Title:
Breakdancing Jellyfish
Label:
Party Time Society
Released:
1st September
Sattva
Ananda is someone I know relatively little about, other than he hails
from Sante Fe and is one half of Chase The Lazer, along with Amani
Friend of the Desert Dwellers. With the promotional literature
describing this E.P. as the darker side of temple bass and having
nothing to lose except time I didn't see any reason not to have a
listen.
The
release begins with the title (which I found quite appealing in
it's own right) track. The piece itself doesn't include any acoustics and
didn't strike me as eastern at all really. I found it more like
instrumental 80's european synth-pop squeezed through a mangle along
with some bass. It's different but still it's downtempo and not
unpleasant to the ear.
This
is followed by 'Honig' which is more psy orientated than the opening
track with a trip-hop'ish vocal that is released in spurts and toyed
with on route. For me they seemed like two entities that didn't
really connect until the latter half of the track but I also suspect
that may have been the intention?
Two
tracks in and I was feeling like I wasn't really getting 100% behind
this release but 'Counter Swerve' rescued my interest somewhat. It's
a down-tempo bass affair, balancing gritty and heavenly sounds with a
drive behind it, that would work well to entice headnodders on to the
dancefloor early doors. This is followed by 'Counter Counter Swerve'
which drops the bass to a even lower frequency and starts with a
more chilled atmosphere. However, it's not long before this version
gets gritty and lo and behold the eastern percussion arrives.
This
combo is continued with 'Chiznickens' which starts with an ambient
atmosphere before dropping a phat bass and a soothing female vocal. This is
the most eastern orientated track so far and layers more and more
sounds the deeper you dive into the track. Yet still maintains the
ambient atmosphere in the background. I can see this one being a
grower.
The
final track 'Reflections' travels even further to the east with
Arabic lyrics and dubbed out sitar strings which seem to transcend
out into the ether. The temple has definitely connected with the bass
and sees the album out in a chilled fashion.
Review
by Woodzee
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