Review| barbeque- pizza lord is sleepy

Chiptune has a tendency to excel on a higher level when it ceases to be defined by its genre boundaries and becomes something other than ‘chip’. minusbaby’s ‘Bias’ is a catalogue of Latin-heavy house, C-Jeff’s ‘Preschtale’ is a progressive jazz rock epic, and barbeque’s ‘pizza lord is sleepy’ is a trip hop/IDM behemoth; they all just happen to be written in the chiptune medium.

barbeque’s sophomore effort is the follow up to last August’s self-titled, and it’s a different beast altogether. Where the debut hit with noise and discomfort, ‘pizza lord is sleepy’ heals with liquid flow and widely accessible, tightly wound beats spat out on the Piggy tracker. Cuts like ‘2oz’ never feel static for a second, constantly moving with sinuous grace, whilst ‘pelicans’ contains a lucidly slow jam with a huge hook and some stellar beats to back it. The beats, in fact, are some of the strongest around. ‘brain’ uses some hard hitting syncopation, ‘orange’ moves gracefully from trip hop beats to industrial tinged breaks and ‘skitchin’ spits KODEK sounding swagger.

The actual music itself is great too, though you wouldn’t expect such a coating of all-consuming creepiness from an album titled ‘pizza lord is sleepy’. Not many releases in chiptune lend themselves to discomfort so willingly. ‘mellowmouth’s dissonant piano and the disorientating melodies of ‘brain’, not to mention the countless vocal and noise samples throughout, all add to the sense of unease. This vibe doesn’t relent until the anomaly and oddly 80s sounding album closer ‘doubleheader’, but its upbeat melodies find a good home as a climax.

There are a few missteps though. Opener ‘gruff’ is a minute too long for what it ends up delivering (i.e., not much), ‘vvv^s’ is simply of inferior quality to the rest of the release and ‘holywaterjug’ has moments of greatness, but the forced sounding dip into breaks midway through results in some weak melodies.

That being said, the experience garnered from ‘pizza lord is sleepy’ is overwhelmingly positive. The whole release thrives on repetition, but it’s a repetition that sounds meticulously controlled and precise. Every nuance sounds specifically placed and the aura of anxiety so perfectly crafted it’s hard not to get lost in the unrelenting barrage. Sounding more influenced by 90s downtempo than Nulsleep or Bit Shifter, if you like your chiptune vibrantly expressive and immersive, I could not recommend better.  

Favourite track: orange

Get the whole album to stream or download for free here.

Tracklist:

1. gruff

2. mellowmouth

3. orange

4. 2oz

5. pelicans

6. vvv^s

7. holywaterjug

8. brain

9. skitchin'

10. doubleheader

Review| Xetryz- Overflowing Emotions

The speed at which electronic music can transition from composition to release is unparalleled. As a result, new composers often fall into the trap of releasing too much, too fast, and with too little attention paid to detail. Xetryz’s most recent release, ‘Overflowing Emotions’, is also his third since February of this year, and suffers from these afflictions considerably.

Mixing trance composition, house and chiptune together, Xetryz has managed to compose some substantial tunes, but tunes which are ultimately let down by their production. Nowhere is this more obvious than on the album opener, ‘On A Journey’, where the hooky and hugely layered summer-tinged motif is drowned out over poorly mixed counter-melodies. Elsewhere, prominent melody phrases obscure ‘Telling A Story’s seapunk vibes and the climactic moments in ‘Uplifting Spirits’ sound messy and lifeless.

Other parts of the release also sound rushed; some of composition, like the complete halt to momentum in the middle of ‘On A Journey’ or the grating repetition in ‘Telling A Story’ and ‘Uplifting Spirits’, sounds slapdash and, contrary to the album’s title, superficially void of emotion.

There are good points though. The instrument choices on the whole are great, and along with the melodies they create a summery vein which runs throughout the release. The trancechip euphoria of ‘On A Journey’ is definitely the releases’ highlight, and ‘Telling A Story’ has some great seapunk melodies hidden behind its garish production.

