Recording review - Föllakzoid, III (2015)

Sink into hypnotic rhythms and dark echoes

^4.0/5.0

World music -- that vague catch-all label -- largely falls into two flavors, neither of which reflect too well on the Westerners who coined the term. The bulk of it is “delightfully exotic” or “strange but cool”, showcasing some culture’s musical heritage, but repackaged in easy to digest servings to appeal to the jaded palate. Worse than that are the half breed mutants that hover between appropriation and cargo-cult aspiration, sometimes with rock artists harnessing foreign musicians without understanding their cultural context, other times with those musicians trying with mild success to emulate Western pop. Even so, I’ll confess that I’ve enjoyed my share of all of these, sometimes with a frisson of guilt.

Föllakzoid’s sophomore album, III, neatly sidesteps this minefield by focusing on their creative vision and building rich, long-form trance excursions. The Chilean trio taps into a hypnotic flow that has served numerous traditions from Indian ragas and Sufi dervishes to Krautrock drives and dancehouse electronica. Their music may draw somewhat on South American rhythms, but those influences don’t stick out as much as the motorik percussion, Indian polyrhythms, trance psychedelia, and Goth rock moodiness. Why waste time pedantically analyzing the cultural referents or feeling hiply superior when you can surrender to the swirling syncopation and trippy echoes?

III is a full length album split into four tracks, but the songs seem to share thematic elements even as they change up their production. In particular, the first two tracks, “Electric” and “Earth” have a lot in common: each begins with syncopated beats built from echoed percussion, they build into trancy electronica, and they feature heavily reverbed vocals. But the two songs develop completely different moods. “Electric” latches on to a slinky bass groove that pushes into Ozric Tentacles territory. Electronic washes and a deep, pensive throb create a beautiful tension that complements the crystalline bite of guitar and gives a surreal edge to the faint vocals that sounds like distant PA announcements. The song wraps up with a sci-fi flavored interlude featuring robotic sound effects and shimmering static.

“Earth” rises from this sonic soundscape with a metallic percussion that develops into a deep tribal rhythm. The bass is strong here, too, but now it’s heavy and impassive, reminding me a bit of Joy Division. The effect is much darker than the first track, suggesting shadowy hallways where barely noticeable electronic grinding suggests alien threats lurking just out of sight. Despite that undercurrent of danger, there’s also a thoughtful element as the piece hypnotically wraps in on itself, occasionally running into dead ends and moving on while the echoes hang on a little bit.

The shortest piece, “Feuerzeug”, closes out the album with an intense nine minutes of pensive Krautrock that ambraces the Gothic sounds of Joy Division and Bauhaus. The main theme is thick with tension and has me expecting to hear Ian Curtis break in with the vocals for “Transmission”. Then some heavier flashes of guitar against the steady beat suggest Bauhaus’ “Terror Couple Kill Colonel”. At the same time, Föllakzoid aren’t aping those bands. They make their own statement by playing with the sonic palette to blend in harsher, low-fi tones that contrast against the softening echoes and electronic touches. They fill in a host of disjointed details that drift in and out before the song gradually deconstructs itself.

If III has a weakness, it’s one that many trance-oriented projects share: it’s too easy for a casual listener to dismiss the whole collection as repetitive and miss the nuances between the songs.“Feuerzeug” may stand as the best argument against that criticism, but I think that Föllakzoid could have varied the tempos a little more to create more differentiation. Ultimately, those are minor issues that won’t distract as you sink under the album’s spell. Best of all, it’s not “world music”; it’s just music, perfect for an early Spring bike ride or as a soul-refreshing barrier against workday monotony .

Recording review - Govinda, Resonance (2012)

Fluid violin against vibro-tronic bass grind builds a mysterious tension

Last year, Govinda (Shane O Madden) made my best of 2011 list with his impressive album, Universal On Switch. On his latest offering, Resonance, Madden continues to develop his sound, taking his gypsy violin and electronic grooves into a darker, bass heavy direction. Like Beats Antique, Govinda is rooted in an exotic world-tronica mix of produced sound, layered acoustic instruments, and foreign beats. But Govinda emphasizes the electronic production more than Beats Antique, giving his tracks a more experimental edge.

