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Review Summary: Not perfect, but interesting enough to be worth a listen or twenty. These days, many emerging artists find it difficult to really make themselves stand out from the tide of their contemporaries. Individuality is something that we seldom see, whether that be from most ideas being already taken or that the "genre culture" (I just made that up, I'm very, very impressed with myself so bare with me) encourages people to pick what music they choose from a pallet of pre-determined styles in order for them to be recognised.
Maybe it would be a stretch to call Dakent truly original, after all the tags on their bandcamp page include "electronica", "ambient" and "post-rock", but in this day and age they're close enough. In the end, the style that they've already established for themselves is hard to pin down to any handful of inspirations. The general pallet of bells and screeching ambient effects is not something most people will be accustomed to, but it's something that you slowly get into and, with some self-persuasion, come to enjoy.
The manner in which Dakent chooses to distribute this style is, by contrast, quite run-of-the-mill. For the most part the music will build up in layers before reaching the final crescendo and then dampening down for the last 30 seconds or so. This is a tried and tested ambient structure and it works just as well as it does everywhere else. However the complexity of the layering is fairly impressive, with "Noon", the standout track on the EP, incorporating a number of layers that much reach into the double digits. There is an exception to be found with the title track, Banger, which follows it's namesake by introducing itself timidly before literally exploding into a wall of sound at around the 2 minute mark. It's surprising but most of all memorable, and very well executed.
Possibly the most memorable aspect, however, is how Dakent manages to seemingly pair the organic and the electronic. Whole tracks will play with a constant whine of crickets in the background, or the fluttering of wings while bleeps and feedback will swirl amongst it. The music is often slow and soft, allowing you to appreciate all that is happening at once and to truly appreciate the sheer amount of samples that you may have to strain yourself to hear.
A small word has to be said about the remixes, sadly they're bland and forgettable without exception and it seems the only reason they were placed on the EP was because remixes are expected. It's a shame really as it mars was is otherwise a solid, interesting EP. So "Banger" certainly isn't perfect, but it's incredibly impressive for a debut that seems to have gone unnoticed.
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Album Rating: 3.5
You can buy it for 1 Euro here: http://dakent.bandcamp.com/album/banger-ep
Listen to "Noon" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aflONTM39IU
Enjoy.
Also, feedback is welcome. (:
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Fairly average
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Fail to see how the Amon comparison either. This plays out more like The American Dollar
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Average, really? It's got some charm to it.
Never listened to The American Dollar, but the comparison to Amon Tobin comes from the subtle sampling of weird/organic sounds.
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Mixed into music that's completely different than Tobin's. The American Dollar are a mix of post rock and ambient, think Hammock but less drone-y and more sparkly and twee
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Heh, well if I'm honest it's the only thing I can find to truly link in some way to Amon Tobin bar Noisia (I found out later via. a friend that they've done some work together so that would explain where the influence comes from).
Anyway, I'll check The American Dollar out.
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Noisia and Amon Tobin sound nothing like, except for the fact that since Tobin did a track with (and then remixed) with Noisia he's included a little more bass in his work. That's the most random comparison I've come across in awhile
Noisia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eyRyjtothY
Amon Tobin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlYBPuHeZxw
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Actually, I'd say that Amon Tobin's somewhat recent obsession with high-quality sampling is something that's come from Noisia.
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How?
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And what do you mean by "high quality sampling"? Tobin's work has always been based off of sampling
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Because as far as I know, Tobin didn't really emerge into his excessive use of unique sampling until Foley's Room, which came around at the time of his remixes of Noisia, vice versa and their work together which came a little later. This leads me to believe that Tobin's initial appreciation of his new kind of style is derived from some inspiration from Noisia, eventually leading to the partnership between them.
Noisia incorporates a lot of individual sampling into his music, so it's not unreasonable to draw some kind of link between them, however strenuous it may be.
Please correct me if anything I said it completely wrong, I'm well aware that I'm walking on shaky ground with this but it's too big a coincidence to ignore in my eyes.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
"high-quality" coming from somewhere between "quirky" and "unique". i.e not run of the mill drum + bass stuff.
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Because as far as I know, Tobin didn't really emerge into his excessive use of unique sampling until Foley's Room, which came around at the time of his remixes of Noisia, vice versa and their work together which came a little later. This leads me to believe that Tobin's initial appreciation of his new kind of style is derived from some inspiration from Noisia, eventually leading to the partnership between them.
Foley Room was '07, Tobin wasn't working with Noisia until 2 years later
Noisia incorporates a lot of individual sampling into his music, so it's not unreasonable to draw some kind of link between them, however strenuous it may be.
*They and not at all, outside of an occasional vocal sample like in the track I linked anyway
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"high-quality" coming from somewhere between "quirky" and "unique". i.e not run of the mill drum + bass stuff.
Sampling isn't limited to drum & bass, nor is Tobin a part of drum & bass
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Ah, there we go then ;)
And yeh, I know that sampling isn't limited to drum & bass, I just used it as an alternative to electronica (and yes, I know they're different but... yeh. God this has gone badly but hopefully you can see what I was trying to get at).
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I'm just a little confused where you're getting these ideas from
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I am wondering the same thing. I cannot follow this guy.
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Review's well written though...
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
To shift the blame, I'm getting most of these ideas from a friend of mine who's very into his Noisia + stuff and rattled them off when I mentioned Tobin. Thought I'd trust him with this one.
There, excuses.
(You have to admit, the excuse is too generic to be made up.)
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Now if you'll excuse me I have a hole I'm supposed to be crawling into.
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