Okay - here goes:
Okay...right now I'm playing this game with myself, trying to slot the new
Stewart Walker record (Grounded in Existence), which I am liking quite a bit as
I give it it's first "proper" spin through the phones here at work.
It's a radical departure from what you might expect if you have some
familiarity with the bulk of Stewart's previous work (techno/minimal). This one
is slower, deeper, much more melodic and fleshed out. Definitely some kind of
electrionic IDM thing.
It bears some qualities of ambient, but it certainly isn't.
Once in a while a track starts to remind me of the Morr label, but it certainly
isn't straight-up Morr fodder and that category doesn't hold for long.
It brings to mind mid 90s electronic stuff before all of the genre-splitting.
This record makes me think of what I'd hoped Orbital would have evolved into
instead of becoming a washed out parody of themselves, late for retirement -
although the record isn't as layered or bombastic as an Orbital production.
It is at once more reflective and less pretentious than that.
It uses the odd beat one might associate with electronic hip hop and the odd
guitar string here and there, but employs rhythmic sensibilities and a sound
palette (this is a plus - good sounds, well used) one might not expect with
said description.
...try it, you'll like it. Just don't expect the usual.
jeff
> Tristan Watkins wrote:
>
> >No. Details please? After being quite devoted to him forever, I lost touch
> >and
> only recently went in search of his newer stuff, but nothing took. Am itching
> to
> hear a departure.
> >
> >
> A departure it is. Admittedly, I've only had time to hear the first 2
> tracks while in the car with my wife, but I was quite surprised. File
> more under 'electronic' than techno proper. It's slower, deeper and
> fuller. I hesitate to put a tag on it, but it reminds me more of things
> which came out maybe 10 years or so ago before there so many specific
> subgenres. Suffice to say (at least until I can give it a better listen
> - maybe today at work on the phones) it is not fast, not banging and
> something other than what you might expect. Stewart looks different as
> well, sporting very long hair and full beard on the sleeve.
>
>
> jeff
>
