Days Of Steam 008: Icarus Redux
(Released July 11, 2023)
Restrained freakout sonics and subcranial rhythms from @icarus-redux — “earth-moving kicks, baleful, eyes-dilated synths, and rough, mostly unsampled breakbeats. Fog machine bathing all as one.” Inspired as an artist by a mixed bag of artists and theorists that cast light on the darkness - Fisher, Graeber, Preciado, Shadow, Sprinkles, Tiqqun, Weatherall - this mix is one of the first I’ve heard that approaches AI-assisted technologies (demuxing, polyrhythmic mixing, etc) in a way that reminds me of early cut-and-paste techniques or Richie Hawtin’s Decks x EFX mixes that reassemble contexts on a micro-level, not just layering tracks over each other but reconstructing them, and here it’s far more subtle. It’s enticing and unnerving to me but such is the effect of the dawn of a new form of technology that has the principle for use and abuse. Here it’s done to only positive effect, again highlighting the spaces between the notes, the snatches of memory that flit through your brain. A lot of the tracks from the early 2010s are records I remember hearing and playing when I lived in Leeds, which I had associated with a very different scene that I naively believed at the time would never truly take off Stateside. At the same time, Disclosure were getting big then and I thought the US would pass them over. From downloading italo and house rips off of Bicep's old blog to seeing them headline warehouses in Brooklyn that charge $40+ admission. Mais je divague...
Bianca Scout - Kingdom [First Terrace, 2022] Herbert - Deeper (Basic Soul Unit Remix) [Curle, 2016] T++ - Dig [Honest Jons, 2010] Avatism - Self Control [Vakant, 2017] Basic Soul Unit - Jak'd Freq (A Made Up Sound - Puur Natuur Mix) [Crème Organization, 2010] Ayln - Victim [Nous, 2018] Tenebre - Axe Nord-Sud [WNCL Recordings, 2018] Reckonwrong - Morton [Pinkman, 2015] Taraval - Bart's Sanctuary [Text, 2016] Blawan - Iddy [Hessle Audio, 2010] Martyn - Body Music [Dolly Dubs, 2018] Pugilist - Déjà Vu [Banoffee Pies, 2022] Ryan James Ford - Brixa Endt [SHUT, 2018] Shed - Lumber Fix TT [The Final Experiment, 2018] Private Press - Wetweird [Of Paradise White Label, 2022] Clark - Superscope [Warp, 2014] Andrea - Rainbow [Ilian Tape, 2015] Glaskin - Grey Lines [Hotflush, 2018]
