Kompakt
John Tejada - Parabolas
Monday, July 11th, 2011 | Sounds | No Comments
Parabolas, the latest album by John Tejada – his ninth studio album and first for German techno imprint Kompakt – finds the Los Angeles producer exploring a more melancholy, subdued direction with an emphasis on melody. Tejada has spent his musical career cultivating many musical styles, from his early techno & tech-house releases on his prolific Palette Recordings label, to the Detroit-esque output on Dan Bell’s 7th City and Moods & Grooves, to the string of minimal-leaning techno released by Poker Flat and other labels in the last decade, as well as more left-field output under guises such as I’m Not A Gun.
Unlike most techno albums, Parabolas is noteworthy because it unfolds like an actual album, rather than a collection of singles repackaged in album form, emphasizing subtlety and nuance. Opening with the smooth, mid-tempo house-leaning “Farther and Fainter,” the moodiness of Parabolas first reveals itself via the next track, “The Dream” – an eerie beatless ambient track that actually may have been better off as the first track. “Mechanized” is, for me, when the album really begins to pick up steam, a sparse, perky melody punctuated by a series of chords and haunting, ethereal textures that feels influenced by Detroit techno – a style Tejada has long acknowledged as a driving force of his inspiration as an artist. “Subdivided” continues on the moody path, its crisp, electro-style beat offset by smooth synth stabs, while “Timeless Space” slows down the tempo and beefs up the twinkly emotional elements with a vintage feel via the use of the Roland TR-808. Tejada drifts back into warm ambient land on “The Honest Man” before propelling forward again with the upbeat track “The Living Night,” its percolating beat offset by dreamy textures and nuanced melodies. Both “Unstable Condition” and “Hollow Hemispheres” feel like salutes to Detroit techno with a similarity to early Orbital, the former incorporating vintage percussive elements amidst a thumping kick drum and chirpy synth textures while the latter delves a bit deeper via subtle polyrhythms. The album closer, “Uncertain End,” feels aptly titled, emphasizing percussive intricacies without much of the emotion that pervades throughout most of the album. It’s a surprising choice for the final track, only because so much of Parabolas seems to bleed emotion. More than 15 years into his recording career, Tejada continues to evolve and reinvent himself, and the fans are the beneficiaries.
Pop Ambient 2010 (Kompakt)
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 | Sounds | No Comments
The 10th anniversary entry for Kompakt ‘s annual “Pop Ambient” compilation is yet another example of the consistently solid at-home listening series, proving that not all electronic music needs a dancefloor to resonate.
“Pop Ambient 2010” features a slew of top-tier artists from the German label exploring their more blissed-out, ambient sensibilities, including co-founder Wolfgang Voigt, San Francisco’s bvdub (Brock Van Wey), The Orb, Orb collaborator Thomas Fehlmann, Popnoname, Jorg Burger and DJ Koze and the long-awaited return of Dettinger.
The often otherworldly vibe begins with an ever-so-slight jarring opening via German producer Marsen Jules’ “The Sound of One Lip Kissing,” Read More and listen…
Pop Ambient 2009 (Kompakt)
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Sounds | No Comments
The delightfully blissful Pop Ambient series from Germany’s Kompakt returns for its ninth incarnation, bringing together a wide variety of talent for the 2009 version. Featured artists include celebrated experimental producer Tim Hecker, Jurgen Paape, Sylvain Chauveau, Jorg Burger and collaborator Wolfgang Voigt – Kompakt’s cofounder – Klimek and The Fun Years. Like many of its predecessors, Pop Ambient 2009 steers the listener through a series of meditative works, such as the horn loops present in Klimek’s “True Enemies & False Friends (Yesteryears Suite),” Chauveau’s “Nuage III” and the acoustic guitar-based “Fly Like A Horse,” and the haunting piano and strings of “Hindsmith” by Voigt, recording under the guise Mint. The mood shifts a bit with the stunning “Nightliner” by Poponame, a slow-moving kaleidoscope of elegant soundscapes shifting and building upon each other. Paape’s “Ausklang,” remixed by Burger and Voigt, also veers into twinkly land with its frittering audio tinsel and deep emotional moans, followed up by the equally glistening “It’s Only Castles Burning” by Marsen Jules. The brightest spots of the album appear in the latter half, first Hecker’s understated “Ghosts In Silver” via layers of effervescent keyboards and sweeping textural loops, then Andrew Thomas’ gorgeous “A Dream Of A Spider,” characterized by crackly bits, tightly controlled beat loops and somber chords. While some tracks come off more like a fragment from a much larger instrumental piece, the bulk of the album’s tracks work well with one another, providing a silky smooth ambient joyride that will assuredly keep you calm, cool and collected.
Tim Pratt
