Dark Features
The Record Company
In the complex tradition of Aphex Twin, Diesel Boy and perhaps even The Dust Brothers,
comes a two-man symphony of noise: Dark Features. Thankfully, there is no form, structure
or any of that regular bullshit you may find on 99.9% of the "top" music sold in stores
today. Like the afore mentioned, similar noisemakers, this album is not for everyone and
most people would pass it off as "too confusing" because they don't know any better; they're
normal. But to us "fucked-in-the-head" people, every track is perfectly imperfect and up to
par for listening to while deeply contemplating why everyone else in the world listens to
the same mindless shit over and over again. Go find it and buy it my fellow "weirdoes."
- Andy Harvey
synthesis.net
PHIL WESTERN
DARK FEATURES
The Record Company/CAN/CD
Vancouver's Phil Western and Tim Hill of the Sub Conscious Collective are memeber of
electro improv group Download, and their free-form influences show on Dark Features,
and amazing album that sounds like two men clanging around in a dingy digital basement,
making music out of the spare parts of Krautrock, space rock and trip hop that litter
the floor. Dark Features is looping layers of claustrophic contemplation. It embodies
a alot of the same all-inclusive organics-meet-electronics ethos that fueled the groove
of much of the most engaging, ambient, tribal acid house of the early 90's, though Western
and Hill's psycheldic programming is as forward-thinking as it is nostalgic, because you're
going to be left reflecting on it for days
Tony Ware
XLR8r
december 2001 issue #55, page 58
PHIL WESTERN/TIM HILL
Album: Dark Features (the record company: www.colourspeaks.com)
Rating: 7
Who?: Western's a Vancouver producer/engineer with credits on Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and Monster Magnet releases
Sounds Like: A tantilizing trip through abstract break beat, world music, ambient, space rock and other genre's.
How is it?: Western's production skills lend themselves well to hallucinogen-gobbling sessions
Kindred Spirits? Tranquility Bass, Skylab, Spiritualized
Alternative Press
January 2002 #162, page 89
Phil Western
Dark Features
The Record Company
3 1/2 stars out of 4
Local electronic producer and musician Phil Western (Skinny Puppy, Voyeurs by Two) knows a
thinkg or two about metallic surfaces, dark melancholia and even the occasional need for
dance grooves.
But mostly, the producer and engineer, with partner Tim Hill etch a mood that is too abstract
with tinny sounds and random noises to be confined to the dance floor. Offbeat samples and
loops aside, WEstern keeps the mood light and airy enough for conventional techno enthusiasts,
but hunkered down in textures that are a wax-doll hair's breadth away from disturbing.
Just when it seems the sound-scape is perhaps too chaotic, a tight metallic beat will surface.Ê
He aslo abandons the sound entirely to contibute a haunting melody and strumming acoustic guitar,
on a great dozy pop song called Be a Fool.Ê Elsewhere, retro pop melodies slide along sisdde easy
guitar riffs and science fiction sound effects.Ê Lots of clever, intense listening comes out of
Western's darkness.
Ê
Kerry Gold
The Vancouver Sun
October 11, 2001
Phil Western & Tim Hill - "Dark Features" CD + 10"
This long-awaited collaboration between DOWNLOAD/PLATEAU conspirators Western and Hill sets it's
sights on uncharted sonic vistas. A logical followup to Western's previous solo work, this new
album sees his first real attempts at fairly straight-ahead vocals, while embellishing the
predominantly electronic work with numerous live instruments. There's still an undeniable groove
to it all, but Western and Hill aim much higher than simply 'dance music'. This incredible work
is lush and scenic--teeming with rich melodies and exotic, deep listening effects. There's some
very successful stabs at dreamy, drug-addled 'shoegazer' pop (like the SPIRITUALIZED-sounding 'Fight No More'),
as well as incredibly atmospheric film music (the lovely 'Dirty'). 'He Never Showed Up' uses sampled
dialogue and builds a healthy and propulsively rhythmic song around it to great impact--like NEU!
with stronger production and infinitely more layers. Simply put, this work proves that Western and
Hill are in the upper echelon of electronic music composers. 'Dark Features' is packed with radiant
and colourful moods, textures, and tight grooves that are impossible to passively listen to.
Possibly one of the finest releases of the year! The very limited 3-song 10" includes more of the
guys' hybrid electronic grooves with more of an emphasis on the beat. Superb work.
