Article
Spotlight 6

Albums
17 Pygmies
Ælab
Aeroc
Adrian Aniol
Aleph
Artificial Memory Trace
B. Schizophonic / Onodera
Blue Fields
The Boats
Canyons of Static
Celer
drog_A_tek
Fennesz + Sakamoto
Marcus Fischer
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Daniel Thomas Freeman
From the Mouth of the Sun
Goth-Trad
Karol Gwózdz
Mark Harris
Inverz
Kingbastard
Tatsuro Kojima
Robert Lippok
Maps and Diagrams
Merzouga
Message To Bears
mpld
The New Law
Nuojuva
Octave One
Petrels
Puresque
Refractor
Lasse-Marc Riek
Jim Rivers
Dennis Rollins
Scuba
Shigeto
Susurrus
Jason Urick
VVV
Williamette
Windy & Carl
Zomes

Compilations / Mixes
DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives
Future Disco Volume 5
King Deluxe Year One
Phonography Meeting
Pop Ambient 2012

EPs
Blixaboy
Matthew Dear
Fovea Hex
Jacksonville
Kurzwellen 0
Phasen
Pascal Savy

VVV: Across The Sea
Fortified Audio

Imagine a less dour Burial doing an update of Luomo's Vocalcity and you might end up with something close to VVV's Across The Sea. Garage, 2-step, soul, and house come together in this strong full-length debut collection of soulful bass music from Shawhin Izaddoost, who was born in Tehran, Iran but raised in Austin, Texas. Though he cites influences as disparate as Arvo Pärt, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sun Ra, and Burial, it's the latter's presence that's most evident on the recording. There's nothing criminal about that, necessarily—everyone's influenced by someone and VVV's twelve tracks offer a refreshingly upbeat spin on the Hyperdub artist's style. A good number of the cuts also suggest VVV's got just as much in common with Sepalcure as he does Burial.

In this consistently strong collection, Izaddoost rolls out one head-spinner after another. The opener “Jade Mountain” modernizes a seemingly ancient Asian theme by pairing it with a lithe bass pulse, crisp beat, and soulful vocal inflections, with all of it settling into a hypnotic hybrid of funk, house, and dubstep. The even headier “Aisle Seat” and “Dolven” draw upon garage, house, and 2-step in their radiant swirls of soulful singing and infectious beat science, and trippy vocal-laced cuts such as “Retreated” and “Traverse” confirm that VVV's output isn't far removed from Sepalcure's seductive style. The Luomo-Burial connection mostly comes to the fore during the closing “All That We've Been Through” when an ecstatic vocal punches through the reverb to join a melancholy piano part and a signature Burial beat pattern. Elsewhere, the too-short “Stuck Between” elastically reshapes the VVV template with a wobbly groove that adds a nice contrast to the comparatively direct approach of the other tracks, while the synthesizer-heavy “Under Control” nudges the album into a more pronounced psychedelic zone. On all twelve tracks, Izaddoost's material is clean in design, with the producer establishing a clear separation between the irrepressible pop of the tunes' tight beat patterns and minimal flow of their funky bass lines. Across The Sea might not be a game-changer, but it's nevertheless a thoroughly credible addition to the bass music genre.

February 2012