With no overdubs, this wonderful live DJ set features Phillip Western's trademark acid bass lines and psychedelic ambience.
Phillip Western has demonstrated time and time again his capacity for combining experimental synthesis with spaced-out atmospheres and infectious grooves. Known as much for his collaborations with cEvin Key in Download and PlatEAU, as well as releases under his various other monikers like Kone and Beehatch, his latest release under his own name is a wonderful testament to his abilities as a live performer. Recorded live at Das Bunker on December 21, 2007, with "absolutely no overdubs," the appropriately titled 1221 pulsates with Western's signature sense of tripped out ambience. "Bob" begins the set with a series of heavily glitch-laden samples of the late painter Bob Ross, manipulated into something on par with Timothy Leary's hypnotic acid trip recordings, although much more humorous, putting the listener in the proper mode for 1221's effects. The music then kicks in with progressions of patchwork samples and trancelike bass lines, the beats deceptively complex yet belying a subtle simplicity. "Fly on the Wall" and "Young Blood" follow, shifting gears slightly as the bass is dominated by tweaked analog loops and arpeggios, spiraling further into psychedelic splendor, while later tracks like "Touch Me" and "Red Eyes" add layers of warm pads and effected voices, creating a sense of clashing calm and tension without inducing paranoia. Interesting to note in the transition between the latter track and "Conniption" is a snippet of a track from Download's III, and "Gow Gow" is perhaps the most reminiscent of latter-era Download with its sharps stabs of sonic ethereality, sounding like it could easily fit on III or III Steps Forward. "Creeper" and "San Julian" bring us more of those sweeps of analog arpeggios, filled to the brim with tweaks and turns to keep the loops from falling into complacent repetition. The beat remains steady throughout, never delving too far into flurries of excess, yet still adding enough tonal variety that they come across as more prodigious than they might actually be, making this one hell of an extended DJ set. 1221 is certainly a must-have for fans of Phillip Western's musical output, but fans of experimental techno will find much to behold with this album as well.
Ilker YŸcel
Re:Gen Magazine
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