(The Record Company)
Todd Zachritz
GOSDSEND Online
Phil Western + Tim Hill - Dark Features
With this collaboration with Tim Hill, Phil Western continues to explore
the sonic environments that he had previously exposed with his different
projects, but "Dark Features" goes even further than the electronic
experiments that composed most of his work so far. Many influences are
intertwined in a musical expression that defies all categorization. A
strong psychedelic feel transcends the album throughout its continuity that
evolves through a combination of electronic abstractions, flowing
atmospheres, acoustic instrumentations, the 80's British scene spirit,
Middle Eastern mysticism, and the list goes on. It's everything and
nothing in particular, it's music in all its beauty.
Jean-Francois Fecteau (Le Vestibule)
Phil Western / Tim Hill "Dark Features"
The Record Company recd001 2001 (61:35)
Phil Western has at least a decade of experience in electronic music and is currently a member
of Download and platEAU.Ê "Dark Features" is the debut release from Vancouver based The Record
Company and it picks up right where Western's 1998 solo album "The Escapist" (co-produced by
Tim Hill, who has also played with platEAU) left off.Ê This is premium textured techno:Ê a thick
mesh of synth and sample ambiance and programmed beats with additional organic elements like
voice and guitars.Ê Phil's vocals appear on half a dozen tracks - they're more unnecessary than
they are annoying, ditto for many of the numerous, seemingly random spoken samples.Ê "Fight No
More", "Dirty" and "DMT" ride strong bass/guitar grooves, the latter one being as active as the
psychedelic substance it is named after with Western singing the word 'dimethyltryptamine' over
a bright and bouncy pop riff.Ê Gorgeous ambient moments endure in several tracks, most notably
the tail ends of "Embryo" and "Duke".Ê "Bring That Home, Buffalo" is downright peculiar by
throwing banjo playing into the mix.Ê But the most surprising and stunning track of all, the
one which will surely confound many a listener, is "Be the Fool".Ê Here Western sings and plays
acoustic guitar solo for an emotional and atmospheric song that approaches the sound of late
'80s American Music Club.Ê Great stuff.Ê I hope Western further explores these heretofore
unrevealed singer songwriter and pop proclivities.Ê Act now and three more techno oriented
tracks are available on a bonus orange marble 10" with the first 300 orders direct from the
label at colourspeaks.com ...
Mark Weddle
Mark Weddle's CD Reviews
Phil Western and Tim Hill
Dark Features
It's probably the most refreshing music I've heard in years.
Finally I discovered artists who are not afraid to record their own brave
artistic visions, completely free of genre boundaries. I'm amazed by Phil's
ability to create an album which is quite modern in terms of production,
but still incorporates the geniality of the true masters like Brian Eno,
Harold Budd, David Lanois. Still, the CD offers some tracks which are
extremelly usefull on the dancefloor, for example "Seeing But No Seen" - a
song that could make Underworld jealous. I was also glad to see that your
CDs come in "artistically correct" packages which just rounds the overall
impression. First I thought I'd write you a song-by-song review, but the
next moment I realized it's not possible. "Dark Features" is a masterpiece
which should be considered only in its entirety.
Emil
DJ M-ILL aka Tripnotic
Admittedly Weird Dark Features Plays Up the Pop
Cross Fade by John Lucas
Georgia Straight Fall/01
Phil Western's The Escapist was one of the most intruiging local CD's of 1998, but it was also one
of the least heard. Packed with swirling layers of heavily treated guitar and synthesizer, the
album wrapped the listener in a dreamy gauze of blissed-out textures, eastern samples, and the
occasional trance-inducing techno beat. That The Escapist didn't make quite the splash it should
have has something to do with the limited resources of the tiny indie label Map Records, that put
it out. Moreover, the disc was probably just a little too far out for many people to grasp, and
it wasn't exactly bristling with hooks.
Western's latest, Dark Features , is a collaboration with Tim Hill, who also helped out with The
Escapist. Though it's not likely to garner any airplay on commercial radio, the new release is
arguably more listener- friendly than it's predecessor. Whereas The Escapist often came across
like a compendium of interesting sounds, the tracks on the independently released Dark Features
are instantly recognizable as songs, and even the ones that are built around samples, such as
"He Never Showed Up" and "Dirty", follow logical structures. The peppy guitar riff-driven "DMT"
even boasts sing-along chorus and sounds for all the world like Spacemen 3 on, well, DMT.
"The seemed to me to be the primary difference between this one and The Escapist," offers Hill,
interviewed along with Western at a restaurant on an increasingly trendy strip of Vancouver's Main
Street. "This one is a lot more pop, for lack of a better word."
