AQUARIUS Records > USA < New Arrivals #142 < 27 July 2002
DUKE, ANDREW "Sprung" (Bip-Hop) cd 15.98
The French electronica label Bip-Hop should at least be commended for taking the risk
of releasing so many albums from relatively unknown artists. Tennis, Bovine Life, and
now Andrew Duke are a few of their curatorial selections of experimental techno and
have all been interesting counterpoints to high-prolife labels like Mille Plateaux,
Scape, and Raster. Andrew Duke is a Canadian artist working mostly with bricolages of
static rhythmic structures and fluctuating darkened ambience that's not too far from
the aquatic electro sounds of Drexciya and also displays plenty of influence from
Coil, Pan Sonic, and Thomas Jirku.
MONTREAL HOUR / Canada / August 2002
Longtime pioneer of the east coast electronica movement, Halifax's Andrew Duke widens
his sphere of influence with a sonically-challenging, deeply experimental, and highly
original release, his first LP outside of those on his own Cognition Audioworks
label. Sluggish, shlopping sonic panoramas trundle throughout monotonous death
twitches throughout 11 minimal techno tracks. Unique shuffling patterns preclude
dance-floor application, though traditional downbeats occur occasionally, more often
in buried sub-bass tones barely audible to the human ear. "I have narrow ear canals,"
says Duke "so I had a lot of earaches growing up and often still have trouble
hearing, often really high pitched sounds will bother my ears," going a long way
towards explaining the submerged low-frequencies emitted throughout Sprung.
Electro-funeral deconstruction at its best.
WEEKLY DIG / USA / July 2002
If Aphex Twins Selected Ambient Works Vol. II reminds you of a laid-back mushroom
trip, Sprung will make you feel like you ate the brown acid. If Pole is the kind of
minimalism that makes you lie back and close your eyes, Sprung will make you spin in
a circle. Either way, if youre looking to take some heavy-duty acid and freak your
mind right out of your head, might I suggest augmenting your experience by having an
involved listen to this record?
Sprung is robust in the spooky minimal tracks" department, but it also has some
excellent beat-heavy tunes. The overall thrust of this record is definitely more
rhythmic than melodic; with many elements being comprised more of percussive
electronic wobbledeewoos than harmonious lines or phrases. Its like many skipping
records arranged into rhythmic patterns in tandem with drum machines, and then going
crazy all over again.
by Aidan Flax-Clark
http://www.weeklydig.com/?ContentId=1334
AMPERSAND ETCETERA / Australia / August 2002
Coming off an extensive discography on Cognition Audioworks (which he formed in
1990), and various compilations (including BiP-HOp generation v.5), Sprung is the
first of a number of albums on other labels Duke has in the works.
This is a highly rhythmic album ? basically tracks built from various loops of
clicks, beats, scratches that create a movement and focus of their own. 'Hell yeah 1'
builds slow beats and layers of scratching, electro bass and a sonar beep. The watery
feel continues in 'Pharmakei' where a wet loop moves in and out of focus, clicks
clacks and other rhythms added in an insistent movement, or in the subaquatic
stuttering of 'Knot rocket' with watery loops and voice washes that strips and
rebuilds. In 'crablike' a dododo-click phases, morse is added, then dardrum, funny
squiggles and becomes a little arhythmic and changes speed. Most of the album
continues like this, building tracks up and letting them run and play. The speed or
density changes, as the tone to some extent. 'Chromosome 20' is darker and almost
industrial with an edge to the higher tones playing over machine wooshes, or 'Ut ut'
where an industrial drone-base has a pulsing tone 'melody' weaveing through the
choppy changing tch tchs. 'RSVP' plays with an almost latin beat and rapid beats and
noisy growls, and 'Shark circles' is a minimalist exploration of the style.
An album which works closely within the form that Duke has chosen ? looking to allow
the rhythm of loops and layers to drive the work forward, with little or no
consideration of melody as such. Recognising that refined direction as a given, Duke
offers us the sort of driven driving album we would expect from Bip-Hop, with plenty
of variation on the theme. You know what you're getting in to, and its an enjoyable
ride.
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampv2002_12.html
RECYCLE YOUR EARS / UK / July 2002
This is the first thing I hear from Andrew Duke since his tribute to Monolake track
on "Integral Components", but it seems that I have an excuse, since however famous
this canadian radio DJ may allegedly be, this is is first album that he hasn't
released himself throughout his 12 years long carreer.
From the very beginning of "Sprung", it is obvious that we are quite far from the
blippy and glitchy debuts of Bip Hop. No other word but "techno", in its most classic
sense, come to mind. The sound is clear (and stays this way almost through all the
tracks), totally synthetic, and played in very binary loops. The tracks evolve very
slowly, relying on long repetitions of small sounds and revolving around nicely
synthesized beats. Quite ample and precise, this is not without resemblance with
Ritchie Hawtins's "DE9 - Closer to the edit", for Duke is also using a lot of varied
little tones that could very well come from samples of other people's music.
Hypnotic and rather catchy, "Sprung" is an album that grows on the listener quite
quickly. If its sounds are original, sometimes quite "aquatic" and noisy, the
structure of the track makes it all very accessible and provide it with some
mainstream appeal. This is something that will work better at home than in the club,
for the sounds and beats are rather modest, but the track themselves do not reserve a
lot of surprise, and are straightforward enough for people not interested in any
breakbeat or IDM-meshed patterns.
Straightforward but not boring, techno but imaginative, repetitive but full of
details, "Sprung" is a nice and harmless album whose spherical atmosphere and little
beats might have some appeal for fans of Vromb or Orphx (but incidentally also from
Canada) if they accept the clear sound of it all. Seducive, accessible and well done.
Nicolas, July 22nd, 2002
http://www.recycleyourears.com/
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