Artist:
DF Tram
Album:
Serenitay Infinity
Label:
Liquid Sound Design
Released:
24th of August
Dylan
Yanez A.K.A. DF Tram is a D.J./Producer from San Francisco who has
recently relocated to Malta. His D.J. sets combine a selection of
crate digging rarities ranging fromambient, jazz and world music,
which are infused with sampled dialogue from film, documentaries,
adverts and cartoons. He goes further at times playing alongside film
clips in what he calls a Movie Mix. His first album ‘Illegal Lingo’
was released on Subatomic UK and reflected the style of his mixes
somewhat and also had a slightly different feel to the other sunset
Balearic releases of that label. Dylan has made no secret that he is
overjoyed that this release, which he produced in San Francisco was
then mastered by Youth with re-mixes from his musical hero’s the
Orb and the Irresistible Force. There are also vocal inclusions from
Coppe Sweetrice (who appeared on Illegal Lingo) and Lina Fouro, piano
from Clifford Borg and bass from Youth himself.
Now
to get to the nitty gritty what is the new album like? The opener
‘Lounge Lagarto’ begins like a TV show and quickly moves into a
dub fusion of the Middle East bazaar, which sounds like it could be
plucked from an old movie rather than a newly produced piece. The
track is over-layered with short samples of duck hunting and horse
riding, which may not appeal to some depending on your stance of the
subject matter. This is followed by the Orb’s Bravo Foxhole re-mix
of ‘Lovers Radio’, which begins beatless and very much in the
style of the early 90’s ambient dub, eventually a plodding four by
four bassline is utilised alongside a vocal sample that I imagine
relates to the bunkers used in the Vietnam war. Next up is the title
track ‘Serenitay Infinity’ a slow burner overlapped with poetry,
that you could imagine springing up in a beatnik bar of 60’s San
Francisco. ‘Eagles Shield’ takes a funky turn, filled with
samples and orchestral sounds that remind me of old movies, that is
bridged with more of a country music feel. This would fit easily
alongside releases from Coldcut or the Jurassic 5.
The
album takes another turn with ‘A Thousand Knives’, where gentle
piano leads to distorted vocals that provide a slight 80’s New
Romantic undertone, before sampled psychedelic themed dialogue and a
dubbier bassline join the throng. This is followed by ‘Body Fizz’
which again has an ambient dub feel, where the samples sound like
they have been plucked from a story not too dissimilar to Alice in
Wonderland and the vocals have an early 70’s pop feel. The album
then moves on to ‘Stellar by Starlight’ the title employed to a
movie mix, recently aired in Malta and this years Bestival in the
U.K. The piece itself is very ambient accompanied by faint harmonic
voices from Coppe which rise and fall in a gentle sleepy manner. The
mood then gets initially darker on ‘Honeycomb where a deep dark
bass gets us underway with vocal samples, before lighter tones
juxtapose and sultry half spoken vocals and vocoder voices (initially
reminiscent of Newcleus) are employed. Which are possibly a
combination of Coppe and Lina?
The
album continues once again with Beatnik like poetry, distorted fx,
old Arcade game sounds and half sung vocals on ‘Broken’. While
‘Dawn is Breaking’ another slow burner which begins with lush
analogue sounding synths and vocal dialogue samples, the track builds
into something reminiscent of classic Tangerine Dream before calming
once more. The final track of the album is the Irresistible Force
re-mix of ‘Sandcastles’, a haunting piece of synthesized ambience
which once again initially has a somewhat retro feel to it (in this
case Berlin School) before the beat comes in and it morphs into a
dubbier affair.
To
summarise I’ve always found Dylan’s mixes to be a creative
journey and this album reflects that more so than ‘Illegal Lingo’
the change of label may also open his productions to a whole new
audience. Admittedly with it’s wider palette of sounds it may not
appeal to those who strictly love the dub reggae but it’s
definitely dubby and definitely psychedelic. I for one would
certainly bag this for my collection.
Review
by Woodzee
This
album is available to pre-order via Liquid Sound Designs bandcamp
page
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