Future Music - making music at the cutting edge of technology

Each month we will bring you a clip from each of our featured Reader Demos*.....

FM131 January 2003
Archaii : Atomic Moon
Personnel : Stefan Krause
Equipment : dbx compressor, Korg Prophecy, Korg Wavestation, Mackie 8 bus, Roland JV-2080 (but no mention of any recording gear)

The track:
Atomic Moon is a mad big beauty that almost didn’t get picked for our CD. Our initial first choice was the second track on Stefan’s demo (Run Away Cause Love Can Die… see below for more details). However, we had to plump for this in the end, simply because of that great bass sound. The track as a whole starts with a deceivingly low tempo’d breakbeat before flying up to drum n bass speed and staying on a high energy plateau for perhaps a tad too long (one of our only criticisms about the track) before Stefan starts stripping things back. There’s no mention of any recording gear in Stefan’s kit list although we reckon he must have a neat set-up (either that or some kind of magic CD recorder) as the overall quality is high and the dynamic range well covered.
The demo in full:
As we said, the second track on Stefan’s album is a corker. Run Away Cause Love Can Die is like a Depeche Mode instrumental, all building, ebbing and flowing electronics with a couple of wonderful crescendos. You can just hear Gahan or Gore’s vocals in there. It’s one of the quieter or slower moments on an album of varying paces all of which are dark but oddly uplifting too. [How does that work then? – Ed]

Stefan Krause: 00 49 173 209 5275 • mailto:<span%20class="m1">%20<a%20href="mailto:"steve@archaii.com

FM131 January 2003
Mochipet : Chicken Guiro
Personnel : David Y Wang
Equipment : Doepfer PocketDialk, Hyperprism, PC running Logic Audio Platinum, Native Instruments Battery/Reaktor/Pro 52, TC Native, Waves.

The track:
What do you think when you hear the phrase ‘intelligent dance music’? Do you possibly think ‘unintelligent mad beats that are impossible to dance to’? Yep, the IDM tag is one of the great contradictory phrases of our time. Dance music you can stand and nod knowingly to but, er, can’t dance to (unless you are Andy McCluskey). Fortunately David Wang agrees. And while his mad beats and tracks could safely be placed in the IDM bracket (albeit lazily as they don’t go anywhere else), his first track IDMIdiot sums up his feelings to the whole thing. Our chosen track, Chicken Guiro, represents his more approachable side. It’s the sort of track any ad guy could use on a mobile phone campaign to instantly propel David to the kind of status enjoyed by Røyksöpp and a hundred other rich royalty collecting acts.

The demo in full:
The rest of the demo is nuttier than Chicken Guiro to the point where it does actually disappear up its own arse (on more than one occasion and in the nicest way possibly, of course!). It recovers each time but a few more Chicken Guiro type tracks would take this to a mainstream audience. Thing is, you get the impression that this is exactly where David doesn’t want to be. Oh well.

David Wang: me@mochipet.com

FM131 January 2003
Ousia : Robot In
Personnel : Paul Horn, Dave Onnen, Jason S Shapiro, Fred Teaslep
Equipment : Bass; computer running Logic Audio, FruityLoops and Beat Slicer; Korg M3R; Line6 Amp; Novation Nova; Yamaha CS2x

The track:
We’re not sure why but the idea of an ambient band is somewhat intriguing. Maybe you just can’t imagine a group of four blokes getting up on stage to produce such meditative material. Ousia (like so many this month) sent in a complete album but thoughtfully suggested four tracks rather than expecting us to trawl through the lot. Robot In, with its gentle guitar riffs, was the one for us. Beautifully crafted, so laidback and quite mesmeric. It does seem to be missing something but we’re not quite sure what. Answers on a postcard. The production is as good as it should be with this kind of material (although elsewhere on the album there is a little too much in the way of digital harshness, intentional or not).

The demo in full:
The rest of the album stretches the listener over all sorts of soundscapes. Some make Brian Eno or Harold Budd look like death metal evangelists while others convey the kinds of sounds electro-acoustic musicians would be proud of. It’s not always an easy listen and often you feel the best way to enjoy it would be, how shall we say, under the influence, but ambient music (in the truer sense, rather than the chilled) is undersubscribed so it’s good to hear it.
Dave Onnen: dave@mutantmusic.com • 001 651 647 4942

*please note that they are MP3 extracts from the demo tracks, the complete versions can be found on the FM131 January 2003 covermount CD.