Overall, the album has some great melodies, but their presentation musically tends to dampen their effect. Whilst moments hit home, mostly in the first half of the release, other parts stutter around helplessly, hiding the pearls underneath unfinished and rushed production. ‘Overflowing Emotions’ is a promising, but ultimately flawed piece of work. 

Favourite track: On A Journey

Grab the whole release here.

Tracklist:

1. On A Journey

2. Telling A Story

3. Uplifting Spirits 

Week #20| el Musho- 0xDWARF

Week 20, and we're revisiting the Nordic people for another slice of excellence. This week it's el Musho providing the track, so enjoy!  Grab the track here. 

WT: How did you first come into contact with the chiptune scene?

El Musho: When I was eleven or twelve I got a shareware CD with modplug tracker on it. It took me some time to learn how to use it but at thirteen I was spitting out midi-instrumented tracks at a steady pace. A while later I learned that the music from my favourite games (jazz jackrabbit and unreal tournament) were actually XM modules and a lifelong spree of stealing samples began.

In 2011 me and a friend decided to buy Gameboys to further progress in the chiptune scene, I was bored with milkytracker and thought that a real sound chip might spice things up (it did).

WT: You also work under the moniker ‘Six Eyed Cat Abyss’, could you tell us a bit about that please?

EM: Well Six Eyed is more of an electronica project; it’s highly experimental and spans many genres... I use my voice there, as well any instruments I have laying around - and synths, of course. 

I live in a forest and a lot of songs take place here, among trees and moss and rain and dirt. When my Gameboy tunes tend to be happier and upbeat, six eyed cat abyss is slow and sombre. More longing in this kind of music.

WT: What’s the chiptune scene like in Sweden from your point of view?

EM: I don’t live in a major city and I don’t travel much, so I haven't been to many shows. Locally it’s kinda dull; my town is occupied by metalheads. It seems to be a completely other matter in the three biggest cities though, lots of interesting people and projects!

We also have a massive backlog of great artists/music from the demoscene, especially from the Amiga days.

WT: Could you walk us through the favourites of your past releases and what went into creating them?

EM: Well there's the "major" release, MEOW (said the traveller) which is a full-length Gameboy album from 2012? 2011? With some great (and some not so great) tunes on it. It wasn’t exactly a planned effort but rather just Some Songs I Happened To Make While Learning LSDJ Magic. They are kind of happy; I like the eurobeat-influenced demoscene style so it probably sounds a little like that.

Then there's one called WHY? which is a bunch of the modplug tracker modules I made when I was between thirteen and fifteen, and they’re really HORRIBLE but I released them yesteryear anyway as a joke.

My favourite album of mine, though, is not released yet but it’s all done and finished, just waiting for me to actually get my shit together and put it out there!

WT: How would you say influence you the most musically?

EM: Oh, that’s probably extremely many! And I tend to be unable to see whom inspired what until after it’s all done and gone.... but if it could only be one I’d say it’s a dude called BZL, he has some really funky tunes all right!

WT: Could you tell us a bit about what went into your WeeklyTreat entry?

EM: This is a Gameboy doing some groovy things, I like making happy chiptunes. Also an approach vie experimented some is adding some more instruments like guitar or kazoo, so there's some of that too.

WT: What are your future plans for ‘el Musho’?

EM: I want to make Musho a more live-friendly act, for now there’s awkward loading pauses between songs because I only have one flashcart :( I have an extra Gameboy but it "needs" prosound and backlight... and another cart.
But mostly I want to mix it more with regular instruments, I can almost play guitar nowadays, there’s melodica, kazoo, piano, etc - and my sister plays fiddle and wants to help, so it’s very possible it may turn out a 2-player "band"! We've made some tunes already and they’re great!

Review| b4by f4c3- waVes

Riding the chipthrash wave that seemed to captivate the scene last summer and autumn, b4by f4c3 brings a lower-fi take on the genre with a more Avant-garde approach.  Influenced by chipthrash less from its brutality and more through its melodic loci (if that’s not a paradox), b4by f4c3 continues following that manifesto on his most recent release, ‘waVes’.

