form, magic is born from the intricate workings of drum samples that have been broken down and reformed with exquisite detail and glittery rhythms that drill deep into the mind. The is so much soul and craft on display in Rings, with beautiful abstract sounds resonating in and out of focus, providing such a dreary, trancy ambiance that is heavily contrasted, yet complimented by a ever restless drum sequence. UFO offers up some sublime sub bass drops that guide the drums through some eerie and alien sounds. Theres also a fantastic sample of a person reporting they are seeing flashing lights in the sky that really sets the tone well for this track.

All in all there are some sublime tracks here, but a lack of consistency, with just 6 songs and 6 remixes this one really falls short for me on the album listening experience. Rings Around Saturn is a true masterpiece i will never grow old of but the rest of whats on offer just falls short for me.

Favorite Tracks: Knitevision, Rings Around Saturn, UFO

Rating: 5/10