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Review Summary: Bringing back the funk the way they do best. The electronic music label OWSLA is a curious one. Created mid-2011 by Skrillex amid the meteoric rise of brostep around the world (especially in the U.S.), it’s garnered both great acclaim and heavy criticism for its ever-growing catalogue. The label’s massive influence on the electronic world can’t be denied, as it’s been making waves since its first release (Porter Robinson’s Spitfire EP), which crashed the Beatport servers upon first being released due to overwhelming demand and launched the young electro prodigy’s career into the stratosphere. This has prompted music fans all over the Internet to either bash or praise fervently the label’s signees, with names like Kill the Noise, Zedd, Nick Thayer, and (especially) the label boss himself being alternately flamed and lauded probably more than artists on any other electronic label out there today. And no wonder: one has to appreciate the wide variety of controversial talent Skrillex and his team have assembled. From club-destroyers like Porter Robinson, Kill the Noise, and Zedd, to the lesser-known styles brought about by Birdy Nam Nam and Hundred Waters, to widely respected artists trying out new (and often unappreciated) things, i.e. Skream and Sub Focus, the material OWSLA has released so far almost seems crafted intentionally to spark debate.
In fact, there’s probably only one artist on OWSLA who’s caused almost no controversy: KOAN Sound, a dubstep/glitch duo from Bristol, UK. No matter how much people talk trash about other big names on the label, critics and casual listeners alike praise the duo for everything they do. People love a lot of things about KOAN Sound: their top-notch production skills, the retro, funk-infused feel they bring to everything they create, their special glitchy homage to old-school hip-hop, and countless other good qualities. As a critic, I have to appreciate their intense attention to detail in all their songs - from the subtly growling bass in “Blessed” to the glitchy, precarious beats in “Coast to Coast” to the incredible synth sounds in glitch hop banger “Max Out”, everything is made fresh and with love. It’s like that perfect batch of cookies with just the right amount of sugar and vanilla, just like Mom used to make. It reminds us of a better time, when funk/hip-hop/whatever genre you loved (or pretend to have loved) reigned and DJs used vinyl instead of Macbooks.
Riding atop this wave of adulation comes KOAN Sound’s new EP, The Adventures of Mr. Fox. The duo seem to be trying as hard as they can to maintain the “retro” feel they’ve created so well on previous releases, which is most apparent with artwork reminiscent of the “good old days” and the name of the opening track, “80s Fitness.” And, sure, sometimes it feels like KOAN Sound are trying a little too hard to make their music take the listener back in time: on “80s Fitness,” KOAN Sound take the synth sounds that worked so well on a glitchy, vivacious “Coast to Coast” and suck all the life out of them, putting them over an uncharacteristically flat and dull 110 BPM electro beat. But, for the most part, KOAN Sound do in fact create fantastic funk-infused and glitchy electro of the sort that’s made them famous and loved throughout the electronic world. “Eastern Thug,” the standout track on this EP, starts off with a quietly intense piano line and an occasionally strumming string instrument, and then transitions into a buildup that seamlessly connects the intro with a brutal synth line and KOAN Sound’s characteristic glitchy 100 BPM drums. I cannot stress enough how perfectly the introduction flows into the buildup, or how perfectly the buildup leads into the rest of the song - KOAN Sound have really created something incredible here. “Sly Fox” is a funky tribute to a better time, and the combination of funk bass, hip-hop-styled beats, and KOAN Sound’s trademark wobbles evoke a nostalgic feeling most people love to feel. Finally, “Introvert” is probably the first track KOAN Sound has made that wouldn’t work in a live environment. Melancholy piano chords and subdued drums meld with a growling bassline that surprisingly doesn’t feel out of place with the more toned-down background. It’s more subtle than one might have expected from the duo, but it contrasts well with the rest of the EP.
