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An interesting CD venturing in triphop land comes to our attention by up-and-coming artists Absorption in their album release which covers a multitude of genres and defines the genre of downtempo music.
Coming forth with yet another interesting review are the artists known as "Absorption" in a 10 track album which is bound to create mixed opinions.
"It’s the brainchild of recent London migrant Peter Beddow. Beddow began recording in 1997, layering samples of vinyl and found sounds into dense, atmospheric compositions. As the songs evolved so did the elements, and he enlisted the help of friends like Bob Green (the Grassy Knoll) on bass, David Revelli (the Grassy Knoll, Jewel) and Matt Knoth (All Wrecked Up) on guitar. The music is a complete hybrid of sounds, with sampled drums sitting alongside live, obscure vinyl loops giving way to swirling atmospheres, and soupy guitar textures coexisting with post-rock noise."
Tracklist:
1. Golden Age
2. Dodgy Meat
3. Dead Slow
4. Thieves are Operating
5. Article 5
6. Strike Softly
7. Spirited Suicide
8. Dialled
9. SN109
10. 4000x the Mass of the Sun
Beginning with some electro feverish guitars and downtempo beats is Golden Age a marvelous opening track which puts you into subliminal territory with its ambient scapes and funked up electric guitars which puts in a gleaming chillout track for those drunk evenings out and about in the car or at home. Immediately attracting to the album and I just thought.. "if the rest of the CD is like this then we have something going here"..
Coming up next is Dodgy Meat. For those of you not familiar with the term dodgy, it's Brit slang for weird, or abnormal, so I guess we got ourselves an interesting track name here. More of the same stuff we heard from Golden Age but this time its darker, with the tempo slowed a notch and some eerie male vocals haunting us from the background. Although a bit slow to start off, the latter portion pushes the rhythm higher and it can be related to watching the sun rise on beach with a bottle of vodka next to you.
Dead Slow is almost what you expect it to be... dead slow.. but it doesn't come in as a boring piece; just a rather neutral, sublime, 4-4 beatesque chilled beats journey into space. Quite an eerie track to listen to for close to 7 minutes and it just might bore some listeners after a few goes, but its darking haunting melodies make it a nice one with a couple of friends a few drinks.
The next track Thieves are Operating is very movie soundtrack material from an old thriller like "The Italian Job" or something similar whereby the suspense and funk this track brings forward is definitely an interesting sound. To me, the title is perfect for the track and if you can't picture what I mean, you'll have to listen to it yourself....
As we near the midway point of the album, the tone changes slightly in different track filled with sounds of an industrial neighbourhood and stormy weather.. Probably not the best descriptions, but this emotive track is both euphoric and dark at the same time, creating a bigroom atmosphere to be enjoyed at 3am as the night is only halfway through. The atypical guitars are still present, as are the beats, and to be honest, I think this one is a take it or drop it track. Some of you will not like it at all, whereas others will dig the atmospheric vibes.
Strike Softly comes in as the 6th track, and is probably the one which tops my least favourites least on the album so far. Not entirely sure what the vibe of this track and it strikes me as being confusing and without direction with a melody which is quietly irritating...
Before listening to Spiritual Suicide I was already expecting something of a loopy, hypnotic musical journey just by looking at the title, and that is exactly what I got... A flavoured and dynamic track which is one of the more "active" ones of the album is definitely hypnotic, and even almost psychaedlic in its own way with Tibetan-like backing sounds present throughout the production.
Perhaps the most downtempo track so far is Dialled, which doesn't sum up to much, with the exception of a lucid melody and a little bass which is similar in style to that of Bent, Aim or something like a downtempo James Holden, with an added flair to it.
I'm not sure what Sn109 refers to as a title, but I thought perhaps it was what they denoted submarines in the Navy. I say that because of the almost aquatic sound which this track starts out with. Not a bad sound, but the vocals which come in don't particularly go well with the track. An eerie, distorted male chanting which sounds mildly intoxicating would be better of taken out of the track as it.
And finally, we reach the final production, one which draws upon chilling subliminal sounds, triphop and rock in an eerie journey within 4000x the Mass of the Sun. A little of 3 minutes long, I think this track sums up the album as a whole. The different influences within trip hop, rock, ambient, chillout and breakbeat are present within the track and the darkness which I have experienced throughout the album along with it.
You may be wondering why I referred to drinks, or alcohol in numerous tracks, but in reality, this CD really does give that nice chilled out vibe, and is undeniably perfect to chill to. Definitely not dance material, unless beats is your kind of thing to dance to.
Definitely something which I would fit under "Electronica" or "Trip Hop", this is a classic piece in the space of Massive Attack, Portishead and Bent, or a combination of the 3. An interesting album to listen to and I highly recommend it if you enjoy chilling with your friends during the early hours of the morning or just having a light party at home.
7/10
Sixty One Sixty Eight Records
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