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JAh BLES$

Livin' The City Hype

If you'd told us back in 2009 that Hype Williams would one day be releasing an EP on Hyperdub, we'd have raised our eyebrows, but a year or so later it actually makes sense - Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland's predilection for sickly-psychedelic synths, rugged beats and a sense of occluded urban dread making them a simpatico if still bold addition to Kode9's stable. Have they altered their sound for the bass-heads? Nah, course not, and nor do they need to - for all its lo-fi patina, Hype's music has always been heavy-as-f*ck on the subs. That said, opener 'Rise Up' is a pretty mellow affair, as anyone who heard the version on that uber-limited white label issue earlier this year will already know; in a similar vein to their Sade rip 'The Throning', it's an almost Balearic haze of sighing strings, crisp claps, smacked-out boogie-funk-bass and Copeland's distant, pining vocals. 'Boss Man' is a cheerier but witchier number, synths strafing haughtily across unquantised drum hits; 'Farthing Wood Dub' is as cute and enchanting as its namesake, but still delightfully unstable, like John Barry's Midnight Cowboy soundtrack reimagined by a cracked-out Clams Casino. But it's the closing 'Badmind' that's the masterstoke - sampled American voices delivering stentorian lectures about death, auto-eroticism and, er, Ezra Pound against a shaky gamelan and sub-bass backdrop somewhere between Ryuichi Sakamoto and sino-grime; the lack of context for their ruminations, coupled with droop and sway of the synths, is quite overwhelming in its effect Yep, this EP is just mind-melting, low-end-savvy audio surrealism as only Hype Williams know how; a big, big 12". [boomkat]
[dl]

A Winged Victory for the Sullen - A Winged Victory for the Sullen
[Kranky]
The brilliance of Adam Wiltzie never ceases to amaze me. As a member of Stars of the Lid, Aix Em Klemm, and the Dead Texan, he is responsible for some of the greatest ambient / post-classical music ever put to tape. Paired with the pianist Dustin O'Halloran on this Kranky release, Wiltzie managed to craft one of the most sublime and jaw-droppingly gorgeous musical experiences of the year. Working with a soft array of string drones, bass hums, and ethereal, cycling piano motifs reminiscent of Harold Budd or Ryuichi Sakamoto, the duo conjure an atmosphere of sedated melancholia, a sadness tempered by hope and the promise of future bliss. Too emotional and immaculately structured to be relegated to the status of mere "background music," A Winged Victory for the Sullen is a masterpiece of modern composition and deserves your full attention. [dl]
[thanks glowing raw]