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Review Summary: The fanciest bookends are not so useful if there’s nothing for them to support I’m a little conflicted as to how I approach Chroma Chords. On the one hand, I’ve been a little underwhelmed with Shogun Audio’s recent output. Aside from the excellent Way of the Warrior LP and Spectrasoul’s soulful Delay No More, there hasn’t been much by way of inventiveness recently on the label. The focus on releases from stereotypical jump-up duo The Prototypes, two relatively safe Evolution EP releases in less than a year, and a lot of middling singles on the SGN:LTD imprint haven’t given me that much hope for the future of both the label and the future of drum & bass in general. On the other, though, the label’s best artists have consistently put out a stream of quality releases, not least of which includes Alix Perez’s debut album 1984. Of course, it’s been four years since then, but the singles the man has released in anticipation of Chroma Chords have been solid, and they were good portents for the sound of the album as a whole.
In the fashion of the single that was released previously, there’s some really good material on this album. Notably, the first four and last two songs are some of the best material that’s come out from the Shogun camp in a while. The album can really be divided into three separate facets - soulful, pristine drum & bass, woozy, tape-stretched downtempo, and grimy hip-hop - and these six tracks nail all three styles beautifully. Aside from a forgettable Foreign Beggars rap about standard corruption/conspiracy topics, “Monolith” is quite a good song, and its dank trap-rap beats and low end are really well-executed. Meanwhile, “Playing Games” showcases Perez’s talents with sultry, male-fronted DnB, and the vocals flow like ink over the cleanest-white snare hits and synth chords that make up the backbone of the piece. Perez also shows his skill with the chilled-out downtempo sections, whether it’s on the heavily compressed “Crystals” or the gauzy, starry-eyed “Annie’s Song.”
Unfortunately, the middle of the album really lacks in the quality so easily found on the ends. Rather than feel fresh and spotless, the aforementioned three facets done so well earlier and later seem more like caricatures of the styles Perez has shown his mastery of here. There’s really not much by way of originality in the middle, whether it’s with too-stereotypical hip-hop beats, DnB that’s just a weaker version of Perez’s past work, or tape-stretching which is far less interesting and repetitive than elsewhere on the album. Of course, the whole thing is immaculate by way of production, but it’s unfortunate that Perez ran out of steam around this part of the release.
However, maybe I’m judging the album too harshly here. After all, it’s still really well-done, and at times breathtakingly good. The last track, “Burnout,” deserves a mention for this, as it combines some seriously heavy neuro growls with a beautifully stuttered half-time beat, and it’s sure to cause mayhem on any dancefloor with which it comes into contact. It’s an anomaly within the framework of the album, but it works well to throw the balance off at the end. Overall, though, Chroma Chords is a release that’s great at times but leaves much to be desired at others. It’s one of the more solid releases from this corner of the electronic world for sure, but it doesn’t quite have the “oomph” needed to catapult it into greatness.
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Album Rating: 3.5
bam mothafuckas
good stuff, though, definitely worth a look. on the higher side of 3.5
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If he didn't have those terrible pop vocals on the cuts they would have been better, but they ruin the tracks. The bars on here were rather good, the least satisfactory of the bunch was, as you mentioned, the Foreign Beggars track. Everything on this album is so crisp and clean, I just wish he had expanded on some of the ideas and didn't use such lame vocals. I feel like I really need to emphasize how good the grime tracks are on this though, like really really good
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Oh good review btw!
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Eh, I like the vocals on Playing Games quite a bit. In general though I definitely agree, though I didn't find every single home track here to be incredible
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I'd love to check this out, Will-- we will make electronic music THE genre on Sputnik!!
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
-___-
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Why the long mouth, Jashy?
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i was just listening to "Blueprint" on Youtube, and didn't really care for it. Good thing it isn't on this album, apparently?
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
"Why the long mouth, Jashy?"
1. That will never happen with this existing userbase
2. I love both you guys, and although sometimes we have similar opinions on this stuff, the only people on here who's electronic music opinions really mean something to me are Acanthus, Adash, Aids, Clerqie, and TMobotron, sorry :[ you're still just getting into this stuff Jacob and you're not very well versed in a lot of the genres considering the task you were implying the two of you were going to do
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I didn't mean I'm going to review a lot of electronic music or anything like that. Not sure why you took my comment that way, I was messing around.
And I mean, I don't blame you for not listening to my opinion as much but why are you saying this? My comment had nothing to do with the influence of my opinion on this stuff - I was just checking out this album to see if it's my kinda thing, and that comment kinda rubs me the wrong way.
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*insert pretentious asshole Potsy comment here*
RIP you silent spud you
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
Can't wait to get crushed by Burn Out at the Shogun Audio stage at Outlook ahhhhhhhhh
| | | Album Rating: 2.4
Few of the tracks here work in a disposable kind of way (and this is coming from someone who genuinely enjoys 'Annie's Song') but the direction he's gone with here is just so far removed (from a technical point of view) from anything on 1984 or his ARP.101 stuff
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I really dig the music in Annie's Song but I just can't dig the vocals that much. One thing I think we can all agree on is how
clean the production on here is though, even the boring tracks sound amazing at the very least
| | | Album Rating: 2.4
Vocals aren't too bad (personally I kinda dig them in a lazy sunday kind of way) but dat sample...
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
Speaking of samples, I love how he used The Weeknd's "High For This" in "YDK", I thought it was a very creative use of the small snippets of the track he used, that track on a whole falls a bit short though
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
I'm shocked you had nothing bad to say about the review Dev, must mean I'm improving
| | | Album Rating: 2.4
Well when you stop worrying about genre and bpm (and this will sound harsh, but you're trying to be technical in your descriptions when you're really quite far off the mark) your stuff is far from bad. Though (and again, this will sound harsh) but your writing is, at times, quite formulaic. I don't really get a "voice" with your reviews, just a kind of standard intro - stuff I didn't like - stuff I liked - and conclusion. Which is, y'know, standard, but I feel like you could benefit from branching out a bit more
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the only people on here who's electronic music opinions really mean something to me are Acanthus, Adash, Aids, Clerqie, and TMobotron
Jash, I'm going to find you...
And while we're talking about promoting electronic music: shit, why has no one reviewed the new Sorrow yet?
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Yeah, fair point. I'm trying to change my writing up a bit but keep in mind I've only been writing seriously in terms of reviews for about 8-9 months. I'm getting better, but there's still some ways I can go obviously.
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