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Album Review: Steve Moore – Pangaea Ultima

by Rio Toro Leave a Comment

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Steve Moore: Pangaea Ultima
Similar Artists: Zombi, Bookworms, Lovelock
Genre: Synths n’ Stuff
Label: Spectrum Spools

I originally intended for this review to be for L.I.E.S.’ Music For Shut Ins, as the compilation has been my revolving soundtrack for the better part of the last month. If you’re not cool enough to already know, just as American Noise was last year, Music For Shut Ins is an impeccably solid grouping of new and previously released tracks from the New York umbrella label that represents some of the most exciting experimental electronic music around. So it’s too bad that I eventually found the release to be too overwhelming to write a proper review on. Luckily, Steve Moore (an artist who released multiple 12 inches for the label), has just released his newest and arguably highest profile release to date, and with it consisting of 9 similarly produced tracks, it happens to be a much easier statement to digest.

Pangaea Ultima is Steve Moore’s first release on Spectrum Spools: a label curated by ex-Emeralds member John Elliott that has harnessed an ever-increasing array of talent ever since its inception in 2011. In addition to Moore’s plentiful amount of solo material, he has recorded as a member of Zombi, the bass guitarist for prog-rock outfit Titan, and has offered his multi-instrumentalist talents to groups such as Panthers and SunnO))). He’s also written his own film scores (mostly for low-budget horror films), proving he’s not only a skilled multi-instrumentalist, but a skilled composer as well. Thankfully, this prolificness isn’t a detractor from the quality of his work, as Pangaea Ultima emerges as only the most recent of this artist’s dense and masterfully coordinated projects. However, there is something about Pangaea that feels more assured and fully realized in comparison to many of the artist’s earlier solo ventures, and hopefully this means it will be the release to garner him the larger audience that he deserves.

The album itself happens to be a soundtrack to the theorized super-continent destined to re-emerge on Earth within the next 200 million years or so, and with track titles like “Planetwalk” and “WorldBuilding”, it’s no secret that this is representative of Moore at his most colossal. The tone here is dark, and admittedly, this tone changes only very slightly throughout the hour long running time. Despite the limited emotional and instrumental range though, the album unfolds masterfully — as you might expect from someone with the resume of a film composer. Furthermore, despite Moore’s electronic and even post-punkian upbringing, he pretty much strays away from anything that could be deemed danceable, and several tracks are even entirely beat-less.

While Pangaea Ultima is not entirely without a chugging pulse (“Planetwalk” and the title track are borderline techno), Moore is much more concerned with concocting a stable mood and ominous intrigue. This direction is not to be confused with ambient music though, as Pangaea Ultima is a work that is as engrossing to listen to in the foreground as it is to lay dormant in the background (I’ve also found that it makes for some killer tetris battle music). Similarly, although many tracks appear to be in the vein of minimalism (“Deep Time”, “Logotones”), they all eventually emerge as dense and extraordinarily epic; at the most intense moments it’s as if we can feel the weight of the continents shifting beneath our feet.

There are a lot of keyboards present at any given moment — all of them arpegiatting and oscillating onward into some infinite void — yet the pieces themselves are uncluttered and organically rich; of which I give credit to the superb mastering of Rashad Becker. The recordings of Krautrock pioneers Tangerine Dream are an easy comparison to Pangaea Ultima, and truth be told, similarly designed compositions have been available as early as the 60’s. More recently, we’ve had Oneohtrix Point Never, who thoroughly documented how gripping solo synth pieces can be with his extensive and career making Rifts compilation. However, while what Steve Moore is doing here may not be unique or even immediately ear catching, it’s far from artless, and shouldn’t be taken as a mere throwback LP. Within a scene of synthesizer fetishists who — with the more readily available recording technology of today — are capable of making monstrous sounding synth music on the fly, what makes Pangaea stand out is that it clearly isn’t the sound of some virtuosic talent recording a day’s worth of work, but a unified and wholly satisfying piece that’s filled with as much blood, organs and bodily fluids as the organism that made it.

Track Listing:
1.) Endless Caverns
2.) Planetwalk*
3.) Deep Time
4.) Nemesis
5.) Pangaea Ultima*
6.) Logotone*
7.) Aphelion
8.) Endless Mountains
9.) Worldbuilding*

Album Highlight – *

Filed Under: ENTERTAINMENT, MUSIC, OPINION, REVIEWS Tagged With: Album Review, experimental, music, pangaea ultima, steve moore, synthesizer

Album Review: Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu

by Rio Toro

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Omar Souleyman: Wenu Wenu
Similar Artists: None that I know of
Genre: Dabke, Syrian Wedding Music, Line Dancing
Label: Ribbon Music

I’ve been getting some pretty strange looks from people who overhear Omar Souleyman’s Wenu Wenu blasting from my headphones. This is probably because I’m white, and with my black leather jacket and torn jeans I probably resemble someone who would listen to punk or hard-rock rather than anything as foreign as Syrian wedding music. The thing is, despite the initial ethnic hurdle (you’ll have to look up a translation if you’re interested in what these songs are about), Souleyman’s high octane version of Dabke — a traditional style of music intended for the purpose of line dancing — translates quite efficiently to the now popularized brand of melodic techno/house.

So yes, this is party music in the truest sense of the word. While Souleyman himself is a dynamic force on the album — with his soaring and spiritual voice — the main appeal (at least to us Americans) comes from longtime partner Rizan Sa’id’s virtuosic keyboard playing. His adventurous synthesizer rhythms are a non-stop presence through the 40 minute album, and since they are often backed by bouncy 4/4 beats and hypnotic bass loops, if you let it, this is music that can truly make you move.

Omar Souleyman has apparently recorded upwards of 500 albums — of which he only made one copy of, to give to the bride and groom — but only recently has he been working within an actual studio in an attempt to capture the essence of his highly talked about live performances. Wenu Wenu is being seen as his first “proper” studio full length, as it was put out on Ribbon Music instead of Sublime Frequencies, who put out versions of his more low-fidelity recordings. Production duties have been handled by Keiran Hebden(AKA Four Tet), and although his influence on the music itself is only modest, he treats the sounds with a clarity and buoyancy relatable to his own work. This is a good thing, because Souleyman and Sa’id don’t need to change their formula; not now, not ever.

Wenu Wenu is about channeling the best of this duo’s output (many of these tracks are rerecorded versions of previously released career highlights) and making it work in a home listening setting. While some people may prefer the more chaotic and unintentionally noisy characteristics of Souleyman’s previous work, this is an album that took a whole lot of time to get here (around 20 years), and every non-Syrian should brave any slight uncomfortableness they may have and listen to it at least once.

Track Listing:
1.) Wenu Wenu*
2.) Ya Yumma
3.) Nahy*
4.) Khattaba
5.) Warni Warni*
6.) Mawal Jamar
7.) Yagbuni*

Album Highlight – *

Filed Under: ENTERTAINMENT, MUSIC, OPINION, REVIEWS Tagged With: Album Review, Dabke, keiran Hebden, omar souleyman, synthesizer, wenu wenu

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