Label: The Grey Area of Mute Format: 2CD
Digital Lifeforms Redux is a reissue of work originally available on Touch from Richard H Kirk, the electronic half of Cabaret Voltaire. Unlike the Early/Later compilation simultaneously released by The Grey Area, this album represents a specific moment in time: the years 92-93. It is less representative of his work in Cabaret Voltaire, not that an Richard H Kirk album should be obliged to be representative. Kirk says that “the inspiration for much of this music came from a trip to Haiti in 1991”. It is “an attempt to fuse African sounds with machine music, or European electronics”. The tracks on Digital Lifeforms also take inspiration from Detroit Techno godfathers Juan Atkins and Derrick May, and the Redux edition includes an extra CD of mostly unreleased tracks.
The result is a relaxed fusion of Ambient Trance beats with ethnic samples, not the spiky Industrial electronics which may be expected given Kirk’s connection to Cabaret Voltaire. Although there are moments, such as the hard and spiky “Tribal Warfare” that are reminiscent of Cabaret Voltaire, Digital Lifeforms Redux has a mellow sound. Tracks like “Limbo” have that early Nineties Tribal sound: energetic, but relaxed with it. The music has a lot in common with The Orb or Logic Trance releases of the day. However, I don’t want to label Digital Lifeforms Redux merely as Trance; let’s not look at the early Nineties with rosy tinted specs. There was plenty of Trance Techno that was insipid or plain repetitive. Kirk’s music is well constructed. He explores the format and sees what directions it can be pushed in. “Zombie Astral” fuses Rrance with a Latin/Miami sound. Kirk plays with big symphonic soundscapes and build ups on “White Tab/Steel Darkness” in the way that would itself become an integral part of Trance in the late nineties.
When the tracks on Digital Lifeforms Redux were originally released the division between trance and ambient music was blurred. These days it is easy to think of electronic ambience coming in a straight line from the beatless static sounds and drones of Brian Eno with nothing in between. Digital Lifeforms Redux is a reminder of how busy and beaty early ambience was.
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