alexone
@ 03-09-2009, 22:36
Interchill releases tend to get filed under psy-chill or dub these days, which is a barely passable description of the Canadian label's lastest release Bliminal. It's a product of the same open-ended philosophy that defined past label compilations such as Magnetic Blue (1998) and Dissolving Clouds (2005). On the psy-chill front we hear superior examples by Slackbaba and Hibernation - muscular rhythms, strong chord progressions and celestial melodies. There's chilled but spiky mid-tempo electro hybrids from Gaudi and Evan Marc. The Danish composer Moravec evokes early Aphex Twin synths on the lovely "Kedelstarrt". A couple of the distorted glitch-based tracks border on painful to the ears - perhaps your definition of chill but not mine. Closing the album is an exquisite, luminous piece of environmental ambience from label regular Ishq. By turns intriguing, beautiful, adventurous, annoying - in other words, another good Interchill comp. ~ AmbientMusicGuide.com
No matter what you want to call it; psychill, psybient, ambient goa, psychedelic trance, psydub, or whatever, there's no mistaking the sound of it, and Interchill, along with others like Waveform, are among the best labels out there when it comes to laying it all down on plastic. Assuming you can take the sub for granted, Interchill has kicked off 2007 with a compilation they call "Bliminal" and it's a cornucopia of deeply psychedelic, dub and near Eastern infected grooves that will make your ears smile in every manner of multi-chromatic fractal imagery they can dream up.
It opens with an amazing track by Greg Hunter called "Geonosis part 1 - The Emperor's New bassline" and doesn't really let up from there. Floating your mind past tracks by Eat Static, Slackbaba, Hibernation, and Gaudi, each sharing subtle Eastern influences and dub affectations, it isn't until "Active Ingredient" by Evan Marc that you'll encounter the first (and only) straight ahead 4/4 house beats to be found on Bliminal.
After the Evan Marc track things take a more ambient turn and nicely placate your senses with numbers by Liquid Stranger and Moravec until an amazingly laid-back cut from Legion Of Green Men called "Letters Never Sent" brings you out of one hypnosis and into another, slightly more active state.
Ishq shuts off the lights on Bliminal with a marathon (as in 15 minute long) ambient tracks called "Nepalese Sun" that's guaranteed to lay you out flatter than a heavyweight's left hook, but in a much more pleasant fashion.
If you dig any degree of the psy sound, you should pick this up. ~ properlychilled.com
