Wednesday, 18 March 2015

Subaqueous 'Re:Create' Review


Artist: Subaqueous


Title: Re:Create


Label: Merkaba Music


Released: 24th March





As the title suggests this release is a collection of re-mixes from the album 'Tides of Twilight' released late last year. The original release was a melting pot of down-tempo ambience, dub & global grooves and the artists (many of which I'm unfamiliar with) on-board this project further compliment those vibes.

The album open's with Yaima's take on 'Dusk's Dawning' which provides a low frequency ethnic dub-step background contrasting with the light airy female vocals. This is followed by Bogtrotters re-rub of 'Voyage' which again contrasts the light and the heavy in a unique style he calls 'Swamp-Step'.

The Moonfrog re-mix of 'Glimmers' was a bonus track on the original album and thoroughly deserves it's place here as it's a lovely laid back affair with plenty of chimes, flutes and classical strings. 'Subconcious' on the other hand take the similarities of 'Depth of Field' into the realms of bass heavy dub-step. 

Guda fuses ethnic tribal rhythms and tablas alongside reggae and glitchy dub-step with 'The Dissolve'. Whilst Drumspyder's Arabic electronica once again injects a mystic blend of tribal rhythms and strings employing the usual Dharbuka's and Oud to 'Insistent Shades' with impressive results. 

Anchor Hill take an instrumental approach with their version of 'Dusks Dawning' and it's a bit of gem with eastern flutes, harmonica' stabs and guitars layered amongst the sparse bass-heavy contrasts. While Kozmo get real gritty with their low-frequency dub-step growler of 'Phase Shift' 

Skytree has a unique take on 'Voyager' it's almost as if they've ripped it up and glued it back together at times glitchy and others like psychedelic smooth Jazz. HANNAH complete's the trio of 'Dusk's Dawning' re-works on the album which focuses more on the melancholic strings than the previous two. Which provides a slowed down Gypsy feel to the piece. 

Finally Entheo see us out with another version of 'Glimmers' which initially toys with the vocal before releasing it and the result provides a combination of acoustic-pop and sun-soaked electronica.

Overall I enjoyed listening to this release which injects a fresh feel to the more arm-chair orientated original and although theirs a certainly elements of chill remaining overall there's a tad more bass and growl implemented.

Review by Woodzee.

Links …


https://subaqueous.bandcamp.com/album/recreate


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