tracklisting :
i came to dance.
dirty uncle.
airport soul.
i am superhero.
executive realness.
iron wad in ‘mini bar’.
hot rod.
black out.
love ballad for the ice people.
what is this hot music
rotating slowly into earth
blood everywhere is the excellent moniker for a bloke with machines called ian wade.
the shift is an excellent album made by a bloke with machines called ian wade.
across long drawn out epics which form the backbone of the album, black out (13 minutes), what is this hot music (16 minutes), or the superb dfa styled monster, i am super hero (10 minutes), analogue bleep-n-synths battle for your attention, while beats pound away at your skull, making memories of raving in helsinki warehouses seem so very very long ago.
for each of the tracks that form this this trio of rump moving trouble, the music and tension builds and builds, extra rhythmic elements are phased in and out while the underlying dance floor pulse keeps the blood pumping.
the sounds are predominantly stripped back acid house synths recalling the raved up excesses of baby ford (prior to him heading for the hills of minimal techno), or more recently, the mighty rebotini album music components, but given that no-one but i cared for that overload of synthetic dirt and adsr presets, don’t let the association put you off from finding out more.
i may be sat in front of a computer listening, but my hands are most certainly wanting to be thrust into the air instead of deciding which tab in google chrome i should refresh next.
of course a whole album of such excess could end up being exhausting and one dimensional.
thankfully, there are tracks to suit more thoughtful moods, though mainly ones which are entered into on the stroke of midnight.
airport soul starts out as a smooth wah wah guitar slice of movie soundtracking excellence before turning a left corner of surrealness, while executive realness provides a more laidback few minutes of respite during which bass heavy synthetic throbs bounce and airy overdubs that soothe.
though even when things are less pronounced, there is something about the snatched vocals and chord changes that unsettle the nerves.
think of the more leftfield ambient noises that the shamen did prior to their overload of cheese (the much forgotten synergy era) but with a twist of john carpenter styled paranoia.
several tracks suck the listener in under a false pretence, before veering off on a random tangent, for example, the orchestral tune up at the start of hot rod raises eyebrows, before a descent into fast-n-furious sequencer action recalling the extreme synth action of the ebm era.
and then just when things get a bit too much, comes the gorgeous ibiza sunset groove of love ballad for the ice people, with its spanish guitar pickings and melodic synth pulse.
the album then closes on the aforementioned crash-n-burn rave excess of what is this hot music, and the all important comedown hammond organ beauty of rotating slowly.
after an hour of synthetic induced euphoric highs, it’s time to lie down and have nightmares.
interview with the quietus : here