"It's more pop, I guess, but still pretty weird, I hope.," Western offers. "There's no effort of
attempt to make a commercially viable product, but there is a willingness to try and reach more
people with good taste, or similar taste. I've been inspired to see a band like Radiohead do so
wellwith such a unique sound, and it just gets more and more unique. People are ready for that."
The casual listener will be forgiven for failing to detect any Radiohead influence on the widely
eclectic Dark Features, which ranges from Severed Heads-style cut-and paste numbers to infectious
almost pop. It's most sruprising track is "Be The Fool", which features Western crooning softly
atop dense strata of chiming and droning guitars and sounds something like My Bloody Valentine
covering Pink Floyd. The beauty of that song exemplifies what makes the album work as a whole.
The electronic elements are blended sealessly with experly utilized organic sounds, including
live drumming, guitar-playing, and singing of Hill and Western.
"Phil more then me," Hill clarifies. "Phil's more comfortable with his voice than I am , I
think."
"I'm getting more comfortable with it," Western agrees. "To me, the hardest part of figuring out
what to do musically comes from feeling that I'm more apt at electronic music and making sonic
collages, basically, but the music that makes me feel something when I listen to it usually lyrical.
For it to resonate emotionally with me, it usually involves some lyrics or some personal kind of
statement. Maybe not the whole album, but at least somewhere, to give people some idea of who the
personality behind this stuff is. If there is any, you know? Not everyone has to do that.
Aphex Twin's never had to do that. But I know for myself, when I listen to Radiohead's
new record, I feel something more intense than when I listen to Aphex Twin's record."
Essentially , what Western, who's also a member of Download, is trying to achieve is connection
with the people through his music. The most direct way to do that, of course, is to perform the
music in front of an audience. He is adamant, however, that he will not follow the Chemical
Brothers' live -performance blueprint. "The vast majority of electronic music that's out there
is one or two guys standing behind a bunch of great bobbing their heads up and down," he says.
"I've done it, and I don't want to do that anymore." Instead, Western is assembling a crew of
his friends, including members of Sun Like Star and Arturo, to bring the songs on Dark Features
to life. He's planning to sing and play guitar, while Hill will take care of the lights and
visuals. For now, though, you'll have to make do with a copy of the CD, a dark room, and your
own imagination. Any ingestion of hallucinogenic substances beforehand is entirely your own
business, but one suspects Western, and Hill recommend it. After all, they do thank Albert
Hoffman, Timothy Leary, and Terrance McKenna in the notes in Dark Features, which begs the
question of just how important the psycheldic experience was to the creation of the record's
distinctive sound.
"To the sound? I don't know," Western responds. "I don't know but it's been hugely important
to my life, and that affects the sound somehow. I don't get high to make music. I get high
and listen to music. So generally there's a few sessions of getting high on psychedelics before
an album's begun and then once it's completed. I've had a couple of trips with this record now.
It's allmost like the test: Is it a good listen on psycheldelics? And hopefully it is."
That, dear reader, is a judgement we will leave up to you.
Phil Western / Tim Hill: Dark Features
Total Time: 61:35
Phil Western (a.k.a. Philth) has proven himself to be an integral part of virtually all
SubConscious Communications releases since the label's inception. Phil was a good friend and
partner of Dwayne Goettel and together they shared the debut SubConscious 12". Soon after, Phil
became a founding member of Download and has appeared on all of the band's subsequent releases.
He has also participated in other SubCon projects including platEAU and cEvin Key's "Music For
Cats" and has released one solo album, "The Escapist". He has also worked on projects, both solo
and with other collaborators, under such names as Off and Gone, Floatpoint, and just plain Philth.
This new record, "Dark Features", is a collaborative effort with Tim Hill, who co-produced "The
Escapist" and has also appeared on some SubCon releases including platEAU's "Space Cake". Tim was
also responsible for the films which provided the visual aspect of Download's now-legendary 1996
tour.
Much of Phil's previous work can be (rightly or not) tagged with that elusive yet loaded label
known as 'techno'. His contributions to the SubCon compilations illustrated a taste for a
programming-driven techno style not unlike Dwayne's solo work. On "Dark Features", however, Phil
surprises with a vastly wide palette of styles, weaving progressive rock, ambient, dub, acoustic
singer-songwriter, ethnic/world, and 'experimental' sound collage styles into a diverse, yet
unified, tapestry.
