Reviews 136: Andy Rantzen
Earl Greyās and James Grevilleās Ken Oath Records emerged seemingly out of nowhere last year and has since carved out itās own unique world of leftfield house, psychedelic acid, tropical balearic, and weirdo dub. 2018 has been especially fruitful, seeing the label move into the world of long players, including the spellbindingly brilliant Scenes by Angophora. And now, the Ken Oath crew are making their foray into archival re-issue territory by releasing Andy Rantzenās Blue Hour Vol. II. Billed as a sort of sequel to The Blue Hour EP released in 2017 on Polarity Records and also serving as a prequel to 2001ās The Blue Hour Vol. 3 : Deep Blue, this mini-album sees the veteran producer and psychologist exploring worlds of lusciously zoned out digital dub with a few detours into balearic lounge spaces and even some freaked out jungle along the way. And though Andy recorded and produced everything here from ā97-ā00, these far-out sonic adventures sound as fresh and forwarding thinking today as ever and reveal new shades and sides to this longstanding rave hero.
Andy Rantzen - Blue Hour Vol. II (Ken Oath Records, 2018)
E-piano chords as sweet as rain begin āLifting the Veilā and then we dash into a vibed out super groove, with liquid sub-bass and jazzy chill-out drums surrounded by tambourines and tight snare work. Shining organ notes and acoustic pianos intermingle with the electric ivory repetitions, turning the vibe towards cosmic lounge music, especially as majestic moon melodies played on string synths travel through the starry ether. Squiggling and fried streaks of harmonious light diffuse through the mix and the bass eventually pulls out, leaving outerspace telephone fx percolating ear to ear and majestic keyboard layers hovering over the balearic jazz propulsion. And after a passage awash in cinematic strings and freaky alien synth noises, we end on a coda of naturalistic piano meditations. āCosmic Vibrationsā features this far-out, almost jacking, dub bassline moving huge columns of air underneath synthy flute trills sent through aquatic delays. The riddims are at once laid back and urgent and as the flutes drop away, we head further into outerspace on comet tails of looping bell tones. A morphing robot voice intones āvibrationā at times and hallucinatory starlight layers of further chiming sounds enter alongside gentle organ splashes. Itās impossible not to fall into the trackās celestial vortex, where high pitched feedback melodies can be heard wavering like otherworldly neon gas alongside alien liquids dripping and crazed synths dancing around the tropical aerophones.
āBedtime for Boo Booā features Sheriff Lindo and takes place again in Andyās dream dub utopia, with deep bass synth lullabies supporting a steady and stoned beat accented by soft bongos. Vibraphones as beamed in from another dimension accompany the bass on its sunshine walk before twinkling arpeggios soaked in LSD atmospherics spin forever at the center of the universe. At some point things break down into barely there rhythm pulses, massive bass movements, and strange broadcast synths and as we build slowly back to full strength, the dub groove becomes colored by the nature sounds of some exoplanetary forest, while starshine arps and their fantasy island melodies are shrouded in fractalized sequencing. āMove Itā starts with strings like heavenly rays of sunlight, but then morphs into one of the albumās most compelling tracks as anxious cymbal movements build towards a melancholic jungle explosion. Cushiony and adventurous bass synths join tripped out IDM percussion while swelling and vaguely ominous pads coalesce with the emotional string cascades. There are short rhythmic drop out that lead to jamming sections of hallucinogenic drumānābass swirled around by synthetic flashes of light flowing in reverse. And as calming voices and mutating woodblocks float on morphing delay waves while asymmetrical chimes pierce the brain and laser pistols fire through the air, Andy lets the dazzling snare work whip the groove into a sort of futuristic rave exotica.
In āMagic Lanternā, cymbals keep time over some dubwise chill-out, with huge bass currents moving through relaxing patterns as a downbeat drum groove rolls on. Off-kilter synths wander in a land of playful fantasy and there are glorious vibes of 70s prog rock in some of the transitions, only as if interpreted by some digi-dub wizard. Indeed, the alien downtempo rhythms march underneath majestic bass melodies moving through a shimmering kingdom in a world of dreams, one where psychotropic percussive effects morph into glowing rhythm crystals and where the layered and hopeful synth arp tapestry never relents in casting spells of sunshine and hope. The final track is āDub Generatorā and true to the title, we get some slow motion robot dub with a filtered synthbass bounce locking in with a head-nodding drum flowā¦all below a haze of intergalactic synth fx. Dark vocal incantations invite you to the dancefloor with softly spoken instructions of body moving bliss, as if some crazed scientist built a band of androids to travel the cosmos generating zoned out dub waves and teaching primitive lifeforms how to feel the groove. Elsewhere, Latin tom-toms covered in codeine flow alongside static shrouded sermons and pitch-shifting hats flash into the mix while the towering walls of bass brilliance jam away. And eventually, dreamtime organ chords enter and sweep the track to a faraway island paradise, joined towards the end by scratchier keys skanking towards a beautiful sunset horizon.
(images from my personal copy)
