Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Steve Gilmore Reviews: Frequencee - Weather Storm

Artist: Frequencee
Title: Weather Storm

As well as being a SC forum Moderator Frequencee also has the distinction of being one of the first artists I reviewed when I moved this operation over to Soundclick over three years ago. State Of Mind (September 2003) was a track I heard slightly before I started to really get into the elctronica being made on this site, consequently I didn't think - looking back on that review - he got a fair deal. However, he showed me the error of my ways when he delivered the awesome Chemical (June 2004), Dropzone (April 2005) and Zero Gravity (August 2005) all of which show that this is one elctronica artist who knows exactly what he's doing and how to set about achieving it.

He's always tried to do things differently and in such a narrow field that is something noteworthy. As well as this admirable trait, Frequencee brings a very welcome high production value to anything he puts out, Imagine this if you will; intelligent electronica that has an overall sound that could level buildings. Welp, that's what Frequencee always brings to the table and his always danceable electronica even surmounts most of my old farty can't-stand-the-stuff moans and groans. All of these elements are present in Weather Storm including the noisiest backing track I have ever heard. Wait...? Noisy?? wtf would I want to listen to noise, you may ask. There's noise and then there's NOISE innit?? :D The kind of noise that this track pumps out is as much an essential part of the track as any of the cleaner sequences.

Weather Storm is considerably darker in tone than anything I have heard from this guy recently and is almost a venture into more experimental territory, while retaining Frequencee's trademark danceability. He's always got some lovely technical tricks going on, and the intro of this track is a classic example of how to set a track up. He says - on the song comments section - that this is 'something a little different' and I would have to nod my head about that. Taken on face value there isn't exactly much to grab hold without some sustained listening. Sure for a confirmed audiophile like myself, there are those little technical tricks to savour again and again, but for most people people it may be a bit too 'different'. Not that I, and the rest of Freq's listeners, are going to give a flying *** about it, we'll be too busy picking the bones out of this bad, bad boy...

Highly recommended electronica with brains AND brawn.

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