version

Well-known member
version? or anyone else who "gets" mark fell?

The whole thing sounds like a sheet of metal folding in on itself and being repeatedly compressed, like a piece of metal with the qualities of both metal and rubber. It also reminds me of 'exploding head syndrome', that sudden deafening sound that busts your skull just as you drift off, like every brass instrument in an orchestra playing at once.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome
 

luka

Well-known member
This is difficult. I like this but I've got almost nothing to say about it. It's got that lovely garage warmth, albeit a little faster than I would usually expect to be moving in garageland. It's a warmth which comes from being wrapped up isn't it? That kind of warmth, it's an insulating warmth, which protects from the outside, which means it is also a kind of numbing. Like how I imagine Valium might feel.
When those little vocal snippets (bebe bebe) come in, oooh, delicious.

What makes this kind of thing? How's it produced? This zone of affect? There's a diction to it isn't there? There are things which are excluded. Sharpness, angularity. Everything is soft and muffled. The keyboard is very garage. That stuff is textbook. That sustained church choir note ahhhhh that is sustained as the record ends, love that. Interesting. Great record. Great exemplar of a whole school of music. Never heard it before
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Love the physicality of the Mark Fell.

pattycakes?

Proper basement fodder. Instantly transported to a dark and sweaty subterrainian room with heads down and minds fully zoned. The bass line oozing the mystical funk grease, weaving it's trance like spell. Wooing you into that slightly unsettled yet fully funked place in your head and heart where you can switch off all outside interference and really get down to business. The swing applied makes movement unavoidable. Something has to bop along with this. Also adds a pleasant bit of cheek to the dirt. And then there's the chords adding some catharsis and introspection to what is essentially a very simple yet, no doubt in the right hands, deadly dj tool. Classic artful and effortless sounding Detroit tackle that would easily send many a floor into the centre of the vortex and have everybody forgetting everything for that moment. The type of vibe I live for. TD deserves more recognition. :love:
 
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luka

Well-known member
Patty since you're Ill do this shameless indulgence and nod to our shared Gilles Peterson years. Feel no shame.

 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
never have, never will

Patty since you're Ill do this shameless indulgence and nod to our shared Gilles Peterson years. Feel no shame.


Went to see Callier at the jazz cafe one time. Back when you could smoke indoors. His voice plus a J almost had me falling asleep standing up a couple of times. So soothing. Was studying drums in Acton at the time. Shared a house with a Greek guy along with 3 English dudes. Greek guy had a Callier live CD which we used to listen to it quite a bit. Also had heard Dancing Girl played by Gilles. And our Brazilian percussion teacher was in the band when I saw the gig. All very interweaved, so I have a bit of a personal attachment to Terry and particularly this track. His life story makes for an interesting read.

Anyway, the beginning of the song is like a lullabye in its gentle caresses of guitar arps, tinkling percussion and his silken vocals all intertwining and with and drifting in and out of contact with each other. After a short while you start to settle into this feeling and think you're in for a soothing and easy ride, but suddenly the horizon opens up with the introduction of the orchestra. Didn't see that coming. Now he's suggesting the beginning of some long journey. But just as your senses arouse to catch up, he brings you back down to the ground for a moment while he collects himself with a few pensive chords, only to return back to the larger landscape with those elegant drifting strings offering you the sense of solemn oneness finely expressed with the line "each of us is born alone" muted blues trumpet answering his lines like a sad, instrumental flava flav. He holds no punches, it all flows out and then the fucken drums come in and oh shit we're off and you're waltzing down the history of smoky jazz, blues & folk bars, breathing in all kinds of smokes and vapors, wisping their way around you. The air of his voice is like a historic mist telling you how it was back in the day, a caring voice warning you of the dangers of the night, excess and how easy it is to lose your way. So better tell her if you want to to boogie, bop or boogaloo lest you end up on a crack handle. Tell her, ffs. But wait, where did that acoustic rhythm sneak in from? The beat goes from the 6/8 to 4/4 like the drifting mind of a junkie and next thing you know you've got yourself laying on the couch in the corner and all the bittersweet memories come flooding in. Reaching a peak here. A shelf drop and then another slower climb and then crashing down. Try not to scratch too hard. Ahh here are those opening acoustic arps and tinkling percussions. Consciousness regained? Was it all a dream? Is the dancing girl really just the dancing dragon and all the twinkling just the moonlight reflecting off of the creases in the well worn foil? You decide.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
It also reminds me of 'exploding head syndrome', that sudden deafening sound that busts your skull just as you drift off, like every brass instrument in an orchestra playing at once.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

