Review Summary: Your dreams may be forgotten, but their soundtrack never will
I don't see this as an understatement to say that Guido's long awaited and quietly hyped debut
Anidea might just be the slow burning album of the year that a lot of people have been patiently waiting for. And it comes as no real surprise that Guido would be the one to deliver it to us; there's just something about his casual and coy approach to evoking feelings and emotions in his music that has not only thrown me for a loop, but entranced me in the true sense of the word. Every artist worth a damn will try for years to capture the right element, to instill in us the essence of why they do what they do, to in a very real sense take a still image and turn it into sound. And yet Guido has achieved this, almost effortlessly in fact; and while I might just be a sucker for a sonic vacation, I'll be hard pressed to travel such high locales without Guido guiding the way.
Anidea is a paradise of sound, so vivid and detailed that I almost feel like if I reach out to touch it, it won't fall apart in my hands.
Anidea isn't an album with plans of instant invasion though, its a piece of work that requires time spent to burrow out all its little treasures, to discover all its little twists and turns, its initial coyness stripped away with every listen. Possibly the main reason behind its initial unwillingness to be opened up is that the album never revolves around one or two tracks, there's no huge standout on offer here. Every track flows with the same fabric that's weaved before and after it; while every number ducks and dives through varying degrees of dream inspiring playfulness and toys with different tastes and styles they're all cut from the same cloth, all bound by the same thread. There's a kind of underlying grandeur here, this unbridled yet never overriding sense of sublime meets spectacle. Every cut revolves around a simple yet mystical melody that is always built upon, every line and key tone allowed to spiral out in all directions, yet always meeting back up come the final moments, resulting in inescapable yet joyously welcome flourishes and crescendos, luscious and oh so lucid.
What does manage to stand out the most here is that every song seems to be a kind of poignant ode to sound itself, a rich and rewarding collection of love songs designed for lush and dynamic backdrops. And while everyone, including his own label, might be quick to label Guido as dubstep its clear that what's on offer here is almost anything but. Sensory overload comes from sumptuous melodies and delicate textures, not drops and wobble. 'Cat In The Window' relies on an almost laconic melancholy to pass the time, while 'Mad Sax' radiates untold amounts of cool with its sax sampling and dizzying falsettos latched onto funky undertones. Floating chords and echoed percussion form downtempo treat 'Shades Of Blue', while 'Tango' sees Guido in full octane mode effortlessly mixing in swirling piano loops with teeth rattling bass that, against all odds, fits in perfectly with the rest of his dreamscape. What ties everything down though is how every song is structured; in that, they are just that,
songs. Instead of a slow increase in intensity and suffocating bass being cranked up even higher, every track is ever unfolding, revealing new facets under a strict sense of progression.
Anidea is more than just an accomplished debut, its fiercely diverse and wholly original, an album who's existence is only marred by the genre that everyone seems more than happy to lump it in with. Guido isn't out to create waves and subsequently ride them to the top, this is much more of a come in off the tide and wash up on the shore vibe. Call it post dubstep if you will, brand it as “purple” (I mean come on guys, seriously??), but don't write it off as just another entry into the Mount Kimbie/James Blake school of thought. Guido uses sound as his only expression and paints pictures with nothing more than a keyboard and a programming board, and his almost mild mannered approach to music is not just a delight, its a journey that needs to be taken.
