'Seed'
is the brand new single from Kaya Project, featuring Six fresh
remixes by Somatoast, Mindex, Tribone & Liquid Bloom, Pan
Electric, Chaos By Design & Digitalis.
The
original piece is a quirky number comprised of traditional
middle
eastern rhythms and instrumentation counterbalanced
with low-frequency bass, ethnic vocalsand
the inclusion of the clarinet adds
a touch of jazz swing to
the proceedings. Somatoast takes an ambient approach and strips the
piece back, bringing the ethereal backing vocals to the forefront of
his version.
Tribone & Liquid Bloom create a dark brooding atmosphere
initally, but they soon beef up the percussion and bass, whilst
applying fx to the ethnic vocals. Mindex takes a very similar
approach with a dark bass heavy version juxtaposed with the clarinet,
flutes and those ethereal tones.
Seb
puts on his Chaos
by Design hat and teams up with Tribone & Liquid Bloom for a
two-step breakz affair, that switches back and forth between the
light and harmonious and the dark and heavy. Pan Electric on the
other hand utilises the ethereal vocals and melodic strings, adding a
funky bass and organ which takes the piece into a completely
different direction than his predecessors. Seb changes hats once
again this time under his Digitalis pseudonym he slowly drifts
through the clarinet and begins to twist the FX moving to dark and
dirty territories. To conclude there’s a continuous mix for those
who mind the gaps.
1) Firstly thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to talk to us. Could you tell us a little about yourself and when you began your musical education?
I
am a mostly self taught musician and vocalist. I started learning
music, the guitar and singing at secondary school around age 14. I
immediately switched to bass guitar and started playing with the
school band and singing with the school choir.
At
that time (and even now) I learned to play by ear more than by sight.
I joined my first cover band at age 16 and at around age 19, I joined
a band called Oddfellows Local who did mostly original songs and this
was my first experience at writing songs as a bassist and vocalist.
In
mid 1999 I was introduced to a DAW called Fruity Loops (Now called FL
Studio). Before then I used keyboards, 4 track recorders and even 2
cassette recorders to record and produce music. So when I discovered
this DAW it opened a whole new world of musical exploration for me
(especially without the stress of tape hiss). I still use this DAW
today.
I
started a band around 2000 called Atheleny with two very good
friends, a poet and a guitarist, with myself on bass, guitar, vocals
and FL Studio supplying the beats and soundscapes. We self-produced 2
albums.
After
a very amicable split in 2003, I started the Coreysan
solo project in 2004 and have self produced 5 albums from 3
bedrooms and 1 kitchen :) The 5th album is called DeeperThan Skin out on Brighton’s Blind Colourlabel.
2)
You’re originally from Trinidad can you tell us about your musical
influences growing up in the Caribbean?
Besides
being influenced by the wide variety of traditional and hybrid
musical flavours of Trinidad and Tobago, as a Caribbean musician, I
was also inspired by Reggae, Zouk, Caribbean Latin and Dub music. The
unique approach to playing the bass by the various Caribbean styles
of music has always intrigued me as a bassist.
As
a songwriter, the storytelling aspect of Calypso, Kaiso and Extempo
from Trinidad and Tobago is in my blood and it comes out naturally in
my approach to writing songs.
3)
You’re now based in Bristol in the United Kingdom. Can you tell us
how the music scene differs in comparison and how it has influenced
you?
Being
in Bristol has allowed me to explore the deep, sensual and
trance-like elements in making music. I was already listening to
Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead when I was in Trinidad and was
deeply inspired by their sultry, smokey sounds and their usage of
live and electronic instruments.
The
Bristol scene is very different from the scene in Trinidad and Tobago
only because of the larger number of musicians mixing electronic and
live music in Bristol.
4)
As the bassist and backing vocalist for the band Calypso Rose, can
you tell us a little about the band and what you have learnt from the
experience?
I
have been playing with Calypso Rose for about 12 years. I am the only
Trinidadian in the group and the rest of the musicians are all
French. The band is a family and Calypso Rose is our mother. We have
a great time together on and off of the stage.
Playing
with and being around a living legend like Calypso Rose is like being
with a living historical library of my culture and Calypso Music. She
has already done so much and still continues to create and
collaborate at 80 years old. This teaches me that the musical road is
much longer than most people think.
5)
In recent years you have provided vocals on Brighton’s
dub/soul/outernational collective Ink Project,
who have a new album out in early 2021. Could you tell us what to
expect?
Our
forthcoming album ‘Rhythm Spirit’ is a beautiful tapestry of
driving beats, ethereal soundscapes, sultry basslines and enchanting
vocals by myself, Fifi Rong and Yazmyn Hendrix; with some elements of
jazz, trip hop, broken beat, electro, downtempo and chillout expertly
inserted into each song by producer Jez Lloyd.
6)
Your own album ‘Deeper than Skin’ has
just been released. Again can you tell us what to expect?
I
was greatly inspired when I heard Black Coffee and Dengue Dengue
Dengue integrating their traditional music with their electronic
creations. So I feel that on this album, my Caribbean roots are more
present. Subtly but present.