Things start out well, with a sample introduction leading into the slowly building lo-fi plod of ‘Insert Into Ears’, which atmospherically sounds oddly reminiscent of The Knife track ‘Stay Out Here’. Album closer ‘Mr.Nelson1934’ follows a similar pattern, evolving like a live jam coated in Acid influences with perfect lo-fi production.

However, elsewhere the EP dips in quality. ‘The Diaz Fiasco’ promises chipthrash mayhem in its introductory tones, but instead we’re given messy noisechip with lacklustre melodies. A lot of the outros on the release feel half-hearted and disorderly, especially in ‘Insert Into Ears’. Also, large amounts of the sampling are hit and miss, for instance ‘Never Nude’ ends with a referential sample of ‘Arrested Development’, and it comes off as nothing but cheesy.

If this were a debut release I’d be more forgiving of the pitfalls, however, being the 11th release on his bandcamp, it’s harder to ignore the faults. The opening sample on ‘Never Nude’ seems to describe the album’s focus, “Let the experiment, begin!”, but the execution isn’t up to scratch. ‘waVes’ doesn’t so much sound like an experimental album deconstructing the noise genre as it does a collection of “the last five songs I wrote” haphazardly slung together.

That feeling of unfocused rashness defines the album as a whole. Whilst chaos is a definitive statement of chipthrash, in the works of shitbird, Optimus Chad and others it sounds deliberate, planned, and precise. However on ‘waVes’ it comes off as inartistic, un-eclectic and aesthetically thin; here chaos is a mirage not a component. If you want a fix of chipthrash, personally I’d check out Datathrash’s bandcamp instead.  

Favourite track: Insert Into Ears

Get the whole album to stream or download here.

Tracklist:

1. You Know What

2. Insert Into Ears

3. The Diaz Fiasco 

4. Never Nude

5. Diabetus

6. Mr.Nelson1934

Review| MrWimmer- Once More Unto The Breach

The relationship between chiptune, guitar and vocals has become more varied in recent years. Artists have been slowly testing the water; Noisewaves blended chip with post-rock, Starpilot offered it post-punk, and chiptune’s most successful chiprock alchemist, The J Arthur Keenes Band, wielded equal measures of reggae and baroque pop. MrWimmer joins his contemporaries with his own concoction; chiptune and indie pop via The National. He’s not new to this; MrWimmer has been releasing music since mid-last year, though this is surely his most definitive statement thus far.

Firstly, I’d recommend tackling ‘Once More Unto The Breach’ with headphones. The production throughout is muddy and the nuances which give this release its character will often be missed on laptop speakers. Saying that, the vocals sound fantastic throughout. The croons in ‘Dreamzzz’ and the title track features some fantastic Jay Tholen-like moments of desperation, and the vocals in ‘I’m Not That Kind of Boy’ add to its pre-Beatles ballad pop atmosphere.

The guitarwork is also fantastic throughout. Unlike some other chiprock out there, (early Gooch, touches of Noisewaves and I Fight Dragon’s entire discography), MrWimmer manages to avoid the common pitfall of using guitars or chiptune elements just for the sake of aesthetic gimmickry,  which often leaves the two fields of live instrumentation and chip output sounding disconnected from each other. These two elements combine, along with the anguishing lyrics, to form a thick atmosphere of unrelenting murk not seen often, if at all, within the chiptune world.

The last of the trifecta, the chiptune elements, are where the problems arise however. Whilst portions work well, for instance, the drifting melodies of ‘A Good Night’s Sleep’ or the stunningly beautiful opening of ‘Possibility’, overall the chiptune elements sound messy and sometimes detract from the hard-won atmosphere. ‘She Closes Her Eyes’ as a whole sounds quite jumbled, moments of ‘Blasted Field’s eastern melodies sound like a forced, desperate grab for variation, and the introductions on a whole are dismal.

