yesterday I said whites are circulating of the new Sound Signature #17... this was a mistake, the whites are actually SS #18... sorry bout that. Which brings up the question what happened to # 17 ?
Anyway after some time to digest it, a quickie review: A side is a long fairly uptempo cut that starts minimal with cowbell and old-ish sounding drums funky and maybe African sounding?.... builds slowly and really funky infectious groove. crazy stuff like and some rhythmic flute, comes in and a small chorus of voices saying a "la la la la" kind of melody... got to be a sample of something from long ago, hard to place,... very cool. Then about halfway into it, most of the elements except for the drums and cowbells drop out and these warm synth pads come up under it all and really smoothes it all out. The track feels like it's going over a hill and the sun is shining now over the bigger, broader vista. A bigger electronic bassline comes in and now the voices return, more melodies and some soft piano keys. A beautiful and uplifting piece, one you'd just like to end a set with the way it transforms. B side starts slow tempo, prob. around 90 bpm and a real plodding slow deep dark rhythm... distant fait sample that sounds like Eric B. saying "you can clap to this" and some cool electronic muted tones come in. Then as the track gets about halfway there's some clanging sounds and some couple kind of big drum crashes and a synthy haze. Then a sample breaks through, a female voice "it's true without a doubt" in a louder way and some more dramatic crashes... wicked breakdown. Then the tempo underneath picks up to probably around 120 - kicks it up a notch, more rhythmic elements join in and it's a jacking dance track that (after that crazy breakdown) is sure to wake up a dance floor. This track just gets thicker with electronic rhythm elements and an additional really simple melody... a few more crashes along with that sample as it rides the rhythm out. These tracks are some of the most unique on Sound Signature records so far IMHO. Really deep and aimed straight at the underground, trademark gritty low-fi production. No one else I am hearing else is making tracks quite as unique as this with a consistent high bar of quality. A rich broad sound and enough changes and elements to keep it simple yet really complex at the same time. So much mood and energy, it's thick. The sounds and samples are timeless, you couldn't place a time or year on this one. But you can imagine the city where it came from... peace, Matt MacQueen
