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Parsec: A unit of astronomical length based on the distance from Earth at which stellar parallax is one second of arc and equal to 3.258 light-years, 3.086 × 1013 kilometers, or 1.918 × 1013 miles.
Parsec is probably the spaciest release yet from Panacea's Squaremeter (m2) guise. Pulses and beeps drive the rhythm as Panacea still sticks to his guns, keeping the music basic, machine-like, anti-human and anti-software. It's almost as if the absence of sound takes center stage on this disc, since long delays and echoes are seemingly more prominent than the sources which were used to create them. While 'Parsec' is a stretch from the first couple releases on Ant-Zen and Mille Plateaux, the music isn't much different from the last year's "Kopyright Liberation." However, Panacea still utilizes various obscure KLF spoken-word samples intertwined with creepy science fiction influenced themes. Since that was a limited vinyl-only release, chances are you don't own it. New additions to the mix this time around include Middle Eastern-sounding vocals, analogue static and buried breakbeats. This disc is ideal for very loud volumes with all the lights turned off. If I didn't know Panacea to be straight edge, I'd swear this music was made for illegal hallucinatory experiences.
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The opening track 'Constantinople' is based on a loop so long it givesthe illusion of a shifting, explosive electro-acoustic piece, with bigrumbles and panning whooshes so beloved of many composers with Frenchnames. 'Winter Fire' couldn't be more different, with a slowly strummedaquatic guitar underpinning some mashed speech gibberish. Hertzlow is aquick burst of noise that's so short you can download the entire trackbelow. Argenteum Astrum is a rip roaring bubbling industrial technoidconcoction that'll get your bowels moving whilst its creator chuckles,and I'm kind of regreting not making a sample of it as it's turning outto be my favourite track. The final track 'Seaghost of Snape' seems tomash up bits of all the other tracks over a rising three note synthfigure that wouldn't sound out of palace on a mid period Autechrerecord, although that's the only similarity. Want another lazyreference? Well, if you like Throbbing Gristle's '20 Jazz Funk Greats'you might also like this.
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- Aer (Valid)
- (Fard) Ent:r (Arovane)
- Decay (Phonem)
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Calling music like this "electronica" is a massive underestimation of what kind of work must go into a release like this. Of course, I hate that term anyway, so there you go. Four Tet, started as an off-shoot project for Kieran Hebden when he wasn't working on Fridge, is an interesting mix of programmed beats and sampled live instruments, often looped, to create soundscapes that can appeal to a great variety of listeners. Where other releases by bands who use these techniques come off sounding derivative, and often over work the concept (Manitoba is a perfect example, though Dan Snaith of Manitoba reportedly contributed to/helped inspire parts of "Pause"), Hebden seems to know just where to go with these tracks. The beats aren't the same canned beats you hear on many releases, and occasionally there are live drums, sampled though they are. In fact, it is the use of samples of live instruments that make this release so compelling. Strings, guitar, piano, and percussion certainly sound better in this mix than synth lines and beeps and whistles. I wish more artists in the genre would use this approach. "Parks" is where it all came together for me, with horns, vibes, and backwards guitar grounded by a driving, stuttering beat. Never mind the obligatory kids in the playground sound sample every band seems to want to use these days (see gybe!, tortoise, trans am, etc.). A few tracks, like the intriguing "Leila Came Round and We Watched A Video," are simple, beautiful, priceless. It's like the first time someone smiled at you: you felt warm inside, and you just wanted it to happen again, but you knew from now on it would never be the same. Music that provokes this level of visceral response, if possible, is the only kind of music I would like to listen to. Failing that, I will be sure to have Four Tet around always. This record affected me in a way I didn't expect. Hopefully it will have the same affect on you. "Pause" is out in the UK now, and will be released on these shores next month. You know what you have to do.
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A few of the tracks have little snippets of digital processing (thefinal track, "Menca", among them) but for the most part the CD consistsof a very clean, likely almost exclusively hardware-based, sound. Ithas an abundance of out-of-vogue lushness and "cute" melodiescontrasting with upbeat "hard" tweaked hip-hop percussion. Decentprogression, too, as the genre goes. Definitely chilled afternoonmusic, along similar lines as Michael Fakesch or Funkstorung, but withbetter tunes and minus the Autechre-worshiping. Stops short of beingtotally cheesy, and nothing your brain can't handle!
Four ofthese tracks (by my count) out of the twelve have been released on theInzec and Musik aus Strom labels, although scattered over 3 vinylreleases. This is the first CD release by Estermann as well as thefirst CD release on the "sellwell" label, and we thank him profuselyfor not releasing every song he's ever done. Quality control is alwaysgood for the wallet as well as street cred. Weird slot-loading milkyplastic CD case with orange trigger/ejector doohickey completes thepackage, if you're into that sort of thing.
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