Man, there really is a name for everything. 2 different times in my life I suffered from this shit. One time getting used to living in a remote cottage in a forest. First time ever being in a house with no external sounds whatsoever really took some getting used to. Turns out it was my eyes twitching as I was drifting off asleep. If you close your eyes normally and then once they're closed, close them tighter, you feel the blood moving around inside your skull and in a hypnagogic state a short blast of this sounded like some loud bang from downstairs. 2nd time much more recently, apparently I snore these days and it's basically the same shit but with the first snorts as your body starts to relax but you're not completely out can reverberate through the skull like some pneumatic drill doing short bursts on the wall of the room. I figured this has to do with the way your ears sort of seal up in preparation for sleeping so any sounds from within the skull are all amplified, plus the brain goes into fantasy mode ready for some dreaming which makes for the imagined racket sources. Once I figured this out and started to replicate it on purpose just to prove to myself that's what it was it stopped being a problem.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Can I get my own subforum so I don't bother the rest of you? I need somewhere to empty it all out but hey, it doesn't have to be like this
 

version

Well-known member
Man, there really is a name for everything. 2 different times in my life I suffered from this shit. One time getting used to living in a remote cottage in a forest. First time ever being in a house with no external sounds whatsoever really took some getting used to. Turns out it was my eyes twitching as I was drifting off asleep. If you close your eyes normally and then once they're closed, close them tighter, you feel the blood moving around inside your skull and in a hypnagogic state a short blast of this sounded like some loud bang from downstairs. 2nd time much more recently, apparently I snore these days and it's basically the same shit but with the first snorts as your body starts to relax but you're not completely out can reverberate through the skull like some pneumatic drill doing short bursts on the wall of the room. I figured this has to do with the way your ears sort of seal up in preparation for sleeping so any sounds from within the skull are all amplified, plus the brain goes into fantasy mode ready for some dreaming which makes for the imagined racket sources. Once I figured this out and started to replicate it on purpose just to prove to myself that's what it was it stopped being a problem.

For me, it's similar to that sensation of falling just as you nod off. You feel yourself go then a train runs through your head, horn blaring, or a deafeningly loud sound like the world's largest crash cymbal is struck and you jump out of your skin.

You wake up like George McFly having his brain melted by "Darth Vader" and his Van Halen tapes.

 

version

Well-known member
Third


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mvuent


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luka

 

mvuent

Void Dweller

you're in a submarine deep underwater. something very heavy keeps bumping the claustrophobic enclosed space in a strangely jaunty "tribal" rhythm--but maybe that impression's your mind playing tricks. the space you're in, although cutting-edge engineering-wise, seems to be under heavy strain: are you supposed to be hearing all those scraping and rattling sounds?

rhythmically there's some variance but no structural instability. there's a chugging, motorik feel through the whole track. especially in the last section when the snare finally comes in. there's already a really heavy kick on the 2 and 4, so adding the snare too doesn't really change things, motion-wise I'm not sure what that development is supposed to do. just seems to make the backbeat stupidly obvious. all the hi hat-esque sounds add more nuance though, which I like. the submarine's being lightly jostled by different currents as it steadily moves forward.

I'm not too well versed in this sort of thing--when I first listened I completely assumed it was from like 1998. to contextualize it I'd maybe go with... monolake? that school of techno? this track has the very real world-evocative sound design & the rhythmic steadiness I'd associate with them. also it feels kind of mellow--doesn't seem to have the brooding grandeur or mysticism of someone like deepchord.

so it's vividly evocative, but the world it creates isn't one that resonates deeply with me atm. groove-wise I'm not quite sure what to make of it either. my favorite part is probably 0:21 cause it's similar to sounds you hear in SAW I
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
just listened again and it's working more for me, especially rhythmically w/ the low end. one of those serious "deep" techno tracks, so hard to evaluate on first listen
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
ok just now getting to this. apparently after writing just two posts over 100 words I needed a break lol.

first the dub techno chords. each filter permutation is a different shade of light in an otherwise dark space. the riff they comprise is kind of busy for this type of music—usually I’d expect the chords to just menacingly hang in space longer—so there’s an immediate sense of urgency or at least eventfulness. all these rapid variations in filtering (and resulting effects on delay and reverb) have a slightly dizzying effect. it’s as if you’re spinning around quickly, so that your vision is constantly changing and you can’t quite focus on anything in front of you.

2 minutes in a new texture enters. there is movement in the sound, but of a more subtle, naturalistic variety. no overt melody here—the new element is pure burning energy. the track’s intensity increases greatly. it was already dizzying, now there's unrelenting pressure as well.

structurally the track is punk rock level simple. only three obviously distinct elements, all introduced in the first few minutes. your focus is drawn into the flux of color/motion/pressure: you become more sensitive to micro changes. with further listens I might notice more macro-level peaks and troughs, but I’m not noticing anything important in that respect yet.

what I like about the track is how it rewards active listening without feeling fussed over. reminds me of russell haswell’s expressed goal of making things that sound like they could have taken either a few months or a few minutes to produce.

the sounds are pretty, but at the same time there is a sort of aggression to it. not the sort you’d identify coming from a person, but the sort you might internally assign to a storm or tornado.
 
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