So, here we are again. I think I’ve reviewed in some way every Ekoplekz release – even if some of them were just 140 character yelps in the empty rooms of Twitter – and now, for the first time there’s signs that Nick’s relentless pursuit of his sound is cracking. Slightly.
Okay. It’s not really cracking. I’ve heard marketing gloop that suggests that this sounds nothing like his previous stuff. You’ll probably be pleased that this isn’t the case. This still (mostly) sounds like a Nick Gutterbreakz (I met him when he was still Gutterbreakz; he’ll always be Gutterbreakz) production. The characteristic DNA is here: the wobbly electronica, the arching loops, the dissolves and the static, the hums, the Lee Perry segues into dubDubdub but there are some changes, to the method if not the madness.
Nick’s dusted off his turntables (he’s not dusted that well, to be honest; in fact he’s mostly amplified the dust and sent it through an echo chamber); using records as a starting point for his usual modulations and close-filtering. Sometimes, he sounds more or less like himself but often this approach allows for a longer, more airy soundpool, with the loops happening in longer curls and voices appearing more often in the midst/mix.At one point, I think someone’s shouting “Doctor” and I’ll bet it’s Jo from the Jon Pertwee years (since Nick is at least as influenced by Jo clinging naked to the Dalek as he is by Delia Derbyshire hovering over gigantic tape machines) and there’s some beautiful bird sounds in a track that annoyingly sounds almost exactly like the middle portion of a track I’ve been working on for the next IX Tab album. Cheers for that distemporal psychic theft, Nick. You got there before me. Again.
-Loki-
