The Magical Sounds of Banco De Gaia 20th Anniversary Edition Review

Artist: Banco De Gaia

Title: The Magical Sounds of Banco De Gaia

(20^th Anniversary Edition)

Label: Disco Gecko Recordings

Released: 12^th July 2019

As with it’s predecessors in this 20^th Anniversary series this will only be released as a limited edition CD, with no digital downloads or streaming available. Once again featuring an additional disc containing re-mixes and live recordings. Although I’m familiar with a couple of tracks, this is one of the Banco De Gaia albums I didn’t pick up at the time. What strikes me about the album, is it’s more dance music orientated at times, and that world music makes an impact to some degree or another pretty much throughout. This really appeals to me generally, so I’m a bit disappointed with myself not having delved into the original release before now.

I guess what fans are eager to know is whose on re-mix duties and what they offer. The SunUnderWater mix of ‘I Love Baby Cheesy’ drops most of the spoken word samples of the original except for the repeated hook and the beat is harder. In this instance I found it’s pretty much of a muchness and I slightly favoured the original. Perpetual Loops SO mix of ‘Harvey and the Old Ones’ retains the main body of the original piece. However, the subtle touches that Charles adds lifted the track for me and I say a job well done. While Simon Power extends and transforms ‘Glove Puppet’ into a more dancefloor orientated piece. That in all fairness works out pretty well as an alternative, but personally I’m drawn more towards the original. Finally, Dr. Trippy adds his distinctive touch to ‘No Rain’ and imo it’s a killer tribal dub, in fact my favourite track of the whole album.

Reviewed by Woodzee

Links

http://www.discogecko.com/

Various Artists 'Diversity In The Isles' Review

Artist: 


Various

Title: 

Diversity In 

The Isles

Label: 

Unknown

Released: 

25^th of March

Compiled (not sure Curated is the correct terminology) by my counterpart on the Chill Out Sessions Liquid Lounge this is the first in a series of releases, with the sole aim of featuring down-tempo artists (both established and new) from the United Kingdom who are currently active on the festival circuit. As the title suggests the intent is to cover a vast array of sub-genres ranging from psy-dub to glitch, trip-hop and jazztronica, new age to psy-chill and all points in between.

The gamble with a diverse compilation is will it be to everyone's taste and to be honest not everything featured on this album is to mine. However, that said there's plenty that is and it features a fair few artists familiar to me, which I mostly listen to already and some new ones that also appeal. OOOD for example are well known on the festival circuit and on occasion produce something a little more chilled than their staple psy-trance in this case a pleasant enough piece of well produced electronica. Pete Ardon (Orchid-Star) also features along with Helen Francis delivering a mellow piece of tropical ambience accompanied by plenty of birdsong and flutes. Whilst the ever-popular Bristol based psy-dub producer Globular delivers his usual antics to good effect and Manchester's Perpetual Loop leans more to his Digital Duvet moniker with some laid back Ibiza style chill out. 

Those few aside I'm also well aware of Northampton's Mosienko Project (also part of Trans-Irie Nation and Celt Islam's band) who fuses the pungi, oud and darbuka's of Arabia with electronica. As well as Welsh dub-punk Rev Dread who draws on the traditional roots and dub-reggae adding a modern twist. Narcose I'm less familiar with but did bag his 'They always come at night' an excellent track from the compilation 'Ethnomystica Vol 2' the piece featured here is an eerie slice of psy-chill with a lovely piano melody but doesn't quite reach the same heights.

Of the artists I'm unfamiliar with the ones that really stood out for me is Geoglyph whose contribution is a summery slice of harmonica fused ethnic dub. Whilst False Identity provides a lovely laid back guitar piece that would slot comfortably into a Balearic set. As would Ultramorphic's blend of Vangelis like synths, Pink Floyd'esque guitars, counter-balanced with horn and sax laden reggae.

Reviewed by Woodzee

Links

https://diversityintheisles.bandcamp.com/

Available for pre-order as of now with immediate down-load of Pete Ardron's track.

Perpetual Loop 'Nocturnal Symbiosis' Review

Artist: 

Perpetual Loop

Title: 

Nocturnal Symbiosis

Label: 

Digital Duvet/Uxmal

Released:

30^th November

Nocturnal Symbiosis the 5^th and latest studio release from Manchester based Charles Massey A.K.A. Perpetual Loop opens with 'Momentum', a track which contains a hefty proportion of piano and guitar that you'd also find on the more chilled side of Digtal Duvets releases, those tracks that conjure up a summery trance feel. However, here the vital difference is there's more of a spring in it's step.

The next few tracks take you on a journey reminiscent of late 90's trance with deep bass notes, harmonious piano, strings and flutes set against distorted gating and lush breakdowns. At this point I have to admit that although I don't really listen to much of that music these days, I'm totally enjoying this.