This
inspiration has given the album a more electronic world music feeling
than my previous albums. More rhythmic but still bass-ladden, thought
provoking, smokey and dreamy.
Anyone with any inkling of the
Psy-Chill scene will be aware of Sphongle the down-tempo project of
Simon Posford and Raja Ram. A project that created a cult like
following of their releases and live shows.
Jamie
Grashion A.K.A. Cosmic Trigger is the latest addition to Twisted
Records roster of artists. After working with mulitple artists as an
engineer in Youth’s studio before becoming Simon Posford’s
assistant. After impressing Simon with his work on the Red Rocks tour
in 2019 he offered him the opportunity to re-mix some of their
tracks.
This
selection of six tracks begins with ‘I am You’, where he drops the
spoken word of the original and instead places the focus on an
ambient intro soom accompanied by a guitar loop. Before twisting the fx and bending
the pitch and slowly but surely letting the track loose. At twice
the length of the original it’s an interesting alternative that is extremely well produced. Next up is ‘Nothing is Something Worth
Doing’ and where the original (as the title suggests) was one
suitably designed for listening in a hammock. Jamie flips the coin
adding a vibrancy without adding pace, whilst keeping the elements of
the original.
Moving
on to ‘No Stone Unturned’ while the folk like vocal is dropped
and more up-to-date psychedelic style applied you can still feel the
vibe of the original in the under current. On ‘How the Jellyfish
jumped over the Mountain’ the original chilled intro led to
bubbling fx, a bit of drive and that flamenco break. Here the brakes
are applied and once again creates the polar opposite for the ears of the listener.
There
is no change to this approach with ‘Juggling Molecules’ where the
original started chilled and dropped once again, after the percussive
crescendo. Here the percussion starts from the off, then hits harder
until the finale where it all comes together in a spectacular
fashion. The original ‘Aquatic Garden of Extra-Celestial Delights’
was a slow burner that covered some length. Here your instantly taken
off on a melodic ride that’s highly enjoyable, before it drops
hard, dark and suitably twisted, nothing short of pure excellence.
Laurent Schieber
continues to create his productions in the style of his musical
heroes of the Berlin school of electronic music, utilising the
classic synthesizers sounds of the Moog, Jupiter 8 and Arp Odyssey to
name a few. He also emulates the likes of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine
Dream in the length of pieces with these three tracks covering over
an hour of recording time.
The first piece ‘Experimental’ features sequenced loops very much in the fashion of Tangerine Dream and you’re in for the long haul before those angelic voices make an appearance. There's an equal balance of sequenced loops over lush synth waves the on the second track ‘Float Among the Stars’ which is the shortest of the three at just under 15 minutes. Whilst the brakes are applied to the finale ‘Beyond from the Beyond’ which unfurls little sequences across a lush
ambient undercurrent that rises and falls slowly as the piece
progresses. This is a journey into space that’s in no hurry so sit back and enjoy the sound that Laurent bathes you in.
You could argue
there’s nothing new about this release. However, it’s not meant
to be. It’s simply Laurent’s passion to emulate his heroes that
shines through in his productions. To be honest it’s not far
removed from the current Space Ambient scene, except for the lack of
the four by four basslines often employed.
Taking
a step back from recent forays into Future Garage, Obsqure returns
nearer home with this new single and once again conjures up a magical
soundtrack of the Middle East.
Opening
with ‘Mamulks’ here he provides a perfect balance of deep piano
chords, shuffling rhythms and eastern flutes. Whilst, the following piece ‘Dusk’
contains all of it’s predecessors elements and charm, he injects a faster bassline
to carry the journey onwards.
Last
but not least, the title track is as it suggests yet again another eastern gem.
Slightly lighter on the piano and settling somewhere in pace between
the others. All in all a wonderful musical excursion that is a pleasure to the ears.
Over
the years I’ve encountered people with all kinds of tastes in music
and growing up I had friends who although were into sci-fi, held the
view electronic music wasn’t real music. I never got my head around
this as the atmosphere synths provided for these soundtracks could
provide atmospheres of weightlessness in space as well as dramatic
suspense. This Russian producer excels at those atmospheres in his
space themed compositions so I had high expectations with the second
chapter of Destiny.
When
the mood grabs you to listen to some space ambient this collection
will certainly do the trick. It’s the kind of album you really want
to listen to from start to finish and not necessarily one that’s
easy to pick a favourite. If I was pushed I would probably plump for
‘Negative Charge’ which features some appealing synth sounds that
flow lovingly over the sequenced sounds beneath. However, nothing on
the album disappointed me and each track has it’s own appeal.
The debut album from
Equanimous features collaborations with 11 artists over 9 tracks that
aims to bridge blissful melodies and organic sounds with rhythmic
bass. Personally, I found this album a bit of mixed bag, at times it
had a pop edge which in all fairness will probably appeal to a wider
audience.
However, that said there are still goodies in this bag that
appealed to me. The opening track ‘Arise’ with Skysia for
instance leans slightly less on the bass than some of the others and
features melodic piano and angelic voices. Whilst, the oohing
meanderings of Cyndy Fike work well juxtaposed against the tribal
rhythms of ‘Dreamality’ a collaboration with Bass Looper.
