Articles
Christopher Tignor
Spotlight 13

Albums
Advanced Dreams
Federico Albanese
Matthew Barlow
Bruno Bavota
Black Unicorn
Bolder
Borghi & Teager
Carla Bozulich
Chris Campbell
Colo
Deadbeat / Paul St Hilaire
Detroit Swindle
Donato Dozzy & Nuel
Yair Etziony
Lewis Fautzi
Hammock
Mark Harris
Hideyuki Hashimoto
Kodomo
Listening Mirror
Lost Trail
Lucy
Machine Code
Yann Novak
Opitope
Origamibiro
Pinkcourtesyphone
Michael Robinson
Mariano Rodriguez
Dana Ruh
Janek Schaefer
Sketches for Albinos
Jakob Skøtt
Talk West
Christopher Tignor
Wen
Scott Worthington

Compilations / Mixes
Generation Hyper
Sharam Jey

EPs / Singles
Children of the Stones
Dexima
Dexta & Hyroglifics
dock 1
Dream Weapons
Dr.Res
FFM Vol. 2 EP
Glory Club
Nightstalker EP

Advanced Dreams: Islands of Memory
Lantern

Islands of Memory presents seventy-nine minutes of atmospheric dub-techno from Advanced Dreams, an outfit formed by Russian duo Alexander Shirokov and Dmitry Bodunov in 2005. On their first album following digital releases on Dewtone Recordings and Kahvi Collective, the pair show they're as adept at producing deep dub-techno as anyone on the Echocord and Echospace [Detroit] labels. Like producers such as Fluxion, Echospace, and DeepChord, Advanced Dreams isn't averse to letting its material stretch out either, with four of the album's six tracks pushing past the ten-minute mark. The typical piece sees Shirokov and Bodunov augmenting burbling chords with charging micro-beat patterns and an ongoing parade of samples. Such a simple description hardly conveys the huge sound of the average Advanced Dreams production: in fact, the ambient haze the duo generates in the album tracks is so immense, it can feel at times as if one is being swallowed whole.

Armed with pulsating bass lines and enveloping washes, the luscious opener “Morphia” takes the listener on a scenic, seventeen-minute journey through rain-soaked spaces and warm valleys. Reverb-drenched to the extreme, the track subtly shape-shifts as it moves through funk-laden episodes and others dominated by industrial noises and voice samples. Driven by the thump of a bone-dry bass pulse and a skeletal hi-hat-and kick drum combination, “2am” evokes the mystery and stillness of city streets devoid of people yet illuminated by streetlights and skyscrapers. “Leaving Islands of Memory” likewise thumps with serious purpose, this time with a greater locomotive force. Even more luscious is “Blue Night,” an unstoppable, twenty-minute colossus of Echospace-like design wherein chords endlessly ricochet and beats stampede; the degree of immersion offered by the material is capable of inducing, in this case especially, an altered state. At album's end, the languorous plod of “Blur Flower” offers a less frenetic comedown after the amazing ride that is “Blue Night.”

March 2014