Radioactive Sandwich 'Mirage Remixed' Review

Artist: Radioactive Sandwich

Title: Mirage Remixed

Label: Self Release

Released: 16^th December

After ten years of fusing global and psychedelic sounds with electronica RS have amassed an ever growing network of fellow producers. So they decided to offer their biggest selling album so far to a number of their friends and rising electronic musicians and this album is the result.

The release begins with a re-mix of 'Into the Desert' by themselves. The piece begins in a drone like manner creating a spacious feel around the accompanying tribal drums. The main body is a heady mix of spacey synth tones and dubbed out bass lines with some haunting interludes setting a good standard for their guests to live up to. Next up is the Space Jesus re-mix of 'A Broken Reality' a stop-start temple bass number which toys with both the harmonious eastern vocal and fx in the obligatory manner to reach the desired effect.

While Audioglider changes the mood and takes 'An Echo is a Shadow of Sound' into the realms of Balearic chill. The piece chugs along nicely between the elongated and beatless vocal breakdown … lovely stuff. The style then switches back again with Essek's  re-work of 'Sullen Choirboy' where dirty dub-step intermittently pokes it's ugly head above a chilled out backdrop.

Kurbeat's take on 'Sigogglin' builds a crescendo early on but jumps ship before the peak toying with the acoustics Balkan and reggae sounds in a twisted yet fluid manner. Whereas Supersillyus delivers a lush slice of psy-dub with his re-work of 'Time Dilation' which in places felt reminiscent of Warp Technique. Once again there's plenty of toying around with the vocal samples and lush harmonies resulting in a sterling version.

The mood switches once again with Skytree and Jake Spikes re-interpretation of 'Bhagwan' a dark carnatic hip-hop fusion with psychedelic, pagan and alien themed lyrics. A combination that rarely fails for me. The album then winds down with the RS duo again on 'Leaving the Desert' an outro of drone like fuzzy low frequency ambience and sparse piano bass notes with distorted prayers.

Pre-order and also receive an exclusive bonus track 'Mirage Remixed (Sliced Up and Slowed Down)'

Reviewed by Woodzee.

Links

https://radioactivesandwich.bandcamp.com/

Radioactive Sandwich "Survival" Review

Artist: Radioactive Sandwich

Release: Survival

Label: Tech Safari Records

Released: 4^th April 2013
Digitally World-wide

This five track single features three new tracks from Radioactive Sandwich with Globular and Tron Sepia on re-mix duties.

The first track “Ex Nihilo” opens up with an infectious hook running over an atmospheric background, just as I began to tire of this as if by magic comes the switch and the mood swings to laid back reggae perfect for the hammock. Here and there they drop a vocal which is lyrically quite dark, flitting between universal conciousness and decay. In fact it even sounds a little like Convenant or VNV Nation attempting reggae. Strange as it may sound it works for me.

'The Storm' commences with slow bass piano chords overshadowing an undercurrent which seems to chug along with a slight sense of urgency. Once again there's a switch signalled by a short choral followed by a psychedelic acid section before it gets really interesting lovely sweeping synths and guitar that transform into twisted Arabia almost seamlessly, before dropping into ambient operatics (your really getting your moneys worth in this track) as it twists and morphs to eventually reach where we started.

Now we move on to 3 variations of 'Icefall'.

The original begins with a combination of choral synths and a broody feel with IDM style beats the groove is lifted taking the piece away from the initial laid back tracks into psy-trance but still maintains a chilled feel in places.

Globular seems to have become pretty popular in the psy scene last year. Which kind of surprised me as he's been around awhile. His 'Thawing Sunshine Mix' has more of a reggae feel to it with plenty of psychedelic twitches and although it's up-tempo in places I have to say I prefer this take.

Last but not least is Tron Sepia's 'Tron Sandwich Re-Mix'. A new name on me and though it's not quite my cup of tea it's certainly a fresh brew. He drags the track into dirty slow stretched bass with bursts of high pitched vocal and releases it back into the realms of psy-trance.

To summarise if you like your psy on the dancefloor and on the sofa, then this is another crazy ride with plenty of variation. Covering just shy of 45 mins of music, which I'm sure you will agree is pretty good value for a single.

Review by Woodzee.

Links:

http://radioactivesandwich.bandcamp.com/

Radioactive Sandwich Interview

Unsatisfied with the cuisine on their home planet, the members of Radioactive Sandwich relocated to Earth and began cooking up some tasty delicacies that they could share and enjoy with the population of their new home. Combining the freshest breaks and bass, along with some psychedelic spices and marinades, Slice One and Slice Two have been serving their morsels for over 9 years, with no end in sight.

Radioactive Sandwich has released 6 albums, a plethora of singles and EPs, and remixes for Tripswitch, DJ Rap, Kelly Sweet, Angelique Kidjo featuring Peter Gabriel, Simon Collins featuring Phil Collins, Chanel, and many more.

1) How did you meet and who were your inspirations to create your style of music?

We met around 2001-2002 through mutual friends. We grew up in the same area, but went to different schools. Julian (Slice Two) had been in metal bands and was writing electronic music on his own for a few years, and Loren (Slice One) had studied classical music and was a bedroom DJ. Eventually, Loren asked Julian to show him what he used to write tunes, and the Sandwich was born from there. This was back in 2004. Julian grew up on metal and industrial, but slowly moved towards more electronic stuff like Hybrid, Shpongle, etc., as he grew older. Loren was a big house and hip-hop fan (along with classical music). We kind of brought all our influences together to create what we have today. 

