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Music reviews
Chill out/ambient reviews
Ott is a guy who has been around making music for a while now, but I still don`t know his real name! He obviously prefers to stay a bit underground. People really got their eyes up for him last summer (2002) when he surprisingly released an album full of remixed Hallucinogen tracks. A great album full of chilled dub versions of originally melodic Goa trance tracks. Soon after this release we heard the rumour that this guy was going to release an Ott album too, and the expectations has really been high for this album. He has also released several tracks on different compilations from Liquid Sound Design (the chilled side label of Dragonfly) and a few tracks on Twisted compilations. Electronic dub music is a genre that has been around since the first half of the nineties. At that time, labels like Planet Dog Recordings released some of the best quality dub with compilations like Planet Dub (1995). This kind of music has probably grown out of reggae music, with a lot of the same slow tempo etc. But in the dub genre they have switched the reggae singing with all kinds of influences from other music styles and sounds. For many people, a lot of this dub style has sounded a bit boring after a few listens, since a lot of it doesn`t vary much. Ott is one of the few real dub artists who manage to make this kind of music to something really interesting and varied! Now he is finally out with his solo album Blumenkraft after years of playing around with music production.
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Ott “Blumenkraft” Twisted Records 2003 (TWSCD26)
1. Jack`s Cheese And Bread Snack
2. Somersettler
3. Splitting An Atom
4. Escape From Tulse Hell
5. Cley Hill
6. Billy The Kid Strikes Back
7. A Load Up At Nunney Catch
8. Spannered In Pilton
9. Smoked Glass And Chrome
This guy has recorded a lot of sounds from his home and other places, and some how he manages to use all this in his music and make it sound great! The first track (Jack`s Cheese And Bread Snack) starts real slow, with a lot of sounds, like a creaking door and some one walking. Then beautiful floating sounds come in. You get a chilled ambient vibe. After four minutes a female voice says something, and then finally the chilled dub rhythms starts grooving slowly, with deep bass and a really pleasant tempo. The beautiful sound floats around the dub rhythms. Then we get some tribal voices and the sound of a sitar. Suddenly we get a funky guitar, still in the pleasant vibe. A guy named Steve Hunt plays the guitar. After a while, we get a relaxing break from the dub rhythms. The beautiful floating sounds takes over, before the dub rhythms come back again. Some sort of melody comes in too. This is totally relaxing and pretty atmospheric. The sitar comes in again, and the last couple of minutes, the track just floats slowly with beautiful sounds. A great track lasting for almost thirteen minutes!
Track 2 (Somersettler) is probably known by many already. This track was originally released on the Backroom Beats 1 compilation, released on Twisted Records in 2001. In my opinion, one of the better tracks this guy has made. You get this really chilled summer reggae feeling with the sound of a mouth organ, funny sitar melodies, some kind of psychedelic sounds and a wonderful flute coming in after a few minutes. A track wonderful for chilling out in the sun this summer! Track 3 (Splitting An Atom) starts really funky and still in a pleasant summer vibe. Some tribal drums drop in, and happy reggae dub rhythms bring us into the track. Then we get a beautiful female voice, but I don`t know what language this is. Is it Arabic? But I think it is Michele Adamson who sings (also singing for Younger Brother, Shpongle, Infected Mushroom osv). We also get a male voice singing together with the female voice. A happy track with a lot of vocals.
Then we get another track at least I have heard before. Track 4 (Escape From Tulse Hell) was originally released on the Mana Medicine compilation on Liquid Sound Design/Dragonfly in 2001. A fantastic track for those of you who like reggae inspired dub. You also get this beautiful mouth organ in this one too, plus some real organ music. Track 5 (Cley Hill) has this reggae vibe again with a happy organ melody and a beautiful flute melody. Then after a while you get some kind of children song that sounds like African singing. Track 6 (Billy The Kid Strikes Back) is a bit more melodic than the others. Here you don`t have the reggae vibe. It sounds more like some 80`s inspired music, and it has much more psychedelic sounds. It varies pretty much. Suddenly, you get some kind of Arabic influenced melody too.
In track 7 (A Load Up At Nunney Catch) we are back in the reggae inspired landscape again. Really deep dub rhythms. Then we get some guitar that sounds like slow country or blues music mixed in. Together it sounds pretty pleasant! Track 8 (Spannered In Pilton) has those mouth organ melodies again, with a reggae dub vibe and some weird sounds. You also get a flute in this one. Pretty happy melodies. The last track (Smoked Glass And Chrome) starts slow and floating. Then some slow and pleasant rhythms come in too. After a couple of minutes we get beautiful Indian female singing. This fits really well with the beautiful sounds and the slow tempo. The track varies a lot. One of the better tracks on this album.
Ott really knows how to calm us down, with all his varied dub influenced by a lot of different music styles and his great selection of beautiful sounds and melodies. But, I have to say that I like the Hallucinogen In Dub album he came out with better than this. I miss some more of the deep melodies from that album, but this album is not bad either. Something for those of you who like modern dub released from Liquid Sound Design, Interchill and Backroom Beats etc.
PK