El Guincho (photo: Oliver Faig)
This week's column has no explicit theme, but there might be an implicit one: all five of these albums explore what happens when you combine traditional acoustic and electric instruments with electronic processing and production. Three of them make heavy use of vocals. Four are new, another is a decade old, and one of them sounds way older -- in a good way.
El Guincho, "Antillas" remixes: EP1 and EP2
El Guincho's music is so full of energy and ideas, it's often hard to believe that it's the work of a single artist: listening to his 2008 debut, Alegranza, feels like standing on a hilltop equidistant from three or four different stages at a world music fest, with soca, Afropop, tropicalia and psychedelic rock swirling in the air and shifting with the winds. Now the Spanish musician has reissued "Antillas," one of the album's standout tracks, to a diverse crew of remixers who take his ideas even farther afield. Most of them stay true to the sunny-day spirit of the original, homing in on Highlife-inspired guitars and delirious, Animal Collective-styled chants. Spank Rock's XXXchange comes up with a dazzling slab of Technicolor exuberance in the spirit of DFA or Carl Craig. Norway's Prins Thomas, a master of hypnotic disco, seems to have come across a few of the helium-fueled balloons that once floated above the floor of David Mancuso's Loft; full of bluegrass guitar and manic hand claps, it's as unstoppable as a five-year-old's birthday party. Cee, of Germany's dub outfit Al-Haca, takes the opposite approach, layering atonal voices over quavering bass and stripped-down percussion halfway between dubstep and the bleakest techno: it's "Antillas" all right, but as heard from the other end of a black hole.
Lusine, A Certain Distance
Built upon a bed of Seattle producer Lusine's typically fine-tooled rhythms, A Certain Distance indulges a jones for lushness with enveloping synths, acoustic samples and quietly dazzling vocals, layered and processed to spine-tingling effect. Downbeat in mood, the tracks sparkle with unusual clarity. There's no blur in Lusine's ultra-HD world. The easygoing "Twilight" projects singer Vilja Larjosto's supple voice as if through a prism, throwing rainbows in its wake, and "Two Dots" is even more colorful, with Larjosto's multitracked vocals fluttering like pennants stretched to the horizon. The album's out on Ghostly, which only makes sense: file this one alongside School of Seven Bells' Iamundernodisguise.
Vladislav Delay, Tummaa
Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay, Luomo and Uusitalo) has often alluded to his background as a jazz drummer, and he recently picked up the sticks again for the Moritz von Oswald Trio. He must be making up for lost time with his new album, Tummaa. The rhythms derive from Ripatti's own playing — not on a traditional drum kit, but rather a battery of metal objects and custom percussion instruments — and he's assisted by Lucio Capece playing reeds and Craig Armstrong on piano and Rhodes. The results, torn between dub pulse and arrhythmic flicker, are as immersive as anything he's done to date. Dark and free-spirited, the album draws equally from dubstep and free-improvisers AMM -- a neat trick.
Robin Guthrie, Carousel
I won't pretend that I've followed Robin Guthrie's career post-Cocteau Twins with much diligence (I was surprised, in fact, to find that Rhapsody has five albums by him, both solo and with Harold Budd, plus two EPs). I also won't pretend that he doesn't sound a lot like a version of the Cocteau Twins sans Liz Fraser on Carousel, his new album. But who's complaining? Cotton-candy guitar filigree runs through oodles of reverb -- carried by the Cocteaus' brooding bass and drum interplay, what more could you want? Instrumental or no, these are fully formed songs, not just Frippertronic atmospherics, with generous depth. If you'd have told me these were unearthed sessions from two decades ago, I wouldn't have doubted it. Not that the album sounds dated. Quite the contrary: it only reinforces how singular and enduring Guthrie's supple sound has always been, and remains.
Mr. Scruff, Keep It Unreal (10th Anniversary Analogue Remaster Edition)
You never need an excuse to pull out Mr. Scruff's Keep It Unreal, but we'll give you one anyway. The Mancunian doodler's sampladelic masterpiece turns 10 this fall, and to celebrate the occasion Ninja Tune has released a remastered version of the album complete with eight new tracks. His vintage-leaning, fun-loving cutups haven't aged a day: this is timeless, toe-scuffing funk tailor-made for road trips, picnics and weekends at the beach. (Perfect, in other words, for Rhapsody on your iPhone.)
Built upon a bed of Seattle producer Lusine's typically fine-tooled rhythms, A Certain Distance indulges a jones for lushness with enveloping synths, acoustic samples and quietly dazzling vocals, layered and processed to spine-tingling effect. Downbeat in mood, the tracks sparkle with unusual clarity. There's no blur in Lusine's ultra-HD world. The easygoing "Twilight" projects singer Vilja Larjosto's supple voice as if through a prism, throwing rainbows in its wake, and "Two Dots" is even more colorful, with Larjosto's multitracked vocals fluttering like pennants stretched to the horizon. The album's out on Ghostly, which only makes sense: file this one alongside School of Seven Bells' Iamundernodisguise.
Vladislav Delay, Tummaa
Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay, Luomo and Uusitalo) has often alluded to his background as a jazz drummer, and he recently picked up the sticks again for the Moritz von Oswald Trio. He must be making up for lost time with his new album, Tummaa. The rhythms derive from Ripatti's own playing — not on a traditional drum kit, but rather a battery of metal objects and custom percussion instruments — and he's assisted by Lucio Capece playing reeds and Craig Armstrong on piano and Rhodes. The results, torn between dub pulse and arrhythmic flicker, are as immersive as anything he's done to date. Dark and free-spirited, the album draws equally from dubstep and free-improvisers AMM -- a neat trick.
Robin Guthrie, Carousel
I won't pretend that I've followed Robin Guthrie's career post-Cocteau Twins with much diligence (I was surprised, in fact, to find that Rhapsody has five albums by him, both solo and with Harold Budd, plus two EPs). I also won't pretend that he doesn't sound a lot like a version of the Cocteau Twins sans Liz Fraser on Carousel, his new album. But who's complaining? Cotton-candy guitar filigree runs through oodles of reverb -- carried by the Cocteaus' brooding bass and drum interplay, what more could you want? Instrumental or no, these are fully formed songs, not just Frippertronic atmospherics, with generous depth. If you'd have told me these were unearthed sessions from two decades ago, I wouldn't have doubted it. Not that the album sounds dated. Quite the contrary: it only reinforces how singular and enduring Guthrie's supple sound has always been, and remains.
Mr. Scruff, Keep It Unreal (10th Anniversary Analogue Remaster Edition)
You never need an excuse to pull out Mr. Scruff's Keep It Unreal, but we'll give you one anyway. The Mancunian doodler's sampladelic masterpiece turns 10 this fall, and to celebrate the occasion Ninja Tune has released a remastered version of the album complete with eight new tracks. His vintage-leaning, fun-loving cutups haven't aged a day: this is timeless, toe-scuffing funk tailor-made for road trips, picnics and weekends at the beach. (Perfect, in other words, for Rhapsody on your iPhone.)
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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