Downbeat Liquid Volume 1 (Chillcode)

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Posted by Le Lotus Bleu on Oct-12-2006 12:22:

Downbeat Liquid Volume 1 (Chillcode)

Downbeat Liquid Volume 1 (Chillcode)

Tracklist:

1> Hi-Fi Companions > Spaceships (5:45)
2> Enterprise > Two Cups Of Coffee (7:14)
3> Jong > Hymn To Kali (8:09)
4> Enterprise > Patchhead (7:37)
5> Sundial > Sacred Plants (6:12)
6> Schatsi > Clouds Over Stalden (8:54)
7> Jaļa > December (8:14)
8> Magnetrixx > Tiefsee (9:20)
9> Vibrasphere > Forest Fuel (7:27)
10> U-Recken > Aquatic Serenade (4:40)

After many quality chill albums, here's a new step in the Chillcode's history releases with Downbeat Liquid Vol.1 as it's the first compilation from the label. The design was made by http://www.ar34.net & the cd was mastered by Martin Eyerer

1. The journey begins with Hi-Fi Companions composed of Merv Peppler (aka Eat Static) & Steve Joliffe. The band is most known for jazzy downtempo tunes but this one is a bit different. They offers ethereal & floatings leads coppled with muffled synths, the whole immersed in a tropical summer night atmosphere.

2. Enterprise (Alexander Khorosch) is introduced to us with Two Cups Of Coffee, it's probably a way of announcing that he will appear twice on the compilation . So this first coffee cup is fill in with jazzy influences, like this if you were hoping that vibe from HiFi Compagnions, you can compensate by grabbing it here . A particularity of this tune is to be rich in elements, the vibraphone melody is especially focused on all along bringing a sweet & wooly aspect.

3. Jong (Jonathan Garnier a french dude) is a newcomer on the chill scene, he has just released one other track under the name Naiad on Hoots rec. It consists in a mixture of bollywood dub groove with indian flute melt in sweet sharp cycling up & down loops , it also incorporated some indian singing woman samples. The style is very Indian, it's an exotic & muggy atmosphere described here.

4. Second cup of coffee from Enterprise with Patchhead, the situation seems to occur in slow motion with humans being walking & acti,g generally in a completly disclocated way. it's like instead of making a step after another, you were propulsed from one meter in lenght & height each 2 steps or if your neck was grewing of half a meter each time you would kiss someone. Welcome in the elastic world of Patchhead !

5.Sundial (Patryk Gegniewicz, Jaroslaw Jacek, Radoslaw Kochman & Daniel Lulkowski) is a polish project & delivers one of the highlight of the cd for me. The style is without doubt punchier than the range of chill productions brought here in the compilation, you'll notice on the end a famous spoken sample from Ann Clark .

6. It's time for Yoni Oshrat (formerly half of Psysex aka Ace Ventura for his prog productions) & Corin Kiser or let's just say Schatsi , not Skazi em hum ..., but Schatsi! We are proposed streched wide soundscapes in an environement of a third of dub, a third of Drum n' Bass + Jazz & the last third... was intially mentionned. Clouds Over Stalden is an interesting + complex musical structure nevertheless deeply entertaining too by the way; try to listen to it with your eyes closed for a better effectiveness for your travel above the clouds over Stalden.

7.Jaļa (Yannis Kamarinos) delivers with December something in the same spirit (globally the same tones) that Epsilon released on Hadra (V/A Rabbani) at the
major difference that it was more on the proogy side and now this one is more on the chilly one & better too from an emotionnal view. If you had listened to old school Jaļa stuffs, this one may reminds you 'L'ivresse des profondeurs' in a way but with his current trademarks.

8.Magnetrixx (Stefan Lewin) makes us penetrate through Tiefsee, in a pure jazzy hypnotic groove sound, you can't escape the big deep + arm bass & the melody according to me, comes out from a clarinet. It's the quiet, peaceful & relaxing tune by excellence.

9. Vibrasphere (Rickard Berglöf & Robert Elster) with Forest Fuel have done it again, re-employing the succesful formula of the San Pedro (Low Sky mix). For those who still doesn't know the previous quoted tune, let's just say to caracterized Forest Fuel, it's kinda ideal tune to listen if you encounter worries to fall asleep & make nice dreams.

10. I'll ve very frank about U-Recken (Yaniv Ben-Ari), i don't see why he's appearing on this compilation for 2 reasons.
First, the compilation was supposed to be constituted of 10 brand new tunes. So, it's not the case as it was published on the U-Recken album released on Dooflex this first half year. Secondly, i find out the song to be very pop/chill cheesy, nothing comparable with the rest of the quality's production emanating out from the compilation. I would imagine Downbeat Liquid to conclude on a better note than this.

Let's quickly forget this last statement to focus again on the global content, i consider the result as brilliant. I don'tlike the idea of perfection for a musical taste but without U-Recken, it would have really approach it from very close i think.

However i can't do otherwise than Recommend it to every ambient/chill fans.
mark: 9/10

Climaxs:1,5,6,7,8,9
Outsiders:2,3,4
Average:10

Posted by RebeL9 on Oct-12-2006 14:09:

love those Vibrasphere and Jaļa tunes. the rest are decent but doesnt come close tho those two.

Posted by zoric on Oct-12-2006 14:30:

Nothing on this CD beats "December"