Cylob
Cylob Music System Volume 1 & 2Volume 1
Nostalgia is good. I'm not talking about all the crappy, dashed off, let's-get-some-desperate-celebreties-to-reminisce-about-the-80s TV show. No, it's sometimes nice to look back at what has come before and appreciate how we never would have come as far as we have without the efforts of other pioneers. Chris Jeffs, Cylob mainman, has been spending the best part of the last ten years reminiscing about Planet Rock, and his modernised electro has come to public view again with the release of the first of a series of EPs entitled Music System. Inseminoid, with its basic stripped down beats and bell-clanging dissonance, starts things off, but not as it means to go on, fortunately, as it is the weakest track here. Kyoto and Total Information Awareness fare much better with far punchier rhythms and unmistakeably post-Selected Ambient Works melodies. Kyoto especially has the kind of kinetic energy that has been all but lost in today's flurry of 678278732+ bpm tracks. We Never Said Goodbye, the final track, is possibly the only track to acknowledge any music development beyond 1994. Each beat seems to evaporate into static the moment it hits and the melody threatens something awful but indistinct. Very Autechre, but once again, Jeffs isn't afraid to let a hint of rhythm shine through rather than bury the track in self-congratulatory complexity. A nice return. As I said, nostalgia is good, but sometimes we need assurance that what is going on now is also worthwhile.
Volume 2
It was an encouraging return from Cylob with the first instalment of this series, reminding us of how funky stripped down electro beats really are. Unfortunately, Chris Jeffs seems to have suffered from short-term melody loss for this release. They simply aren't here. While it's all very well appreciating the phatness of the beats (and they are festively plump indeed as Cartman might say), without melody there to hold it together, it all seems a bit throwaway. Pity really, as the productions here are great. It's impressive how often Jeffs manages to wrongfoot you with such basic rhythms. The main selling points here are an acid remix of last release's Inseminoid, which turns what was the weakest track on Music System Volume 1 into something quite excellent. Cylobian Sunrise is the closing track and the greatest departure from previous sounds. BBC Radiophonic Workshop noises and childlike synth melodies sounds like the Blue Peter recipe for making your own Boards of Canada track, but this track sidesteps the reference nicely, and sounds like Dr Who sound effects crooning along to Brian Eno. it should have all been like this.
Nostalgia is good. I'm not talking about all the crappy, dashed off, let's-get-some-desperate-celebreties-to-reminisce-about-the-80s TV show. No, it's sometimes nice to look back at what has come before and appreciate how we never would have come as far as we have without the efforts of other pioneers. Chris Jeffs, Cylob mainman, has been spending the best part of the last ten years reminiscing about Planet Rock, and his modernised electro has come to public view again with the release of the first of a series of EPs entitled Music System. Inseminoid, with its basic stripped down beats and bell-clanging dissonance, starts things off, but not as it means to go on, fortunately, as it is the weakest track here. Kyoto and Total Information Awareness fare much better with far punchier rhythms and unmistakeably post-Selected Ambient Works melodies. Kyoto especially has the kind of kinetic energy that has been all but lost in today's flurry of 678278732+ bpm tracks. We Never Said Goodbye, the final track, is possibly the only track to acknowledge any music development beyond 1994. Each beat seems to evaporate into static the moment it hits and the melody threatens something awful but indistinct. Very Autechre, but once again, Jeffs isn't afraid to let a hint of rhythm shine through rather than bury the track in self-congratulatory complexity. A nice return. As I said, nostalgia is good, but sometimes we need assurance that what is going on now is also worthwhile.
Volume 2
It was an encouraging return from Cylob with the first instalment of this series, reminding us of how funky stripped down electro beats really are. Unfortunately, Chris Jeffs seems to have suffered from short-term melody loss for this release. They simply aren't here. While it's all very well appreciating the phatness of the beats (and they are festively plump indeed as Cartman might say), without melody there to hold it together, it all seems a bit throwaway. Pity really, as the productions here are great. It's impressive how often Jeffs manages to wrongfoot you with such basic rhythms. The main selling points here are an acid remix of last release's Inseminoid, which turns what was the weakest track on Music System Volume 1 into something quite excellent. Cylobian Sunrise is the closing track and the greatest departure from previous sounds. BBC Radiophonic Workshop noises and childlike synth melodies sounds like the Blue Peter recipe for making your own Boards of Canada track, but this track sidesteps the reference nicely, and sounds like Dr Who sound effects crooning along to Brian Eno. it should have all been like this.
