Compilation Week continues with the debut release from Mourad Kachroud and Vinnie Blandin-Canonne’s new French label, Voxxov Records. The label aims to connect the dots between the ambient and IDM genres, and later this year will produce physical releases as well.
Fall Is a House of Gold and Rain (great title!) is an excellent way to kick things off. It’s a reminder of the potential power of IDM, as well as its breadth. The album (available as a free download) is arranged in order of sub-genre, growing from the abstract and glitchy, venturing through the thick and moody, and finally ending up in the accessible and beat conscious. There’s room for everybody here, and listeners will get the chance to decide which type of IDM they like the best. For me, it’s the stuff that sounds a little like old-school industial: the complicated stuff like haujobb used to make. Others won’t make the same connections, but they’ll be just as entertained – one might even say schooled, since this genre has never achieved the amount of press it’s been worth.
The opening tracks border on the ambient, drawing listeners slowly into the album like classic Future Sound of London pieces. It’s nice to see the added exposure for Access to Arasaka, although “Joyce” is a lot quieter than what one is used to hearing from the normally percussive act. Those drums, not yet dancefloor-worthy, begin to appear on VNDL’s “Orangé”, a nod to the more sedate excursions of Aphex Twin. Here we are reminded that the “D” in IDM, although it stands for “Dance”, is sometimes sublimated by the “I” (intelligent), a fact that has confused some listeners for years. The truth is, not every IDM song even has a beat; some tracks serve as buildup to others or enhance the beat-driven songs through contrast. The beauty of this particular compilation is that it doles its beats out like porridge to an orphan, but finally provides enough for the cups to run over. In Paskine’s “North”, one can hear them growing in the background, awash in a fog of drone, yearning to breathe free; before long, they will. By the end of the piece, wonders are beginning to develop.
By the center of the album, the beats have shifted from the discernible to the apparent; entries from Fedaden, Kesson and r.roo fall into the realm of industrial electronica, and serve as a reminder that there’s plenty of life left in the field – a fact confirmed by the success of last year’s massive Mentallo and the Fixer collection. At times the beats are steady, at times stumbling; the fact that some bones are missing from the skeleton makes the effect all the more alluring. As the album progresses, the gaps even out, lending the music a more polished feel: not for everyone, but a great starting point for newcomers. Frank Riggio, better known for his electronics, did a great job mastering the set, and contributes a convincing tempo-driven number in “Vulqkrom”. In the closing pieces, the end wraps around to the beginning. Listeners are able to detect the ambient and the glitch hidden behind the walls of the fuller, later tracks.
Fall Is a House of Gold and Rain is an excellent start for a promising young label, who has clearly taken great care in its presentation, from title and album art to selection, sequencing and mastering. We expect even greater things in 2013, as the physical releases are unveiled. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 