R.G. by Solvognen
Solvognen returns to Disco Insolence with his interpretation of ambient. Less beat focused than it's predecessor IKB, RG marks a move into previously uncharted territory for Solvognen. The results have been titled according to a reference that he is so far keeping close to his chest. Any guesses should be directed to him as he is the only party that knows.
http://www.kekw.org/blog/november-23rd-2014
SOLVOGNEN: "R.G." (STREAMOFCONSCIOUSNESS MICROREVIEW RMX)
Red tape! Red tape!
Dunno how many times I gotta say I'm a fan of Solvognen - I am, I am! Red tape! Red tape! -- reviewed his split with Chaz Dolo (1, 2 years ago?; pfft: the years sliiiiide by and I've lost my way in the temporal maze, duuude; "only the echoes of mah mind...") on one of my collapsible / portable / long-migrated legacy blogs - the Posterous one? the Tumblr one? - who knows / cares; well, anyway, the review's gone now, ripped and stripped from the web and archived in a h/drive zip somewhere, a rewritable-memory backpocket -- ah, no: nah, nah; time-frame's out; was only a year ago and there's a rebump here: but I dig his stuff to the max, fer sure /// this is darn good, but do I like it as much as what came before? No, maybe not quite as much - something's, um, missing here; a certain fogginess and indeterminacy that I dug is absent on this one - hard to quantify what, exactly, w/out retrawling, but it's purely a personal / subjective call -- this is still a very good listen, though, and continues to grow on me w/ every play (so, maybe ask me in a couple months and it might turn out to be my favourite Solv somewhen dn the road); it's still head and shoulders above a lot of other stuff I've heard this year apart from maybe Hobo Cubes and most of Louis' stuff // heresy, I know, but I don't much like Basic Channel / dubbed-out minimal Berlin Techno - I think it's fucking over-rated tbh / dreary / music for EQnerds and sweater-wearing pre-club drinkieclub dwellers and hi-fi buff-boffs -- but, zis (along with Gentleforce) works way better on my ears than the Teutonic Mono-Mandelbrot minimal brigade; it's got some bloody heart; I like resolutely the un-Detroity Ashra circa '75 / '76 vibe going on here: Techno takes a wrong-turn and slips off down a side-road; goes cross-country but w/out the bumps - this is stripped of the 'soul' roots of the various strands that evolved from the Detroit Trio, but has its own languid, soft-centred (almost rural) beauty -- the synthlines ebb and flow like the globules in a lava-lamp; gently dubbed-out, vaseline-lensed, cross-temporal, littoral / tide-line Techno...sounds like some games being played here with varispeed / digistretttch n tempo-adjustment give it a sense of gentle warp-age, of analogue tape subtly elongati-iing thru a tape-transport // but, well // my lack of experience w/ modulars might be missing a point here; bogus stoned emaculate, yet, equally, it avoids sounding like that gawdawful Hippy-Tech crap that chugged on for 2 snoozefilled decades post-Megadog // o-o-or the Mego-signed TD-revivalists / 00-clones of 4, 5 years back (Emeralds' earlier stuff was waaay better; no, really; but, having said that, they were fun live, pumping out their Heritage FakeKrautism, smoke-and-brandy mind-varnish / vanish music...); so, yeah, Mr. Solvognen is 'ahead' of / to one side of the Juno-6 / 60 wielding YouTube-grazing past-reinventing pack of recent years and well worth a few bucks of yr heard-earned cash and
ear-minutes but it you're looking for grit and grot and *ahem* danger, you won't find it hear (sic) apart from maybe that mid-range foghornish / notquiteominous intro to "M.K.", but there's a scuffed, slightly distressed edge to this music; it's not all smooth Nooo New Age contours / continu-um neither -- at points it nudges up into the red / distorto zone / wears its production chops on its sleeves, digging that left-of-curtain reveal of process here and there, and the crackle and occasional frequency-rip-n-rupture don't feel too contrived or artificial, great use of echo (did I say that already?) and love the semi-auto-anonomising of titles via initialising which makes up a little for that certain something that's missing cf w previous jams and - ohmydeargod! - did I say that "U.T." is fucking gorgeouslovely and this could still yet (possibly) turn into my fave Solvcollection but just go awaay now and let me live with this
and listen
Credits
All music written, produced and mixed by Solvognen.
Artwork by Jonathan Lee. Shout out to Larry Crywater for the print assist (again)
