Fabric 17 - Akufen

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

glad to hear this as i've been meaning to pick it up. the last time i went to tower i had it in my hands, but i bought something else instead (they had those depeche mode singles boxsets on sale).

the edwards christian thing is completely overt, but i can't think of music that is more flat-out euphoric.

re todd edwards. im not that familiar, but it does seem as though he has a 12" out every few weeks, and i find it hard to distinguish between all his prolific output. As a result I decided to buy 'shut the door' (this is the classic, right?) and be done with it.

Why you always gotta be the turd in the punchbowl?

but akufen usually does (except for some wankier remix tracks) balance the micro sampling with groove and most of the time he uses funk bass lines.