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recent reviews
Golden Cap / Gavvers - and Adaptogen |
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| Dids is a mainstay of underground London and as gagarin makes strange and fascinating ambience. Golden Cap is like a strangely 80s vision of the future. Gavvers is a dubbier, moodier piece - huge talent. MIXMAG Very tranquil, atmospheric, great for having a bath to when on repeat… SUBBA CULTCHA - UK Warm, minimal and despite quite intense beats, quite ambient – there are two remixes here – One track is rather dark, the other friendly and open – somehow he manages to make the music sound live and played rather than programmed. Beautiful music. De BUG (Ger) circ.42000 A great pleasure for listeners looking to understand dreams. RAVELINE GERMANY " Two new tracks of languid and sinouos melodic electronica - Golden Cap finds a way of chasing romantic and velvety idm dreams. Gavvers bends and twists the surface of silicon without ever losing its melodic way" ROCKERILLA - ITALY |
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| Golden Cap / Gavvers - Beware ominous synthetic clouds rising wraithlike over London. This fine slab of electronica sees Gagarin forging impressive alien vistas on GC , unveiling hints of Clint Mansells claustrophobic soundtrack work or maybe sections of Skinny Puppy's classic Last Rights. On the flip Gavvers really brings home the bacon with its jittery Autechre/ Lexaunculpt rhythms and textures which morph into plaintive melodic waves. Impressive stuff. RECORD COLLECTOR Following the 7” reviewed last month in the vinyl section, here is the new album of Graham Dowdall aka Gagarin, “Adaptogen”. Ten tracks, of which two of them are found on the 7", fifty minutes of mellow and sinuous electronica. The opener Golden Cap remains the best example of the english synthesist’s art “ a velvety tapestry of romantic idm inlaid with spartan yet effective rhythms. Sensory grids not too far from those of home grown Port Royal. Chill out music in the best sense of the word as imagined by Dr Alex Paterson when at the end of the 80’s was creating ambinet-house mixing Detroit records with those of the Berlin’s school heroes. ROCKERILLA ITALY Alone , the fact that Gagarin has a musical history of working with the likes of John Cale, pere Ubu, Nico should say something. Together with a current day job which involves working with youth in London especially with various Grime Crews shows a life dedicated to music. Little wonder then that his own tracks are experimental and take their own path. In the absence of better terms you could say the starting point for Adatptogen here is classic IDM of the last decade but nevertheless individualised with elegiac width and rhythmic non-conformity. Harsh synths meet only occasssionally repetitive beats which are always clear and uncluttered. His structural openness is combined with a raw and sharp-edged sound design A very serious but nevertheless charming album full of nostalia and contemplation. GROOVE - GERMANY Less orientted to beats than pure space, this moves like late period Deuter or something, with Darth Vader breath-tube overlays. Quite chill. THE WIRE Mar 09 Slowly unfolding electronic melodies - an antidote to showy faux-bohemianism, Dids lifetime on the peripheries of the music industry has been entirely undeliberate and unseflconscious.. But he is no awkward avant-gardist : his solo electronic albums as Gagarin have a rare and solemn beauty. Adaptogen occupies a territory somewhere between Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack, Aphex Twin at his most breathlessly lovely and Arthur Russells meditative mood pieces - but with a shadowy threat all of its own. You cant get more compelling proof of the benefits of maturity and hard won experience. THE WORD Adaptogen sees Dowball pushing further into vast atmospheric landscapes, creating peaceful and elegant sequences where gossamer melodies are wrapped in warm and vaporous electronic waves rippled by arid rhythmic patterns and obscure infra-bass. But his music is not all pretty appearance and no substance. Behind the elegant facades and gentle melodic flourishes hide deeper undertones which resonate through the whole album, in various forms, from the highly polished gloss of opening track Phormium or, later, Gavvers to the almost urban angle of ‘Den Bosch or Fila and the gritty glitch textures of Aconite. It is however with the much smoother and ethereal Ab Plas that the album reaches its peak. The piece originally appears lost in the meanders of shapeless ambient, but when the disparate analogue sound waves gather, the track is suddenly bathed in bright warm lights and becomes for a moment a vivid kaleidoscope of contrasting hues. A fine piece of modern atmospheric electronica. THE MILK FACTORY |
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