global goon - vatican nitez
the venerable (by electronica standards) Rephlex label has released a cd destined to figure on 2002 top ten lists. as i mentioned last week, some believe Global Goon is an alias for Aphex Twin. this rumour will make sense the moment you press [play] on Vatican Nitez; the first track sounds like a long lost outtake (think "Xtal") from Aphex's first volume of Selected Ambient Works. the remainder of the album possesses something akin to Aphex?s knack for blending lovely textures and melodies with a sense of fun, but without Aphex?s current proclivity for totally lunatic programming and editing.
the most interesting feature of Vatican Nitez is its daring implication that an actual human being might be playing on it. the current wave of electronic music artists often come off a little like german rocket engineers hunched over their laptop computers. this is not always a bad thing, mind you; it often lends the music a disembodied, enigmatic quality. Global Goon is having none of this, however. a couple tracks here sport musical elements dangerously close to solos (!), and the entire disc makes good use of reverb to add depth and warmth. rather than rigidly programmed repetition, the compositions have a kind of looseness about them, with relaxed beats and synth hooks coming in and out of the mix. you can almost envision a drummer and keyboard players performing these tracks live.
and the cover art features robots!
more reviews at commentary at...
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