However, it does end on a high note. Final track ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have New Things’ is a fantastic piece of composition. It’s the only track on the album to engage instantly, flowing into a chiptune prog pop epic with dizzying heights, before plummeting from its melancholy peak to the bleak desolation atmosphere of previous tracks.

Overall, ‘Once More Unto The Breach’ is ambitious, but often doesn’t quite hit its own targets. The album sounds like a collection of studio outtakes; in fact if segue-way tracks ‘A Good Night’s Sleep’ and ‘Blasted Field’ were extracted the release might have flowed better.  However, with tracks as great as ‘This Is Why…’, the title track and ‘I’m Not That Kind of Boy’, ‘Once More…’ sounds like the album before THE album. The ‘Hello World’ before the ‘Unconditional Acceleration’. The ‘Power Supply’ before the ‘Dawn Metropolis’. Full of promise, uniquely austere and invigorating when it does find its feet, I recommend ‘Once More…’ if only as a prelude to the meteoric rise I’m sure is on MrWimmer’s horizon.

Favourite track: This Is Why We Can't Have New Things

Get the full album to download or stream here.

Tracklist:

1. She Closes Her Eyes

2. A Good Night's Sleep

3. Dreamzzz

4. I'm Not That Kind of Boy

5. October

6. Possibility

7. Blasted Field

8. Once More Unto The Breach

9. This Is Why We Can't Have New Things

Review| Origami Repetika- Little Bumble

Every once in a while, whilst sifting through the expanses of the chiptune world, you find a gem that reaffirms your belief in the genre’s scope and power. ‘Little Bumble’ was one of those releases. Sent to me in a PM by a member of chipmusic.org under the name of SJSFC, I opened up the link and explored. I was met with a set of conflicting notions; it was hosted by FMA, a curated and often high quality host of varying musical styles. However, on the other hand, the artwork showed a badly drawn bumble bee. The release was a mere four tracks and a blurb stated it “might appeal to those with young children”, painting it to be a collection of low-quality and embarrassingly crude takes on chiptune.

Whatever my preconceptions might have been, what I found inside pleasantly shocked. The tones and atmospheres can only be described as elegant;  I’d only ever experienced tones so engrossing before in small snippets of ant1 and Zan-Zan-Zawa-Veia’s work, and the level of emotion pushed around these four short tracks rivalled that of peeR’s definitive release ‘Dances’. The EP follows a freeform progressive jazz flow, giving it a sound that wouldn’t be overly amiss appearing on Ubiktune. Countermelodies constantly shift and harmonies consistently strike an internal chord; in fact the melodies are sometimes touchingly beautiful.

Some of background glissandos in ‘4c iced tea’ are truly stunning, the end section of ‘tuffet’ makes inspiringly subtle use of droning pads, soft triangle bass and piano, whilst the harmonies and horns in ‘mighty lilbumble bee’ are remarkable. Almost inaudible sample work in the background gives the release a thick layering and the constant shift of thematic attention gives it huge breadth. Whilst not every note ‘strikes’ with you, for instance the opening 20 seconds of ‘tuffet’ are so dissonant it breaks the album’s pace slightly, on the whole every second sounds precise and purposeful.

If you were to follow FMA’s advice and give this to small children, the complexity within would be completely lost on them, however, the gorgeous tones and warm square sounds would undoubtedly find a willing audience. And that, in a crux, is the genius of this release; complexity without sacrificing emotion. If you’re disillusioned with the quality of most chipmusic output today, this will surely reignite your passion. A must download. 

Favourite track: mighty lilbumble bee

Grab the full release here. 

Tracklist:

1. kind gentle beautiful person

2. 4c iced tea

3. tuffet

4. mighty lilbumble bee

Head over to his site for more greatness!

Review| Feryl- Crossing

Feryl is a name you may have heard a few times through the years. He’s been writing chiptune since 2008, mainly using the Modplug Tracker and Famitracker to create lo-fi no-frills chiptune with frequent thematic nods to love. Last year’s release ‘How to Heal a Broken Heart’ was a tour de force of emotion and subtlety, and 2011’s ‘Aware’ used soft tones and warm melodies to seduce. So, with high hopes I explored Feryl’s most recent output, ‘Crossing’.

