Catching The Waves

Unscheduled Wormhole Activation

 

In which I apologise to my readers in this galaxy and others:

Internet and lifestyle problems have caused a temporary hiatus in CTW's stream of witty, prescient, and dazzlingly handsome reviews. This blog, the literary equivalent of a Bach cantata, should be back to "normal" in a week or two.

You'll just have to go cold turkey.

To help you while away the intervening hours as you crouch naked in a corner of a dank room, rocking gently to yourself and whispering, "Free music...catching the waves...creative commons...catching the waves...love-god...music of the spheres...catching the waves...":

...here's a "song" that will help you with intestinal cramps and in your everyday life. It's one minute and six seconds of irrefutable logic that will provide the last word in workplace disputes, pub quiz arguments and frank exchanges of views with your family and partners. Please send it to your boss, your sister, your friends, your lover, your colleagues, your sister, your utilities supplier, your internet company, your sister, or anyone who you know hasn't quite grasped the essential truth of a situation. Or you could send it to your sister.

Don't worry - it won't annoy them in the slightest. Not at all.

Supertalented - You're Wrong

Supertalented on MySpace

Birdsong netlabel (who specialise in lo-fi "home recorded" releases)

...the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

    

Dimomib is a Greek producer of dubby, technoish, ambient-flavoured stuff that might sit well on your shiny new works-ok-but-has-a-crap-battery-life mp3 player. His 10-tracker, Lo-Fi, is a platter of calm grooves and deep reflection that will calm anyone who's just realised that there are less than seven shopping weeks until Consumerism Christmas Day. (The rest of the world can carry on regardless. As Dave Allen always said, may your god go with you.)

CTW can't showcase a track because the album, released on the otherwise entirely wonderful Dead-Channel, is zipped. When are netlabels going to understand that there are millions of people on the net who still use dial-up? Why exclude potential fans?

/grumble

EDIT: Dead-Channel has sprung Lazarus-like from the audio underworld and provided me with a clip from Clipping Digits, a track with a dusty vibe, a cavernous reverb and a kick that's a chest-thumper. If you like it, please have a listen to my recommended track, which is mentioned approximately five centimetres due south of this sentence. Thank you for listening, D-C.

D'you see the power of CTW, people? DO YOU SEE?!? I WILL CRUSH MY ENEMIES AND DRIVE THEM BEFORE ME AND HEAR THE LAMENTATION OF THEIR WOMEN!!!

*cough*

Sorry.

So, anyway, to discover for certain whether Lo-Fi is Hi-Def, please visit the album's release page on Dead-Channel netlabel and play Double Shuffle on their media player. You'll have to trust me on this one, folks. The first two minutes sound as though Dimomib is rummaging through his "spare samples" drawer; the middle two constitute some thoroughly decent dub; and the final two minutes unveil a wonderful reverse-sounding synth riff that, just like The Dude's carpet, really ties the room together, before ending in an uplifting chord sequence. I suspect it'll take about three plays for the track's excellence to sink in. It's one of my favourite internet finds.

Another one to try out is Testing Soundsystems, which, with its forceful, glitchy kicks and sub bass, will do exactly what it says on the tin.

Those three tracks should let you decide whether you want to download the entire album, which is a big decision if you don't have broadband. But I think Dimomib and Dead-Channel have combined to give us something that, despite the name, is most definitely high quality. Much obliged, gentlemen.

Lo-Fi is an example of hi-def, slow-burn, ambient-esque, dub-like trip-hop. Give it a whirl before I run out of hyphens.

Dimomib - Lo-Fi (link to zipped album, with apologies to dial-up users)

Dimomib

Dead-Channel - a netlabel from the north of England, but we won't hold that against them. ;-)