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Golden Traxe is a great album, and one that draws on a rich history of electronic and computer music. For a bit of track-by-track deconstruction, the first track, 'Poke', which starts with a vocal smple that is difficult to make out, and is composed of largely staccato clips, which repeat before the source comes to a natural end. It's largely loop-based and sounds to be mostly synthesized (with a couple samples thrown in), which leads to an "elektronische Musik" sort of vibe.
By no means is Shadow Dancer limited to German-inspired work, for instance, the next track (my favorite) is 'Soap.' Same stacatto patterns, much of the same looping (with phasers thrown in here and there to add to the build) and also a very wet, metallic reverb, but many more of the source clips are sampled (and modulated) rather than synthesized. This track is probably the most dance-based, drawing (at least partially) from 1980s style breakbeat. It was also released as a single.
'Infinite Lies,' the next track, is a lot simpler and more one-dimensional; it sounds like mostly a straightforward loop with some of the samples 'scratched,' that is, a sort of cross between turntablism and glitching. There's a curious bridge in the middle with the same clip overlapping itself which leads into the second half of the track which is about as unremarkable as the first. Definitely not without merit, but one of the weaker tracks on the album.
'Walker' has some vintage-sounding vocal samples, and seems to be mostly glitch-based; there's a high-pitched melody of sorts, but it's not the sort of thing one could whistle. This simple melody repeats as a motif after a breakdown in which samples again get choppier under a phaser, and then there's the addition of a modulated synth guitar track, plus some more glitching. Another breakdown and a return to the initial pattern, and the song ends in a sort of washout as the sample rate gets crushed.
'Golden Traxe,' the eponymous track of the album, has a more concrete melody, and several 'concréte' samples, following the familiar pattern of buildup-breakdown-shift-breakdown-return. The feel is one of earlier electronic music and turntablism.
'Landlines' opens with a request: "Don't hesitate to ask for assistance," which fades out as the sample speed gets slowed down. This track is heavily glitch-based, the most on the album, perhaps, and uses vocal samples rhythmically in a sort of techno-a-capella, for a very "musique concréte" feel, and them some synth leads come in after a breakdown, and in fact the rest of the track feels like is proceeds in a series of these breakdowns, for instance, two samples repeating as one is shifted up in pitch and the other gets a bitcrusher effect (right before the track ends).
'Drivetime' starts in with a sinewave shifting down in pitch over a low bitrate beat. The piece as a whole is very airy and more free-floating than the rest of the album which is perhaps ironically more 'drive'-ing. This piece is meant, perhaps, to relax the listener from more high-paced songs in the album; other than the different feel, it follows a similar pattern and uses similar effects (bitcrusher, etc.) to the same end.
"How did you like it? // A lot." The question posed at the beginning of 'What is natural?' answers itself. Not much new in this track, some vocal sampling (in addition to the unusually long sample at the beginning of the track). Gradually brings the pace back up after Drivetime, but doesn't stick out of the album.
In case the listener has become bored, the next track, 'Loader', is my second favorite on the album. It starts with some white noise and a low-fi melodic pattern, which mixes digital (8-bit sounding) low-fi with analog lo-fi of dusty vinyl. A deep phaser brings in the melody loop, the most melodic track on the album, with a loop-based beat. The melody is minimalist and revolves around progressive minor chords; sort of Philip Glass meets techno dance music. The breakdown comes with bitcrushers under deep, super-wet phasers laden with feedback, after which the previous pattern is joined by a really chunky sawtooth which adds an edge to the beat.
'Be Happy' starts with an 8-bit video game sounding sample, shifts into a slow phase over the melodic pattern, adds in the beat, and occasionally a pitch-shifted grunt and the video game sample come back.
'Lower Left' again phases in (a very reverb-y bit that sounds like water in a cave), then has some staccato, chunky patterns that change rapidly in pitch before falling off, still good, but nothing new.
'The Bad Thing' starts with the distinctive sound of a sample that has been stretched in terms of time but not in terms of frequency. There's a background of vinyl hisses and pops and the beat on this is strong and more coarse grained, using a vocal sample as part of the beat. My third-favorite track on the album. The 'melody' is very simple (and repetetive), but proceeds slowly enough and clearly enough that one could probably whistle this if they were really inclined. After a couple of these characteristic 'breakdowns', the part of the 'melody' continues, but the sample rate is such that the original pitches are now inscrutiable. A false ending, and now every beat is divided in two for a much more stacatto sound, but maintaining the same overall pacing.
'This is This' reminds the listener that 'This ain't something else. This is this. From now on, you're on your own," sounding as though the sample has been run through a more complicated (band-pass?) filter, capturing only the parts of the voice timbre necessary to make it coherent. This piece is less characteristic of the album, and more generic in terms of techno, but still has the 'breakdown' transitions (sense a pattern?) often overlayed by phasers or pitch shifts. The texture of the beat gets very thick; many samples are overlayed to create a more complex loop. While it's odd to end on a more uncharacteristic track, it's a pretty good one and is a nice finish to the album.
Overall the album is solid, though some of the tracks on it aren't strong enough to stand alone. On the other hand, maybe that's what albums are for, an outlet for tracks (and not bad tracks either, by any means) that would otherwise never see the light of day. On the whole, the album is also consistent. If you enjoy some tracks, you are likely to enjoy all of them; if you don't enjoy a track, you're unlikely to like the others any better. That said, 'Soap,' 'Loader,' and 'The Bad Thing' are standout tracks; if you were creating a mix for a party or looking for a prime example to showcase the album, these would be your best bet.
他の国からのトップレビュー
David Sawchak
Some outstanding dance tracks, deconstructed in the context of electronic music as a whole
2010年3月14日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
