![]() ![]() Zone in on the hypnotic, dubbed-out buildups that lead State Route 1 to Studio One on "Cali Trunk Rattle" or the title track's bracing incorporation of tight-packed drumline fills, and the odd minor-key synth hits and slippery counter-beats can bolt right out at you. But it's clear that the more leftfield moments work best, balancing out subtle, technical grooves with jolting chords that find anxiety somewhere in the soulfulness. At least, he does when it suits him-sometimes, going right down the middle with a straightforward take on dark, stripped-down dubstep ("Musical Family", "Trenchtown") or coolly simmering deep house ("At Most Sphere", "Power Transfer") is effective enough. ![]() Given enough comfortable genre signifiers to work with, Deco has a lot of precedent he can manipulate to unexpected ends. That dynamic cuts the other way, too, the looming dread of "Late Night Fading" breaking apart and settling into tranquility thanks to a canny sample flip of Cymande's "Dove" that plays up its guitar tone's floaty qualities. "Skyline 3040" teems with ambient digital-mechanical bleeps and burbles, anticipating some glimmery future-kitsch manipulation of cyberpunk landscape as Apple-interface utopia-until the deep buzzing chords come in and cast a harsher, lonelier light on its gradually intensifying Kode9-lineage snares. Bait-and-switch is a crucial part of the formula, as expectations dredged up by the best songs' early moments are gradually twisted around or otherwise tweaked in mood-altering ways. Working with a bunch of known quantities doesn't keep Timescales from actually harboring some subtle resonance or deeper feeling, however. In short, it's comfort sound for beat heads. Deco shows off that DJ/curator's sense of knowing his context and history and how to merge those ideas into something evocative, even if it's not necessarily evocative of something you haven't heard before. ![]() Even if Timescales threatens to revert to weathered ideas of what it means to hybridize the last few innovations in L.A.-via-wherever underground dance music, the record makes no pretense of acting like it's a forward-thinking revolution. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |