Artist:
Douglas Deep
Title:
Cytokinesis
Label:
Self Release
Released:
23rd Sept
Steve
Kelly has been airing his show ‘The Shed Collective’ under the
pseudonym Douglas Deep on Boxfrequency.fm on Monday nights ever since
I joined the station. I’d never got around to listening to the show
and wrongly assumed it was all about Deep House.
I
spoke to Steve at the station meet up at the Hoxton in Shoreditch
earlier this year and he informed me his show wasn’t placing the
focus on Deep House but mostly Electronica, I.D.M, Minimal
& Ambient Techno with influences such as Autchere, Plaid and
Aphex Twin. While earlier his musical background was listening to
metal and hip-hop. In fact his show next Monday focuses on U.K.
hip-hop between the years of 88 to 93.
Since
then I’ve tuned into a couple of shows and found that Steve’s
tastes do cross certain parallels with my own. This release like his
show is a bit of a mixed bag ranging from Ambient Electronica to
Minimal Techno so it partially fits the criteria of this blog.
The
album begins with ‘Don’t Talk About It’ a springy tech number
with the compulsory snares and featuring spoken samples about
electronic music fitting to the title before an old skool sounding
sequence joins in and the piece ticks all the boxes required. The
following track ‘Andyou’ drops the mood with ambient synth voices
and short cropped vocal samples layered over crisp I.D.M. style
beats again there’s somewhat of a retro feel.
The
title piece ‘Cytokinesis’ begins with a melancholic piano but
lifts the pace slightly with the beat. Whilst dropping little samples
and fx throughout and the overall the accumulated sound works for me.
Following on is ‘Fortunate’ a minimal techno number I don’t
really review this type of music and confess I don’t really know
where to start. All I can say is although this may not be on the play
lists of the superstar D.J.’s, However, I do hear plenty of this music, it has
the right bounce and wouldn’t go amiss in the sets my friends play.
Moving
on the next piece ‘Titan Juice’ begins with an atmospheric field
recording of background chatter (possibly recorded in a vape store),
to me the volume of the chatter was a tad high compared to the music
but the overall mood works well and soon after a beat is employed to
accompany the track. This is followed by ‘Fathers Day’ which
begins with a fusion atmospheric synths, a low volume wub and crisp
beats. Angelic voices, minimal piano and a sample of a child
announcing ‘electronic music’ join the assemblage.
Heading
towards the close of the album ‘Plastic’ begins in a soothing
ambient electronica fashion and is soon accompanied by a trip-hop
style beat. Rather than continuing to glide downwards to conclude the
album the pace lifts again with ‘Your Mum’ which reminds me
somewhat of early Underworld.
I
have no idea how long Steve has been making music but he’s putting
together some reasonably good replications of the music he loves and
inputs a bit of retro feel to his productions at times. Furthermore
it’s a snip at only £4 so there’s nothing to lose in having a
listen.
Reviewed
by Woodzee
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