FireScope Electronic & Dance 4 Artikel

FireScope welcomes back Sweden’s Bauri (Martin Abrahamsson) for his follow-up EP titled Vinkelvolten II. With the seasons turning, these 5 tracks from Bauri match the oncoming cooler climates perfectly. Delicate crystalline notes and ethereal melodies waft past on an autumn or winter’s day, with the stepping crunch and idiosyncratic shuffle of gravel underfoot the only indication of the passing of time in the tracks. Imbued throughout are a sense of calmness, beauty and ease.

Label head Steven Rutter joins forces with John Shima (FS005) on this bright EP with its direction turned towards the light.The heavenly ‘Skywards’ leads the way upwards with tenderly treated spacious drum programming and light-as-air atmospherics while darker and deeper cavernous tones create the yin-yang balance of lightness and dark. ‘Broken Spell’ continues the uplifted vibe of a spell that when broken, blooms open with an intoxicating permeating sweetness like an exotic fragrance that lingers in one’s memory. ‘A New Day’ leans slightly more towards a heavier driven track featuring a funky bassline with bright electronic notations as counterpoint while drifting, dreamy pads keep the overall mood airy and light. The off-kilter knob is turned way right on the bouncy final track ’Disjointed Route’, injecting dashes of wry quirk alongside a lightly moving groove.

The in-demand Finnish duo Morphology joins FireScope Records for their 10-track ‘Traveller’ LP — a vision of travel to destination unknown.After having released two albums on Zyntax Motorcity and EPs on labels such as Central Processing Unit, Cultivated Electronics, Emotions Electric and Abstract Forms, Morphology’s third album continues their intensive deep-space exploration at the intersection of electronic/electro music and scientific discovery.Awash in the beautiful sounds of hardware-derived music direct from Morphology’s command center, the album takes listeners into their skilfully crafted universe. Each track is a new world in itself of crisp beats, deep basslines and melancholic melodies. Interspersing the frenetic pace of hyper-speed travel with ethereal landings, ‘Traveller’ is an intergalactic trip without taking off your headphones.The radio static of ‘Distant Signal’ mysteriously invites you to tune into an otherworldly frequency. You select ‘Y’ and hit enter to get to ’Second Light’, its fluttering arp work and foreboding bassline taking travellers to the next higher dimension.You land on the planet ’Farthest Regions’ with a touch of the Orient and misty atmosphere surrounds. A contemplative mood settles in before you take off again with ‘Hidden Variable’, its haunting sustained pads and adrenaline-fuelled beats signalling both thrill and danger.The ambient atmospherics ’Memory Fragments’ flings one lost into space for a brief interlude, before ‘Detached’ and ‘Pod Bay 8’ gears back in warp speed mode. The combined energetics of Intricate breakbeat drum patterns, fierce basslines and spacey cold atmospherics deliver the album’s dancefloor apex.‘Bipolar Nebula’ soars up to further stratospheric heights and a soft landing while the intelligent brain dance ’Kernel Method’ gives one to the head-nodders. The lingering final track ‘Deuteros’ algorithmically skips, taps and signs out on what has been an out of this world sonic adventure — from faraway lands to abstract spatial dimensions and beyond.

FireScope Records, the scion of B12 Records, releases its first album from none other than its chief commander, Steven Rutter. The second credited solo release from Rutter, it signals another step away from B12 as he steadily builds on a singular vision of work under his own name.With previous releases on labels such as Warp, Soma, Delsin, ART, Buzz and De:Tuned, one of the original founders of UK techno is guided inward for this collection of 12 brand new tracks. Developed over 2 years, these tracks have previously appeared in his numerous solo live shows but are presented here for the first time as one complete narrative. The album, titled ‘BrainFog’, is the creative and spiritual catharsis of a journey beginning circa 2010, which saw the producer on a hospital bed, hours away from an ascent to the heavens and subsequently depressed and anxious while seeking liberation and escape through music. The daily battle with darkness continues today and this album is his emotions laid bare. Hauntingly beautiful in its fog-filled melancholy; it’s our pilot’s only solace on the lone flight to recovery.The opening track, ‘Sleep Gives Freedom’ is a slow, risky start for an album but pays tribute to that safe place which one can escape from everything that surrounds. Put this on to escape and be lulled into a walk through the fog. The following track ‘Statuesque’ stands tall as a classic techno tune — a stomper with lush strings, tough beats and a bassline that shouts loud and proud. Emotional and heartfelt with a smattering of percussion, ’Memories of You’ is written for a best friend, an orbiting soul who is now light years from earth.Throughout the album, the clouds of despair and decay are never far away, interspersed with bright but fleeting moments of lightness and hope. ‘Cracked Reality’ slightly disturbs with its sparse and pounding construction, before the decaying beauty of ‘Degenerator’ and its mirroring track, ‘Oracle Unleashed’, offer two perspectives to the same theme. ‘Squad Free Force’ throws back to early hip hop with its old school drums topped with an eerie spin and warmly wrapped in heaven- sent pads. The album’s two quirkier compositions come in the form of ’Infinity Engine’ and ‘Takedown’. With a pure 909 techno sound, ‘Infinity Engine’’s incredible pads offer a path from sadness to elation and happiness. A different live version may be released later in the year. ‘Takedown’’s chuggy sideways groove further breaks it down — no matter who or where you are; there is always someone somewhere that wants to bring you down, sometimes it’s yourself.