Hippos In Tanks US Vinilo y CD

Review: Whether it's part of Hype Williams alongside Inga Copeland or with his solo material, Dean Blunt seems to delight in confounding expectations. Over the years, he's offered releases that steadfastly refuse to fit into any neat pattern. The Redeemer maintains this diverse approach, largely stepping away from the experimental electronics of last year's Hyperdub LP with Inga Copeland in favour of a more fragile, heartfelt sound that prioritizes acoustic guitars, harps, mournful strings and emotionally raw lyrics over drum machines and hissing pops and crackles. It makes for an arresting, if surprising, set, one which retains interest thanks not only to the emotion-rich feel of its music, but Blunt's impeccable sequencing skills. Certainly, it squeezes more unfussy, simple beauty into 70 minutes than anything he's done previously.

Review: Hippos In Tanks swiftly follow that immense Dean Blunt mixtape by belatedly issuing James Ferraro's latest long player on vinyl. Sushi initially surfaced in the digital domain in November last year, and whilst that format seems perfect for the New Age pin up's heavily dissected take on pop culture via the musical form, Ferraro completists will flock to Sushi. The eleven tracks here see Ferarro move on from gutting R&B and hiphop for the tumblr generation and adopt a tongue in cheek approach to the tropes of New York house music. It might be a bit much for interested newcomers but for those familiar with Ferraro's ways will find Sushi strangely affecting.

Review: With their debut LP Exo, Gatekeeper continue their endeavors to be viewed as "an immersive audiovisual experience" as opposed to a mere band. Much like Giza, their EP for Merok, was accompanied by a VHS tape of music videos rendered in 3D, the ostensible album format of Exo is part of a wider concept, with a purpose -built video game environment to accompany the music, with a different level for each track. Album opener "Imax" is aptly titled as the plush sound design whooshes around you like a quintessential pre-movie indent, begging to be flung across the room on a 5.1 surround sound system. From this brief intro Gatekeeper take you on a fast-paced romp through all manner of bold electronic styles. Still, that underlying nausea that comes from such a rush of information to your ears has an addictive quality that begs for high volume immersion.
Whether this album stands strong independently of the video game analogies is debatable. The context is needed to justify the production pec-flexing, and does anchor the bombast of this kind of electronica. It's impeccably realized, and presented in the right way it will undoubtedly draw you into a world where sound and vision fuse seamlessly in your head.