2) You've re-mixed tracks for a number of artists most notably Angelique Kidjo and Tripswitch. Given the opportunity who would you like to re-mix or work with most?

Julian would die a little bit just to sit in a room with Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). NIN is, by far, his favorite band. Besides that, he'd love to work with Simon Posford, The Mars Volta, and Rodrigo y Gabriela. 

Lore would also like to remix Shpongle, to get some insight into his crazy productions. Other than that, bigger name groups and unique producers like Sigur Ros, Telefon Tel Aviv, Apparat, they all have a unique sound and great production.

3) Could you tell us about your studio set up and are there any particular pieces of hardware or software that you can't live without?

We run very similar studios. We both use FLStudio with all the same plugins and sample libraries. Using FL, we're easily able to compile tracks to send back and forth to each other (we currently live 2 hours away from each other). We're big fans of AudioDamage effects and Native Instrument stuff (Massive, FM8, Absynth, Reaktor).  Our hardware includes a Korg MS2000BR, Nord Lead 3, Virus C, and a bunch of other random bits and pieces. In the end, we definitely couldn't live without FLStudio. For Julian, he LOVES his Kaoss pad collection. He has a KP2 and KP3 chained together that he mounted in a briefcase for use in live shows, though it's slowly been making its way into our tracks. Loren recently moved and had to downsize his studio to a laptop, so working in the box with the Native Instruments synths (Massive, FM8, Reaktor) has been great. They are versatile and easy to use.

4) You have a new E.P. coming out in March what can fans expect from this new release?

Erik (DJ Rikam of Eclipse Music Festival fame) saw us play at Open Mind Festival last summer in Canada and loved our set. He just started a new internet label called Tech Safari Records and asked if we wanted to release something with him. We wrote 3 new tracks for it. The idea behind the release was to go from more organic electronic with the first track (a nice groovy dubby piece), and have the EP build to a much harder and faster more electronic track (a crazy psytrance diddy). Along with that, we have remixes from Globular and Tron Sepia, 2 kick ass artists, to round out the release. Overall, it's going to end up being an exciting ride for listeners. One of the new tracks can currently be heard in our RadiOzora mix we did at the end of 2013 (https://soundcloud.com/radiozora/radioactive-sandwich-xmass)

5) Are you planning to take Radioactive Sandwich on tour this year?

We will be playing 3 shows in February (2 in NYC, 1 in Baltimore), and we are planning on being at Eclipse Festival in Canada near the end of the summer. We are currently looking to get more gigs in North America, as well, so if any readers are booking gigs, feel free to hit us up! 

6) Are there any new artists you think will be making an impact in 2014?

We've found that, in electronic music especially, "new" artists are guys that have been around for a while but are just finally getting their stuff heard more often. Globular and Supersillyus are really starting to get good names for themselves, and we can see them having a pretty big year. While their release came out last year, Darkside is doing some crazy stuff and touring a lot, so they'll probably do some awesome stuff this year, as well. 

LINKS:

www.radioactivesandwich.com

www.soundcloud.com/radioactivesandwich

www.youtube.com/radioactivesandwich

Tripswitch - Deer Park 2012 re-mixes review

Artist: Tripswitch

Release: Deer Park 2012 vol 2 (Chillout Re-mixes)

Label: Section Records

Format: Digital

Release Date: 3rd December 2012





For me Circuit Breaker Re:Wired is a must have album for any fan of electronic chillout music containing the original album and another disc of fabulous re-mixes by quality artists. This is one of those albums where fillers are few and far between but even among the gems there’s one track that is widely considered to shine not only on the album but within the genre itself.

Section records released the parts to “Deer Park” earlier this year and ran a remix competition for followers of the label to bring their creativity to the table and work with one of the Tripswitch favourites.  The winning mix was a down-tempo version from Radioactive Sandwich, but the high quality of the submissions has led to a 2 package(dance and down-tempo) release just in time for Christmas.

I’m going to concentrate on the down-tempo release here (after all we are about dub and chill).

I can see why Radioactive Sandwich’s submission was selected the elongated intro paves the way into a blissfully soothing take on the original peace and despite being slightly reserved on re-mixes of a firm favourite I have to say I really liked this.

Joey Fehranbache follows and keeps a suitable chilled opener with a really nice dub echo on the sounds. The track doesn’t deviate too far from the original while containing some nice melodic fresh input and although the track ticks along nicely for me there’s something lacking which I can put my finger on in comparison to Radioactive Sandwich's mix.

Audioglider start their mix in a darker, moodier direction upon slow firm 808 beats. The more chilled elements seem to bounce against this for a while but I found myself easing into the track along the way. Once again it’s listenable but for me lacking a certain something.

The final mix by Tektribe (a partnership between Ultimae label DJ Nova and ethno-percussionist Antonio Testa, with guitars from Rodolfo Airoldi) really appeals to me and could well have got my vote. This ten minute long journey begins fusing natures elements balanced with wonderfully apt synths, the guys slowly introduce tribal percussions and guitars riffs underneath Natasha Taylor’s exquisite ethereal vocals. Six minutes in and the drums are almost building an undercurrent vibe akin to a tribal house monster whilst still maintaining the chilled atmosphere.

Reviewed by Woodzee