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|| DECRyPTED presents...
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|. :| _artist......: Naytronix
: || _album.......: Dirty Glow
: |: _year........: 2012
. | _genre.......: Electronic, Rock
. | _style.......: Synth-pop, Indie Rock
: _label.......: Plug Research
. _cat.nr......: PLG130CD
_source......: CDDA
_quality.....: 248kbps / 44,1kHz
_encoder.....: .mp3 lame 3.98.4 vbr -v0
_tracks......: 11
_size........: 71,70 MB
_length......: 40:15 min
_proof.......: Yes [x] / No [ ]
_url.........: naytronix.com
_tracklist...:
01. Hangin Out 02:45
02. In The Summer 04:50
03. Baby Don't Walk Away 05:12
04. Turn Around 01:26
05. Lead The Way 03:35
06. Nightmare 04:17
07. Good Thing 03:18
08. Elevator To Tomorrow 02:56
09. Are You Ready For A Good Time 02:02
10. Robotic 04:10
11. Evil Dancer 05:44
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40:15 min
_description.: The shorelines of contemporary music have been battered
by wave after wave of 80s revivals; we've weathered the
storm of garage rock upstarts; there was that
short-yet-frightening attempt to bring back Britpop
(Viva Brother, RIP); recently, Spector have been trying
to bring back the sort of glamorous indie rock 'n' roll
that was gracing the pages of the NME nary six years
ago. What I've been waiting for this whole time - and
what Naytronix, aka Tune-Yards bassist Nate Brenner -
is someone else who loves that mid-90s sweet spot where
rave and House began to slip into something a little
less comfortable, but a whole lot more interesting.
Yes, it's the early, better albums by the likes of
Moby, Fatboy Slim, Orbital and The Chemical Brothers
that are evoked on Dirty Glow - ostensibly a concept
album about a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but best to
just ignore that - from its deployment of the amen
break to its esoteric vocals/vocal samples, from its
melodic trance keys to its samples of discordant jazz
records. Big beat 2.0.
A sound collage not unlike the KLF's iconic Chill Out
(albeit one with a more cosmopolitan feel, and less
snippets of Tuvan throat singing), Dirty Glow weaves a
pleasingly nostalgic route through the ghosts of dance
music past, territory unknown to Brenner's bandmate
Merrill Garbus, but no less vital. At some points he
takes us even further back, to the places that
influenced people like Tom Rowland and Ed Simons when
they'd fully ransacked Detroit, with tracks like 'Baby
Don't Walk Away', a fun, disco/funk track that's like
something of Daft Punk's Discovery were it not so
encumbered with samples, there's a tip of the hat to
the present with post-James Murphy electroclash along
with some Kraftwerkian vocals on 'Robotic', and then
there's ambient sax-lead 'Elevator to Tomorrow', which
sounds like something Bernard Hermann left out of his
Taxi Driverscore.
The thing is, with records which strive so much to
recreate old sounds, to say they succeed is to say,
"Yep, this sure does sound like a bunch of old stuff I
like." So, on that level, good job, Naytronix! On
another, more general view: "Wait, this sounds like a
bunch of old stuff I like, why don't I just go and
listen to thaty"
Because it's not what he plays, it's how he plays 'em;
weaving together these somewhat disparate, somewhat
related genres by use of his "Cali Bootsy" funky bass,
and making everything gel and flow together in a way
that's not dissimilar to Van Dyke Park's Discover
America; only, you can dance to it. Which is what
really matters.
Rating: 8/10
11.26.2012
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Get the original - we did.