The rest of the album continues very much in the same vein, some might say it's dated, others retro. Whatever way you look at it there's obviously passion behind the music here and it's all good clean summery trance. What's more it's free of cheesy pop vocals and sends my mind down memory lane to labels like Platipus Records and I ask myself is there anything wrong in that?

Reviewed by Woodzee

Links

http://www.perpetualloop.co.uk/

https://perpetualloop.bandcamp.com/

Perpetual Loop Interview

Click the title to go to Perpetual Loops web-site.

Perpetual Loop a.k.a. Charles Massey from Manchester. Charles is an artist who fuses ethnic, balearic, ambient, breakz and soundscapes which have appeared on compiliations and has just completed his second album. You can also catch Perpetual loop live p.a.'s and d.j. sets at various festivals and club chillout areas.

1. You used to run a promotion in Liverpool playing house, progressive & trance. Which artistsinfluenced you to work in the ambient genre?

I've always loved ambient / chill out music, I'm a huge fan of Vangelis. Voices is one of my all time favourite albums. Other people include Simon Posford, his production style is amazing. Shpongle, Celtic Cross, Younger Brother, you can always recognise his work. I love cinematic music as well, Cliff Martinez and Clint Mansell to name a few. I actually stumbled into the ambient genre when sending of 4 track demo to record labels (three upbeat and one slow). It was the slow track that caught the eye of Organic Records.

2. In 2004 along with veterans Michael Dog (Megadog/Pushmipulyu) and Joie Hinton (Ozrics/Eat Static) you appeared on the Rumour Records release “Gateway to the Sun”. What did you learn from this experience?

To be honest I was not involved in compiling the actual release, that was more down to Chris Organic and Om Records. I was just lucky enough to be included in the release with the slow track mentioned above.

3. Where can people hear your music?

Well there's Myspace and SoundSauce. There's links to these sites on my own website http://www.perpetualloop.co.uk/ . I've recently put up on my site some DJ sets I've done, as well as few recent live performances. I'm a resident DJ at Fluid radio so mixes are sometimes played there, as well as Last FM. Of course there is also sunisshiningdubnchill.blogspot.com now. :-) I've had tracks released on Compilations such as Gateway to the Sun, Psymeditation I and Psymeditation II, as well as my own album called "Universal Flow". I've also recently started to play live PA sets and are always on the look out for more places to play. I love playing live! It's a real buzz. I've play downbeat as well as upbeat chilled sets depending on the venue. To date I've played a few festivals (Offworld and waveform) as well as Inspiral Lounge (Camden) and a few times at Tribe of Frog (Bristol). My music is pitched as "psy-chill" but I think it's much wider than that and therefore I'm trying to play at a wider range of venues. I'd love to get out to Ibiza and do a few gigs there, but then again I'm sure alot of people are thinking exactly the same thing.

4. You’re currently working on a new album. Is there any new hardware or software you’re using on the project which excites you?

Well the album (Catching Zinc) is now finished, and should be getting released later this year. I actually made the decision to remove most of the my hardware from my set up. I use to have a 48 track desk, with several effect units, and a Super Bass Station, Emu Orbit and a Supernova (which I loved). Anyway most things these days can be done in Plug-in form like the Novation v-station being a softsynth of the supernova, so I sold it all. That way I have studio at home with a hefty computer, but also I can replicate the same set up on my Laptop and take that with me. What excited me the most was probably the Thor inclusion into Reason. An amazing peace of equipment. Cakewalk's Rapture is also pretty impressive. The first album was very much sample based from Reason, where this one was much more instrument driven and loads and loads of plugins over everything. I got to grip more with the production side things with this release as well and Wavelab has to be my choice for that.

5. You’re classically trained on both the cello and piano and havewritten film soundtracks. Which do you find more challenging playingas part of an orchestra or creating someone’s vision employing thecomputer as your orchestra?

That's a really cool question. Definitely the latter,as you are responsible for all the instruments and how they sit with each other, and not just one. I played the cello when I was younger and one thing that frustrated me at the time about it was that generally to play any peace of music you would need the rest of the orchestra with you. You were part of it which was great, but practicing was a bit isolated. Then I moved to the piano, basically because you can play the whole peace of music on your own with out the dependency being there. Now with computers you have the best of both words. You create the entire peace of music on your own but with the backing of 30 - 40 virtual players. Technology has really opened up the possibilities.

6. Which artists impress you at the moment?

I'm really loving the internet. It opens up your access to artists that the you would never encounter in the conventional music store. I use music-map.com allot of the time to find new artists that sound like artists I already know and like. Currently, I still love Shpongle and younger brother. Other artists are Phutureprimitive, Ted Madison, Ulrich Schnauss, Eat Static, Enoch Prusak , Chime, Snakestyle, OmniMotion and Lunar Sound, to name a view!