The sad thing is that the main flaw with the EP lies not with KOAN Sound themselves, but the remixes. Techy drum & bass titan Reso takes an already lifeless “80s Fitness” and, instead of injecting much-needed energy into the song, syncopates the beats uncomfortably. It feels uncomfortable and jarring and ends up leaving a mangled corpse instead of a resurrected tune. Similarly, Australia’s resident glitch hop master Opiuo changes “Sly Fox” only minimally, most notably repeating the vocal sample a couple times too many and, like Reso, creating an uncomfortable syncopation. And although Neosignal’s club-smashing rework of “Eastern Thug” isn’t a bad remix by any means, the charm of the original is lost and the remix pales in comparison. However, even a slate of bad remixes can’t hold back a solid release from a solid production duo. If you’re looking for funk, glitch, hip-hop, or something to remind you of the good old days, this is for you.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Originally posted on http://www.muzikdizcovery.com/
Album streaming at http://www.youtube.com/user/OWSLAofficial?feature=watch
Overall, it's not quite up to snuff with the rest of KOAN Sound's stuff, but it's still good. Worth a listen.
| | | Awesome dude, you always review great bandcamp-obscure / experimental-interesting bands that are right
up my alley, like that neo jazz band some days ago. Pos, I'll check this out :]
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Thanks for the pos! KOAN Sound are actually pretty big in the electronic world (70k fb fans is pretty famous) and they're considered to make some of the best glitch hop as of late. If you're going to check this out, listen to Eastern Thug, but if you're going to check the group out as a whole, listen to their Max Out EP. Max Out, Mr. Brown, and One Hand Clap are all incredible.
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a dubstep/glitch duo from Bristol, UK.
They're not glitch.... like at all
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Glitch and glitch hop are pretty close, plus at the very least songs like Coast to Coast and (to a lesser extent) Introvert are kinda glitchy...I see what you mean, they're not standard Glitch Mob-styled glitch, but they're still a different kind of glitch.
| | | Originally posted on http://www.muzikdizcovery.com/
Oooooohhh!
| | | Double post, computer is meh.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yup :D Thanks again for inviting me to the site!
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Glitch and glitch hop are pretty close, plus at the very least songs like Coast to Coast and (to a lesser extent) Introvert are kinda glitchy...I see what you mean, they're not standard Glitch Mob-styled glitch, but they're still a different kind of glitch.
Throwing in stuttered vocal samples doesn't make you "glitch" just like tarring and feathering yourself will not make you a chicken
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Not just stuttered vocal samples (have you heard coast to coast or introvert? neither has a vocal sample except for one in coast to coast that isn't stuttered), but syncopated drums, out-of-time synths, etc.
| | | How is that glitch?
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
What's your definition of glitch then? I was under the impression that glitch was a very broad term and applied to a lot of electronic, and glitch hop was no exception.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
this is a sweet ep
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What's your definition of glitch then?
Anything that's predominantly based on a "glitchy" aesthetic. Having wonky synths that aren't in sync with the percussion doesn't make something automatically glitch. Cutting samples together so they "stutter", like a cd skipping or whatever, and turning that into the beat (of sorts) is more in line with the idea of the sound, not a random 5 second drum fill before the snare hit
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
But then how does that definition cover guys like The Glitch Mob? I mean, I'm assuming you'd call them glitch, but stuff like
"animus vox" and "we can make the world stop" don't really fit into that definition at all. Also, under that definition something
like "ashtray wasp" would kind of be glitch (which I suppose it could theoretically be although calling Burial glitch seems like
kind of a stretch to me). Personally I like the idea of glitch being a large umbrella under which a whole lot of music fits, but
that's just me. I think it's just easier that way and leads to a whole lot less squabbling about genre, but I realize that's probably
an incorrect idea.
| | | The Glitch Mob are just a redundant outfit making a contrived version of something, like brostep for instance. Take an idea and dull it down so you can sell it wholesale. And no, sampling to make a normal (depends on how you look at this) beat isn't glitch, I'm talking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdO9SzDd3OU
And no I agree, glitch isn't really a genre, but more a type of sound that some artists dabble in, from idm to breakcore. Koan don't though ;)
| | | Deviant, would you say that Baths and Gold Panda have glitch elements?
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I see what you mean with that song but at the same time I feel like a song like "Coast to Coast" does in fact have similar qualities. I may of course be wrong but that's just my opinion - I do feel like it falls under the edges of the whole glitch umbrella.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Id say some of their stuff is pretty glitch actually, listen to jumpsuit adventures, some of the stuff on their max out ep is quite glitchy too.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I know one of the guys in KOAN Sound. Totally chill dude.
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