The themes of loss and love are still evidently present in some of the track titles; however, his previous emotional export is this time not. Where Feryl’s previous outings excelled, ‘Crossing’ fails. Tracks like ‘Static Feelings’ lack melodic strength, instead dipping into moments of unbearable dissonance and bouts of uninterrupted repetition. The harmonies in the first half of ‘Back and Forth/ Moving On’ are drab and lifeless, sputtering in an incoherent mess, whilst ‘I Doubted Myself’ is just plain boring, 4 minutes of Castlevania meets my-first-tracker-song.

There are some gems in the dirt however. ‘She Never Wrote Me Back’ has an ingenious introduction and the second half of ‘Back and Forth/Moving On’ makes great use of countermelodies and harmonies to create a rare glimpse of emotion. However these highlights only serve to emphasise the flaws elsewhere.

Overall, large portions of ‘Crossing’ sound messy and incomplete. The lack of consistent countermelodies throughout the release leaves tracks sounding limp, and a portion of the melodies that do remain are awkward and samey. A more worthwhile pursuit would be to discover the excellent ‘Aware’ and ‘How to Heal a Broken Heart’, before you attempt to delve into the quite frankly inferior ‘Crossing’. 

Favourite Track: She Never Wrote Me Back

Get the whole release here. 

Tracklist:

1. Static Feelings

2. Back and Forth/ Moving On 

3. She Never Wrote Me Back

4. I Doubted Myself

5. Crossing

Review| Chema64- Zapotecno

Chiptune’s ‘official’ Mexican exporter, Chema64, has returned with a new collection of tracks spanning four years and four consoles. Released on his own label, 56kbps Records, Chema64’s infectious jams are sure to remind the world that, along with Pulselooper and Chilean Analog, South America should not be underestimated as a producer of chiptune.

One thing ‘Zapotecno’ does very well is traverse genres. Tracks ‘Machines of Loving Grace’ and ‘Fin del Mundo del Fin’ both contain nods at metal a la 90s VGM faux-thrash (think Duke Nukem 3D’s soundtrack). Elsewhere, album closer, ‘Quetzalli’, has a euphoric Saturday Morning theme tune pop atmosphere, with the accompanying hook-laden melodies lodged within its crevasses. 

The apex of the release really comes past the mid-point, however, and to be honest if the first four tracks had been cut the five remaining would have created a far more cohesive and powerful statement. The sounds present within ‘Dubtrip’ and ‘Featherblade’ are one of a kind, in fact the horn-like glissando harmonies on the climax of the latter sent goosebumps shooting up my arm. The spaced out atmosphere and throttling basslines of ‘Datavoid’ created a nice chunk of variation, and ‘Quetzalli’ has quite possibly one of the greatest selections of melodies to be released this year.

Whilst on the first few listens the sometimes repetitive and often hap-hazard sounding melodies might deter future listens, I would implore you to persevere. Unlike the adrenaline ladled ‘unce’ of most of his contemporaries, Chema64’s real strengths lie in his understated melodic hooks. What on first listens might appear like a jumble of erratic notes will quickly become nine tracks of greatly varying character and undeniable brilliance.

So, with the amateurish tones of ‘BROWNWAVE’ and dud melodies in ‘Megameng II’ aside, this release is fantastic. Given the time, ‘Zapotecno’ will likely become a mainstay in your listening repertoire, and such a unique one at that. If this is the level of quality produced elsewhere in South America, the rest of the world should definitely take note.  

Favourite Track: Fin del Mundo del Fin

Grab the full release over here. 

