Wednesday 15 May 2013

InVibe Music Souls Emerge Compilation Review





Artist: Various


Title: Souls Emerge


Label: InVibe Music


Release Date: 7th May 2013





InVibe are a collective of musicians from Seattle whose ethos is to spread and share music that is made from, in their own words "beauty, heart and pure groove that transcends the norm. They look out for their producers on their roster and if you look on their home page you will see some very pleasing pie chart comparisons as to how a usual record company shares their profits and how they do.  Producers take note. They are up for the revolution.

With that said, into the album. 'Souls Emerge' is a compilation of some of the best artists on the label. It begins with the mighty Kalpataru Tree's remix of Citta Flows 'Cloud Story'. Once again he creates a sonic healing through his ability to tap into frequencies that at once are fully ground yet at the same time lift you into the realms of the spiritual aether and always underpinned with that earthy dub bass he does so well.

 It then moves onto Subaqueous's remix of Michael Maricle's 'Look' a desert dwelling excursion that conjures up being in a Bedouin tribe round the fire of the evening head nodding to a desert hip hop sound all sand and tied up camel's braying in the near distance.

GUDA's 'Benares 'Sunrise' brings it back (but not harsly) to a more western feel with a jazzy saxophone but still keeps with that tribal percussion sound. This overall is subtly done.

 The tempo rises slightly with Eyan Green's 'Para Angle' where he brings it to the dance. Think of glitch hop styling’s, a subtle 'wob wob' bass but so much warmer and understated but with just enough krunk to get the feet moving with warmth synth lines and a hint of that Bil Bless sound. 

Mas's 'Fireside' drops a beautifully infused hang (drum) infused with breakbeats all dohl drummed to perfection with disjointed faraway voices and a synth line that I'm not ashamed to say reminds me of Duran Duran's 'Save A Prayer' all brilliantly done.

Leave Trace's 'Quintessence' brings it fully into the warmest of dub techno with the heart beat pulse of a barely recognisable kick drum that reminds me so much of Paul Kalkbrenner's remix of Ellen Allien & Apparats 'Jet' but with that said he still creates his own unique airspace with his own thermal bass and beautiful folding synths n fx. 

Babajaga's 'Procession' once more takes us cross continent back to desert blown winds but this time with melancholic strings that speak of loss and longing whether in the personal or the greater picture but with a beat that calls to arms and to stay strong.  

With Leave Trace and Michael Maricle's 'State of Decay'  the earth plane is left and just about in contact with some static radio transmission of mission control but there is an underlying heartbeat that says "go further" and with a breakthrough on in to the stillness, orbiting, looking out to the majesty of this beautiful planet

The album closes perfectly with De La Lune's 'United Souls'.  Echoing sparse piano chords and a female voice (unknown) speaks to the warriors of this world to bring together the love that will see us through this one to a new and better world. 

Keep the faith People x 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

CKAJ knows the music and how to describe it so one can get a good idea of what it may sound like before one decides to buy it or not. Inall a very well written review. Thanks!