Fabric 17 - Akufen

It has been getting much better though since they got rid of the awful grey men meme.The Akufen cover is great, and I really like the cover with the gryphon too.

the cover looks more like one of those em:t records from c. '96 that looked real good in shops but somehow never made me the slightest bit interested in buying/listening to

what an excellent way of phrasing why i don't really like akufen as much as i could. i think the insistence on rigorous "deepness" is why i prefer craig richards or tyler stadius to michael mayer.

of course disc 2 of the most recent Richards Fabric mix suffers majorly from the affliction of "rigorous eclecticism" in a way that Mayer's Fabric mix avoids. Can't speak for disc 1 as the promo fuxors never sent my paper a copy of that.

Re: Akufen - he's often so "ooh look here's another cool random sound every two seconds". What distinguishes the tracks I mentioned is a) they only use a few recurring motifs, and b) said motifs are actually motifs: melodic or sonic strands that are fairly full-bodied and not cut up into indistinguishable micro-blips.

Maybe typical Akufen is like the sonic embodiment of Lyotard's libidinal band: everything is shorn of its conceptual identity and reduced to stray sonic impulses, each one prized for how different it is to the others. And yet (and this is the problem with both Lyotard and Akufen's approach), this very emphasis on the uniqueness and materiality of each sound/impulse creates a sort of endless monotony too - a monotony of discrete disconnectedness.

I prefer the tracks where all of these stray bits of sonic fluf actually work together to create, like, a tune, or an emotive response, or etc. etc. ie. the Hegelian Akufen tracks.

when i say the mayer fabric mix is rigorously deep i really mean the middle section from after westbam to before the jackson remix of m83. lots those tracks (superpitcher especially comes to mind) need some rat-tat-tat, y'know.

i'm glad you follow me on akufen. haha the lyotard/hegel bit is priceless!!

i never thought of fabric 01 as being a more banging version of immer. that's a very interesting comparison to make...i will have to have a listen later. ugh, but i can't because i think fabric 01 was also among the cds stolen from me.

pardon me (and Andy Battaglia and Simon Reynolds) for pointing out the blindingly obvious

I do find it funny that Todd Edwards' name gets mentioned every 30 seconds around Akufen, but Matthew Herbert never gets brought up...

because maybe My Way sounds SO MUCH like Edwards and HARDLY ANYTHING LIKE Herbert, perhaps?

because you are a hipster.

seriously, though, "prima edizione" is about five years old now. most small labels don't keep shit in print (except formally) for three years, let alone five. the nervous tracks compilation wasn't hard to find at all - when it came out, which was almost four years ago. "full on!" is stocked by tower IIRC.

if you want to find the vinyl on i! try looking at a dance vinyl specialist. if you want to find the CDs i'd try a big tower records before other music or whatever. i always go to tower first when i'm looking for "mainstream" dance selections.

but you'd vote for 'full on' over 'nervous tracks'?

yes. and I'd vote for a remixes comp over both.

ok, just ordered 'Full On'. thanks for the leads. just read your edwards v. akufen article in the voice -- although I agree that 'happy accident' plays a large part in akufen's method, I think he goes a long ways beyond purely random structuring. what I like about 'deck the house' is that the synth pads that would hold down the chord changes aren't there, but you can still reconstruct them in your head from the samples, they've all been precisely tuned & chosen. & I have a high tolerance for ADD sample onslaught.

recent akufen comp tracks seem to show him reintroducing the synth pad chords, and my attention falls right off when things go overt

IMHO.

How annoying/intrusive are his religious lyrics? I have low tolerance for such things.

And that's not to mention all the MacDonalds stuff which is very Akufen-y...

it's very intrusive on "prima edizione". well at least very front and center anyway, some people would probably argue it's central enough to his music that the concept of "intruding" on the music is sort of odd. annoying? your mileage will vary. i will admit i get annoyed. spencer apparently doesn't.

the other stuff - the nervous comp, the locked on comps - is also spiritual but in a much more generic ny gospel garage house sense. i'm assuming you've already listened to enough garage and house that the odd gospel influence / vocal doesn't bug you too much.

Yeah, I guess gospel influences come with the territory, but if they're vague enough (and the music's exceptional), I can let 'em slide. Ironically, Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan" is one of my favorite songs ever.

Re Nervous Tracks: it's good, but not very Edwardsian in the way that would come to mean soon thereafter. The two 'Full On' comps are better starters. And the mix he did (of pretty much all his own stuff, as per policy) for the recent Pure Garage 'Four To The Floor' comp is ace.

Re Akufen: I have lots of the same reservations as above, but seeing him play once sort of rewrote the book on him for me. He started off kinda boring, but worked the clicky-bumpy underbelly into an outrageously dark and acid-y mess before long. Itchiing to hear this new mix to see if it's as itchy as it could be.

cd 1 has some really rubbish tracks that more like noise then music
tracks are bleek and nothing stands out ... like listening to the same song 21 times over

these are good too

Don't let the name "garage" put you off, this is a far cry from the grimey beats that have put so many people off the genre
do yourself a favour, kick rubbish 'grimey beats' to the curb and GET THIS NOW!

i guess even on the other side of the atlantic the more things change the more they stay the same.

And don't worry Matos, I know Akufen deserves all the comparisons to Edwards that he can read - it's just that you brought it up, and I refuse to do the international sign of the knowing wink.

I like Akufen's shuffly tracks for the way they avoid that straightness in the groove.

anyone goign to eskimo dance in notts then?
nuff akufen

that ep for me defines the whole genre and negates any arguements about akufen tracks not working in clubs. no bassline and yet the whole ep TOTALLY causes it on the dancefloor every time. i'm on my third copy.

Because yeah, it's the greatest micro track ever.

been listening to this alot recently: herbert > soul capsule mix of freaks > crackhaus is just fucking obscene

this is what the jesse rose body language should've sounded like

*removes 08 Senor Coconut - Smoke On The Water*

ah, perfect

Had completely forgotten about this mix. The tracklist certainly captures a moment in time.