ALBUM REVIEWS

DJ Rupture & Matt Shadetek
SOLAR LIFE RAFT
THE AGRICULTURE 9.11.09
@www.vanguard-online.co.uk


I have a suspicion that these may not be these guy’s real names and they’re mostly not their own tracks BUT they are all their own ideas. Crazy, crazy ideas and flaky concepts tripping out of a psychedelic vision.

It’s a stack of remixes and a half dozen original tracks, 22 pieces in all, each painstakingly worked into a strange shape then made stranger still be being blended into an hour-long mixtape. And they probably weren’t that normal before remixing, being drawn from the witty headspace of Brooklyn art-dance folks. Original pieces see poetry blending with beats. It means flatbeat meets dub meets dancehall meets dance meets warbling meets semi-classical vocals meets electronics meets vocoder meets heavy bass. There are broken up tunes, bits of beats and whole songs – it’s a lucky dip.

I don’t go for those nasty remixes you get of indie tracks when bands want to buy cool but this falls into a cohesive whole with repeating themes and a sense of journey. And it’s really cool for relaxing to.

Ross McGibbon

www.theagriculture.com