Govinda's production is stellar on Resonance. He builds a great 3-d sonic footprint in his tracks, where individual layers stand out from one another and slight EQ differences suggest distance and depth. On Sonic Muse, the individual parts -- the intro voice sample ("Follow me [giggle]"), the twinkling music box notes, the pizzicato notes of main groove -- remain distinct and suggest a wide auditory vista. The basic groove features a deep bubbling bass and sharp accents against a solid trance beat. Indian strings and drums, gypsy violin, and processed fragments of chanted voice all add to the foreign vibe of the piece, but the electronic sound dominates. Madden's violin weaves in and out of the mix with a fluid grace, but the track's structure remains geometrically centered.

The rich vocals on Plant the Seed or Clan of Love are a logical outgrowth from Universal On Switch's Myself. The jam on Plant the Seed gets a lot darker and glitch-driven, but Rosey's sultry voice is the common link:

Put the seed under your tongue
In the Springtime, I will come
Do you feel me grow inside of you?
Let love blossom, let love come through

Rosey is languid and seductive, giving the song a warm, jazzy flavor along with the sentimental strains of violin, but the glitchy music underneath seethes, unsettled. All too soon, the heady syncopation lurking within the electronic foundation grows restless and spawns a grinding bass line. The hint of dub step shifts into a smoother trance vibe that chills out the song into a trippy wind-down.

Resonance is best appreciated with closed eyes, so the listener can be immersed and surrender to the drifting electronic elements. On Candle Fire, Govinda sets a house groove where Indian instruments mesh with the electronic parts to build an exotic, abstract feel. The song develops into the album's iconic bass grind sound. Shimmering chimes, bowed strings, and whistling synth accents all slip in and out of the rasping, vibro-tronic current. Irina Mikhailova's chanting vocals offer a softer contrast to the saw-wave bass. Even with the rhythm hanging back, the track's intensity feeds a climbing tension.

Rounding out the female vocal contributions on the album, Krystyn Pixton offers a cool fem-pop sound on Clan of Love. Pixton's voice is dreamy, but Govinda processes her singing to fit the rolling sound of the tune. The spare, spacious intro yields to an electronic groove with a reggae beat. "I want your crazy/ Want your chaos wind on me." The assortment of parts fit together into a smooth whole, but there's an elemental randomness at work: touches of reggae bubble next to a fiddle melody with a Highlands vibe, and glitch cuts chop the song into Cubist slices. The resulting house of cards seems expertly balanced.

Govinda retains his trance grooves on Resonance, but this is an edgier offering than Universal On Switch. The rattling bass is a strong contributor, but the mix of soft and hard gives the new album a different, mysterious feel. There's greater complexity that pulls this music into the foreground.

Resonance is available on Govinda's Bandcamp page.

Concert review - Infected Mushroom, with Randy Seidman and Seth Abrumz

28 January 2012 (Aggie Theatre, Ft. Collins CO)

A couple of DJ sets featuring a pair of go go dancers were the prelude for Infected Mushroom's rocking show. This was my first time seeing the band and I was blown away.

But first, let's run through the opening acts.

Seth Abrumz

Seth Abrumz seems to be the go-to local guy for all of the electronic-style touring artists passing through Ft. Collins. He's normally a solid DJ, with a nice ear for mixing techno, trance, and dance beats. His biggest weakness is that he doesn't work the audience more directly.

For this show, he introduced the set saying "I'm going to whip it up in a different style than I normally do." With that, he set up a moody, jungle beat groove. It wasn't bad, especially when he layered another beat into the mix. The problem was that he didn't really do much else exciting during his long set. Throughout his tracks, he'd periodically tweak the mix a little, but almost all the creative work was done when track was originally laid down.

Did I mention how long his set was? It dragged out over 100 (!) minutes. I was starting to wonder if the touring acts had gone missing and he was covering for them. With such a long set anchored in the same tempo zone, the only distraction were the two dancers grinding to the beat. That added a little bit of show, but a screen with mutating visuals would have helped pass the time.

Randy Seidman

With minimal fanfare, Abrumz ceded the state to Randy Seidman. The start of Seidman's DJ set was promising. He started off with a strong, progressive house groove. He had some interesting transitions. Early on, he tweaked a looped beat so it was offset to give a slight reggae vibe and then layered in a straight beat. Those kind of interesting mix ideas were cool.