Tracklist:

1. Megameng II

2. Machines of Loving Grace

3. BROWNWAVE

4. Nerd Fatale

5. Dubtrip

6. Fin del Mundo del Fin

7. Featherblade

8. Datavoid

9. Quetzalli

WeeklyTreats Q1 Catch-Up Zip [Jan-March]

Four months already! As promised, we finally bring you the first three months of WeeklyTreats in an easily digestible zip! But that's not all! We've also been scrapping up all manner of goodies from our first 13 WeeklyTreaters, and as such we're happy to present to you a boatload of bonuses! 
What you get in the Q1 Catch-Up:
- Tracks 1 through 13 of WeeklyTreats
- All poster art for the first 13 WeeklyTreats
- All Bonus art from the first three monthly zips, including wallpapers and sticker art
- 4 brand new tracks to WeeklyTreats!:
--- 001 Kubbi- Up In My Jam
--- 002 DKSTR- wailinggoose
--- 003 Starpilot- Wonderflea
--- 004 Starpilot- Wide Awake [Demo]
- Bonus artwork from WeeklyTreater Starpilot
- Bonus artwork and assorted photography from WeeklyTreater Holy Konni
- Mikee Teevee's Modification Gallery
- Steve's Super Famicom DJ Chart 2013
- LGPT song and sample files for Cheapshot's track 'I Do'
- WeeklyTreats: The Game, an art NES rom by our very own Love Through Cannibalism! 

What are you waiting for? Get it here!

Review| Monomer- Quite Operational

Monomer. His first EP release, ‘Trials’, came out last year on Pause. Since ‘Trials’ his name has popped up on a multitude of high-profile compilations, including Ubiktune’s ‘Preschtale Variations’ and upcoming Fez soundtrack remix album ‘FZ: Side F’. Now he’s back, with a new release seemed destined to make sure next time you read his name there’ll be a strong association attached to it.

First of all, anyone already versed in Monomer’s work is in for a bit of a shock; ‘Quite Operational’ is quite different from anything he’s released in the past. Following the recent trend towards Drive-influenced  80s electro-house in chiptune, which was further pushed by the popularity of Hotline Miami’s soundtrack and the output of Telefuture, Monomer’s most recent opus is an 80s homage painted neon.

What sets this aside from previous retrospective exercises in postmodernism is the depth at which the decade is explored. Not only is the aforementioned electro-house delved into, but ‘On The Brink’ has flourishes of hair metal melodies, and ‘Better Living Through Dysgenics’ features chordal tones that wouldn’t be amiss on a Bowie record. These strands stand strong alongside the pulsating bass and kicks of the rest of the release, creating a unified window into the past.

Another noticeable difference from its contemporaries is Monomer’s utilisation of tension and release. Album opener and title track ‘Quite Operational’ hits hard when it does finally hit, and ‘Deletion’ blends industrial tinges with a foreboding atmosphere, an atmosphere seen multiple times on this release. Think Rolly Mingwald but more menacing.

The album isn’t perfect though. The eight tracks here could easily have been cut down to six; ‘The Glow and The Gleam’ flows by inoffensively but also rather blandly, and final track ‘Discontinue’ flitters without aim and ends up nowhere. In my opinion, the euphoric grandiose of ‘On The Brink’ would have made a far more compelling album closing.

That said, this is still a great release. This foray into cyberpunk and Miami-House (yeah that’s a genre I just made up) is a fantastic one, in fact one of the best and most courageous yet. By mixing more than the standard broth in an emerging subculture, Monomer will solidify himself as one of its founders. 

Grab it here for $5, or stream it for free. 

Tracklist:

1. Quite Oprational

2. Temple

3. Better Living Through Dysgenics

4. The Glow And the Gleam

5. Night Drive

6. Deletion

7. On The Brink

8. Discontinue

Review| Jay Tholen- The Low Drone of the Earth

Jay Tholen has been creating his unique blend of chiptune and progressive rock for years now. He’s had releases featured on labels as prestigious as Ubiktune and Pause, and ‘moonlights’ as a game designer and artist (seen through his work on upcoming adventure game ‘Dropsy The Clown’). Adding to his already sizeable musical repertoire, this week Mr. Tholen released ‘The Low Drone of the Earth’, an electronic progressive opus in 7 parts on Swan City Sounds. 