Personally, I am not a big fan of 'techno' music in general. I think that the style has led to a
proliferation of music which is largely homogenous and unimaginative and which owes more to the
gear itself than the people who play it. Of course, the work of Dwayne and Phil is usually an
exception, but overall the genre is just not my cup of tea. "Dark Features", however, challenges
and surpasses those cliched limitations to create something above and beyond the techno norm. In
this respect, it is a progressive record in the truest sense of the word. This is not a techno
album. With authentic drum kits, guitars, and basses forming the foundation, much of the record
has a thoroughly rock atmosphere that couldn't be considered techno in even the broadest sense.
Furthermore, the techno-styled material on the album is of a far superior grade than you're likely
to hear on your typical electronic compilation. The tracks on "Dark Features" are actual songs, not
merely glorified loops extended to fill six minutes of mindless dancing.
This is one of those records that, just when you think it can't get any better, the next track
comes on and, gosh darnit, it does. It journeys into a number of unexpected areas and there are
simply too many great moments for a mere summary, so I've decided to give my impressions of the
whole thing (if you're wary of spoilers skip to the end).
"Colourspeaks" opens the record with one of the more techno-styled tracks. This track is a gorgeous,
densely programmed yet bright work that is uniquely uplifting. It's impossible to listen to
"Colourspeaks" and feel depressed. This song is an example of true electronic artistry; not
something that anyone who has a shareware copy of Rebirth can squat out with a mouse click.
"Fight No More" immediately changes the pace with a dub-like bass line joined by rock guitar chords
and an amalgam of electronic and acoustic drums. Phil's vocals complement the groove nicely and
various processed sounds float in and out of the mix.
"He Never Showed Up" integrates some rather funny samples into the track. The music carefully
punctuates the dialogue (a la Doubting Thomas) giving the song a defined structure and form.
The spoken lyrics of "Dirty" chronicle the experience of an obsessive-compulsive over the song's
rock-style riff (which actually has a chord change, something your average techno artist wouldn't
know if it bit him in his ultra-hip arse). Capping it off is a lush synthscape.
"The Imploded Man" features a deliciously groovy bass-line and both electronic and acoustic
percussion. With some of its almost cartoonish sounds, the track evokes the sense of humor of some
Download and aDuck material.
One of my personal favorite tracks is "Chaos / What Are We Gonna Do?", a sound collage not unlike
early Skinny Puppy tracks like "Unovis on a Stick" and "Meat Flavor" or some of Jim 'Foetus'
Thirlwell's instrumental work. Various chunks and loops of dialogue, music, and sound effects play
off of each other cinematically, building to a noisy, yet textured, climax.
"Seeing But Not Seen" offers a more improvised-sounding techno track that would've felt quite at
home on Download's "Effector".
The excellent "Bring That Home, Buffalo" is based upon the unlikely instrumental choice of the
banjo, surrounded by dramatic, art-rockish guitars and poignant synths. Sampled singing (again
recalling Doubting Thomas) adds another emotional dimension to the track.
"Embryo" begins with lush, eastern-flavored ambience that shifts to a slow, ominous rock vamp
cushioning some wonderful guitar work by guest Ben Sherazi. The track closes by bringing us to an
even higher plane of atmospheric synths. This song is one of the album's highlights.
"Be the Fool" holds the biggest surprises; the folk-rock troubadour styled track is based entirely
on acoustic guitar and Phil's subdued vocal delivery. Yep, Phil sings! In fact, vocal textures
permeate the entire record, lending even the more electronic tracks an organically based sound.
This feature is one of the album's strengths and it's no surprise that "Be the Fool" is a superb
track.
"Duke" begins with march-like percussion that gloriously opens upon a glowing melody. It paints in
sound the image of dark clouds parting after a storm, letting the sun warm the moist ground below.
Continuing the bright vibe, "DMT" offers an addictive, uppity alterna-rock groove. It's another
infectiously positive track that, in a mutant universe, would be one of those summer hit songs.
Finally, "The Machine Elves" closes the album with a nervous, processed soundscape set amidst
dissonance.
This eclectic record is for anyone disappointed with the narrow-mindedness of most new music.
Anyone who enjoyed the sonic wizardry of Download's "Effector" or the tongue-in-cheek genre
straddling of ohGr's "Welt" should check this album out immediately. With its fusion of
progressive-rock and electronic music, it will also likely appeal to fans of The Tear
Garden/Legendary Pink Dots, Radiohead, and Twilight Circus. Whether you're an established Download
fan or have never heard anything of Phil's before, "Dark Features" has a great deal to offer,
proving that Phil and Tim are capable of a coherent, satisfying, and original work. They have
created a subtle and varied album that is not to be missed.
Dark Features is currently available exclusively online at www.colourspeaks.com.
Corey
|