Sunday, May 27, 2012

New : Lone - 'Galaxy Garden'

More synth slickness for your eager ears here - this stuff is coming out faster than I can write about it. Lone is some dude who busts out rave-era electronica like it's still 1992, which is a good thing in case you were wondering. I first heard this guy via last year's 'Echolocations' EP which was a pretty blissed-out introduction to his sound but this new LP encapsulates his retro yet fresh approach in a more complete package. Lone is presumably around the same age as me judging by his affection for old skool breakbeat and Global Hydrocolour rave signature sounds but instead of using the era's iconography as a gimmick he's managed to make it the centre of his musical universe and build outwards and the results are deliciously danceable. Remember the 'new-rave' generation of scenester douchenozzles that co-opted rave culture as some sort of retro fashion statement to accompany their shitty art school forays into indie music a few years back? This is a whole different proposition - Lone succeeds in producing the fruits of a fantasy collaboration between all those old skool singles acts from the early 90s and the Japanese audio boffins behind the soundtrack to all your Sunday morning Megadrive sessions back in the day. I was always slightly peeved that rave stalwarts like Altern 8 and Messiah could never muster a full length album to rival the grunge acts filling pages of the music press back then - only Liam Howlett seemed capable of translating the strobefest euphoria of 12" rave into LP format, and The Prodigy's endearing debut 'Experience' from back in '92 could sit nicely next to 'Galaxy Garden' in the rave racks. Truth be told Lone's approach is less acidic than Howlett ripfests like 'Ruff in the Juingle Bizness' though, he prefers to chillax over crystal clear synth waves for most of this record - think along the lines of the 7-minute CJ Bolland remixes on the B-side of your favourite rave hits and you're on the right path. Not that he can't bust out a floor filler though - the mid-album twinstrike of 8-bit thumper 'Crystal Caverns 1991' and the audio-orgasmic anthem 'Raindance' show he still knows the value of 'the drop' for maximum dancefloor euphoria. 'Galaxy Garden' is the perfect synth fetishist LP for a man like myself raised on XL Recordings and Kaos Theory compilations but should still pack enough punch for those of you who missed the golden years of rave, these are sounds that are easy to love however they come into your world.

Check out : the impossibly gorgeous 'Raindance'. Wait for the drop....wait for it....

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