MP3DB.pro - Platform - Pseudochromis (2009)

It really does give me a huge amount of
pleasure to bring you this release from
Platform. Not only am I a big fan of his
work as well as the Minimal Resource
Manipulation imprint he runs, he's also
a bloody good bloke! We talked about
this a long time ago and, with the way
things panned out this year, it's ended
up coming out a bit later than I wanted,
but it's here and it's absolutely
awesome. Taking cues from his broad body
of released work, there are three
different vibes on Pseudochromis. The
first cut 'Varient' takes a clicked out
approach to minimal electronica. It has
touches of melody but tends to work more
with the rhythms to create some
surprisingly upbeat grooves. You can
hear an almost electro style vibe to the
way it works and combined with the eerie
string sounds and cunning edits and
drops this is a cracking way to kick
things off. Next comes 'Axis' which
moves into a more overtly melodic style.
It's a brilliant track that uses
analogue style bleeps and a slight nod
to Detroit coupled with nicely processed
beats to give it lots of movement, lots
of variety and plenty of atmosphere. A
wonderful, and mildly disturbing break
in the middle really sets it off
beautifully. Strangely funky this, and
all the better for it. Finally we hit
the superb 'Through Glass' which is
constructed using field recordings and
an incredibly deep and sinister series
of sounds and textures. The initial bird
calls give way to the sound of a
reverbed out dog which is spooky in
itself but when you add in the tense,
dramatic mid-range texture that slides
into the mix you get a beautiful sense
of darkness, tempered by those original
naturalistic sounds. And then you're
surrounded by a low-end chord / bass
that takes it onto another level. A
wonderfully conceived beatless ambient
track that I've been enjoying for ages.
All in all this is another extremely
fine work from Platform and another
release that I'm proud to be able to
bring you. Big thanks go out to Matt for
getting involved and bearing with me
during the somewhat long birth of this
release!