The album’s opener, ‘Before The World Began’, sets the mood of the release perfectly. Pink Floydian tones and highly layered melodies flutter over each other, tied together by Jay’s distinctive vocal styling. Despite the high amount of musical layering, dynamics are never affected; Tholen’s compositions regularly drift into subtly soft phrases before building back into a crescendo. Tracks 2 through 7 are tied together into a loose conceptual album, and they blend in to each other seamlessly, helping emphasise a prose-like feeling of the album.

Unsurprisingly for anyone already well-versed in Tholen's previous works, there is flirtation with a multiple of genres en-masse. ‘I- Voice of the West’ mixes psychedelic rock with electronic meanderings, ‘II- Golem Apollo and the King of the Badlands’ features heavy use of electro-pop vocoders and ‘VI- A Lament’ boasts a weighty post-rock atmosphere. Despite the huge range of instrumentation and musical influence, ‘The Low Drone of the Earth’ still manages to be Jay Tholen’s most cohesive piece of work to date, achieved only through the compositional strength of the music within. Whilst earlier works like 'Blood Fete' suffered from brief interludes of dissipation, 'The Low Drone...' feels eclectic and meticulous.

The vocals also sound better than they ever have before, though if you weren't a fan of Tholen’s warblings or explicitly religious overtones before this record won’t change your mind. Also, the title track fizzles out messily, though these small qualms shouldn't distract you from the truly fantastic music within. 

These negatives feel small in comparison to the release as a whole, however. If you've been a fan of anything Jay has released before, you'll be championing this as his magnum opus minutes in. If you're new to his work, I can't think of a better place to start. Tightly-bound, full of direction and boisterous in both its scope and execution, 'The Low Drone of the Earth' sounds like the album Jay Tholen has been working towards all these years. 

Tracklist:
1. Before The World Began (Invocation)
2. I- Voice of the West
3. II- Golem Apollo and the King of the Badlands
4. III- Far Away (feat. Accidental Metronome)
5. IV- The Drone of Earth
6. V- Alone in a Cave
7. VI- A Lament 

Review| Holy Konni- Fetushouse

Debuting on the Cheapbeats label this week is Swedish HolyKonni with his first release since last year’s ‘lgpt_princess’. Holy Konni’s style is a fairly unique one, forming a bricolage of multiple genres from ambient and juke to seapunk and deep house. In short however, this is certainly Konni’s most refined work to date.

Let’s rewind a bit first though. Holy Konni’s style has been in a continuous state of reconfiguration. There’s always been a standard ‘base model’, but nearly every release that he’s put out has substituted various components to form a new take on old ideas.’LET MEKILL!’, released in November 2011, featured a selection of chillout tracks, and the following release ‘lgpt_princess’ flirted with seapunk and trip-hop. ‘Fetushouse’ fits somewhere in between.

This new styling, self-proclaimed by Konni to be the first iteration of what he’s dubbing ‘fetushouse’, sounds exactly as the label describes. Warm ambient tones flow fluidly through house beats with heavy sampling and melodies reminiscent of seapunk and a short gander into trip-hop beats on occasion. Think quiet Aphex Twin crossed with Whitely's seapunk outings. Summer audiofied. That’s the style covered, what about the songs themselves?

The strongest set of tracks he’s produced yet. The five songs work as a unit perfectly, leaving you begging for more (as all good EPs should). ‘Self Portrait 19’’s juke inspired sample work was definitely a highlight, as was the oceananarchist throes of ‘Natalie Portman’. If anything, the songs work so well together that my only real gripe with the release is that the tracks weren’t presented as a single mix instead of separate tracks.

Should you download this? Of course you should. It’s Holy Konni. It’s not just Holy Konni, it’s Holy Konni at his very best. Get hyped for summer people!
You can grab it here! Digital downloads are $3 and you can nab a physical copy for only $7!

Tracklist:
1. Kate Moss Magic
2. Self Portrait 19
3. Vlieg Berg/Stop Nie
4. DREAM CRY BREAST LIFE
5. Natalie Reborn