Friday, April 18, 2008

Benefist

Acid house had a brief flourishing at the end of the 80s and then seemed to die away, or at least transmute, as dance music became mainstream and youth drug culture shifted from coke to E. The whole thing obviously made an impression on Luke Vibert though.

A stalwart of IDM, Vibert records across several genres under different names. When he is Wagon Christ, he makes clever sample-driven, sometimes triphoppy IDM; when Plug, he makes some of the best dnb money can buy, light years ahead of the overhyped artists that draw today's plaudits; when Amen Andrews, the dnb is based around the Amen break; when Luke Vibert, and as here when Ace of Clubs, he focuses on acid.

What all of his music has in common is his brilliant invention and gift for composition. I don't think Benefist is quite at the pitch of YosePh or Lover's acid, but it pisses on just about everything else in this vein this side of Aphex. What you get is upbeat electro, built from wonderfully phat analogue sounds and squelchy aciddery. Songs shift, try out ideas and groove. The feel is summery--you don't get the darkness that often takes hold of Aphex Twin--and the beats are just relentless. Although the songs are not straightforward house, the best way, I think, to describe what he does is that he revolves around a centre. The ideas work concentrically, varying from a solid theme, and the songs never stop moving.

Unlike much IDM, I think you probably could dance to this. I never have (and never will) but I don't see why you couldn't. You'd probably have fun.

1 Comments:

At 1:00 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I dig the blog's new direction. There's new music to scope out every day.

Thanks.

 

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