Unlike Abrumz, Seidman danced around a lot and engaged with the crowd a bit. But a successful DJ set depends on the communication going both ways. The DJ needs to read the crowd and adjust his set to create the mood and get people dancing. Seidman tried, but never quite connected. He'd set up a break beat and then drop in the heavy bass to get everybody dancing. The audience seemed game, but each time, they settled back down within two or three measures.

In a dance club or rave, he probably would have done fine. But between Abrumz' long, steady set and the anticipation for Infected Mushroom, he faced a tough challenge. Not even the hot dancers could tip the balance.

Infected Mushroom

It was close to midnight, but the relatively weaker opening acts were quickly forgotten once Infected Mushroom started their set. Listening to them online, I expected that they'd be tightly locked into the electronic trance groove. They delivered that feel, but that was only a taste of their range. They had a full band line up with keys, a guitar, and drums. The arrangements took full advantage of this to create rocking electronic grooves that sounded like a hard rock takeover of the club scene.

The guitar was a huge element. Tom Cunningham, the guitarist, favored metal style riffs, crunching rhythms, and soaring harmonics. Despite his hyper playing, his stage presence came across like a laid back Slash. Erez Eisen's keyboards covered the bass lines, but also kept the hybrid sound anchored with electronic jams. Along with drummer Rogério Jardim, the band assembled and rocked the groove. Even so, it was singer Amit Duvdevani that sold it. He was incredibly charismatic.

With a rapper MC flair, Duvdevani worked the crowd, getting everyone dancing and moving whichever way he wanted. Along the way, his singing bridged the two background worlds at the heart of Infected Mushroom, shifting between a hard edged growl and a more theatrical style. A couple of high points included their cover of the Foo Fighters' The Pretender and a balls out version of Pink Nightmares, their recent single.

Aside from the driving music and Duvdevani's stage presence, Infected Mushroom threw in plenty of spectacle, from the giant inflatable mushroom to the dancing Wonderland girls to a bizarre Mirror Man. But that was just window dressing. The audience let the band transport them to a wild alternative space. It took a while to get there, but Infected Mushroom was worth the wait.

One interesting observation was that Infected Mushroom was only selling shirts, not music. While it's true that the albums almost pale in comparison to their live show, it was still a surprising decision. If you get the chance to see them live, don't hesitate.


More photos on my Flickr.

CD review - Govinda, Universal On Switch (2011)

Despite having some strong musicians in the genre, America is hardly ground zero for electronic music. Listening to Universal On Switch, it's surprising that such a beautifully exotic blend of world music and electronic jams came out of Austin's Govinda. The band is the alter ego of producer and composer Shane O Madden, who partners with Yasmin and Mirabai to create rich dance/music performances.

The rich balance of acoustic and electronic sounds defines Govinda's unique blend. Shane O layers gypsy tinged violin over a mix of downtempo, trancestep, and ambient grooves. Some of the tracks feature warm, R&B style vocals and occasional glitching. Unmoored from any kind of e-purity, Universal On Switch is chameleon-like, aiming primarily for mood and feel. A host of Indian and Mideastern touches add to the alluring sound. This is fusion world-tronica.

The title track is awesome. The snaky, meandering melody clings to the steady beat, teasing between India and the Mideast. Electronic elements creep in, with glitchy vocals and bass grind creating a rich trance groove. The trance vibe shits into more of a dub step feel to change the energy. So much is going on that Universal On Switch seems much longer than its 5 minute run time.

Similarly, Hungry sets up an Indian trance groove that combines vocal riffing on an Indian rhythm exercise, traditional instruments, and electronic trappings. The fluid gypsy minor violin riffs meld with the jangly tension of the electro-beat. The mix of old and new - acoustic and electric - create a sense of novelty that carries through the whole track.

Universal On Switch also has some more pop friendly tracks. Angel Freezing sets up a slightly auto-tuned vocal drifting over an electro-pop beat and a kitchen sink of electronic tricks. Myself sets up a chill trance groove mashed up with an R&B vocal line.

Govinda is deft at mixing of disparate elements to create striking, cohesive songs. The underlying intent of Universal On Switch was to create a testament to Madden's late partner, Andrea Burden. Just like every person's life is a tapestry of differing elements and perspectives, this album offers varying facets over time. It's comfortable enough to carry as a background soundtrack, yet it stands up to focused listening as well. Like spiced chai with honey and rose water, subtle details continue to surprise me.