It's not been as tricky this time, I seem to have managed to catch some stuff way in advance so it means I'm not scrambling for options this time. Quite a techy edge to it this time, but I think it's come together semi-naturally from other things that just missed the cut last time. Starting with another alias of Gerald Donald with Arpanet - as both names suggest it's quite high tech electro stuff, albeit in that early 2000's way. It can get a little long in the tooth at times (but I feel that way about a lot of Donald's other work as well), but the moments where it shines are very bright indeed. Album opener The Analyst waxes philosophical about technology in text to speech tones - some still relevant, the extended parts about 'wireless information transfer' with lines like 'people can now transmit electronic mail (...) from their mobile cell phones' not so much. It's a great mood setter for sure, but the real highlight comes in track 2 - Illuminated Displays, an encapsulation of my favourite of Donald's styles, and the perfect soundtrack to the far off year of 2002.
In a similar kind of vein we have Versalife. Recommended to me because I've really liked the stuff that Convextion has put out under the E.R.P. alias - that kind of spacey techno slash electro type of deal (and bonus points for what is I assume a Deus Ex reference in the name). I initially wanted to start with his debut album but opted for an EP instead - easier to digest that way I thought. And I wasn't disappointed as Night Time Activities Pt. I starts incredibly strongly with Solenoids Of Insomnia, and it would have probably been the track I chose for this post but it has strong competition from the one I actually did pick in Tales Of The Unexpected (or Tales From the unexpected if you're going by what's actually on the vinyl sticker). If you're at all like me and are a big fan of the E.R.P. I've posted before, you'll find yourself in familiar territory here: I'm going to echo something I read about E.R.P's work here: it's all real atmospheric techy stuff - I keep feeling like this one reminds me a little of the more downtempo bits on Aphex Twin's Analord series, though not quite as acidic. I'm liking it a whole lot, it seems like my requests of posts past for more things in this style have been answered.
Another tale from my "Wishlist for later, sounds cool" trips is LNS' Recons One - volume 2 is slightly puzzlingly missing from her Bandcamp but there's plenty there to get stuck into as-is. Speaking of puzzling, her releases make ample use of the now-defunct Bullfrog Productions logo, which I'm very familiar with from my younger days, but enough of that, let's talk about the tunes. I wasn't sure how to feel about the title track at first, the beat was good but I wasn't sure where it was going to go, when that first stab at 0:14 took me by surprise in the best way. It builds upon that solid base as it goes on naturally, but I think those stabs may still be my favourite thing about this one. It's a lot less space-y than my previous two picks, much more bouncy and... well, kinda funky to an extent - it reminds me quite a bit of the instrumental DMX Krew cuts in places, but not as out and out funk as those from DMX. I'm a couple of years late on this one, but I'm looking forward to diving into the rest of LNS' releases and seeing what else she comes out with in the future.
And that'll do it for this time, there is an ADULT. EP I've got lined up as well, but it doesn't quite jive with the others posted above so I'll hang fire on that one for now. As is tradition I could end up picking up a bunch of completley unrelated stuff, only time will tell. It might be a day or so before I actually get around to posting the scoops from this time as I have a busy weekend coming up but I'll try and get it written up and scheduled for some point next week. Until then, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.
-CVF
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