Out Of Beta, Releasing (Not) On Time

Hoo boy this one took longer than it should've. Word to the wise, always have backup plans even for your backup plans: I got an email with this LP a couple of weeks or so ago now, and I thought great now I don't have to worry too much coming up with post material for this one, but between intercontinental family visits and other general life things it managed to fall by the wayside. (Apologies Chris if you're reading this!) But enough about me, let's talk this LP, the cover almost matches our post backgrounds to boot!

This time we're covering a little something from Carbinax, I glanced over the cover art and tracklist and we should be in for a good sciencey time (Hence the post title). The copy given to me didn't have the tracks numbered so inn true scientific fashion I loaded them up and let the shuffle algorithms take over. And it all started with Smart Casual, A very nice way to start if I do say so myself, an easy addition to my 'potential menu music' playlist for sure. I like it a lot, seems like it'd be good material for folks looking into getting into IDM without throwing them in at the deep end with Autechre or Drukqs.






Moving into more house-like territory for the next random pick. I was digging it from the get go just because we're founded on house and all that, but man if I can't see this being part of some cyberpunk club soundtrack. It probably doesn't help I've been playing a lot of Timesplitters lately either and been all about the trance fuelled soundtrack of them. Regardless the intro and outro here are deliciously retro-futuristic.



Keeping the variety up once again, this time with some vocal accompaniment. I didn't find a credit for this track in particular but I'd like to thank them for doing a excellent job, the contrast between the punchy electronics and her voice makes for an interesting listen indeed, I'd be down for more stuff in this vein. The closest touchstone I have is Perturbtor's Sentient, and even then I'm liking this one more.



It's not all gloomy electronics surprisingly, there's a fair bit of piano in there too. And not MIDI 90's rave piano stabs either, more like Lisa Miskovsky's Still Alive if had to make a direct comparison. And speaking of comparisons, once this one gets going I had a flood of them coming to mind, that bouncy bassline bringing together a mix of Au Revior Simone, ADULT. and early to mid 2000's Freezepop specifically. Not a huge fan of the almost minute long fade-out, but saying that it only needs to be maybe 7-9 seconds shorter (which is admittedly nitpick-y).



And finally playing us out, a much more sedate number, as is often the case with IDM artists, this one feels a lot like a Global Goon tune to me. The samples are on point too, and even a more upbeat section coming crashing into the mix around 3:45 before leaving again around the 5 minute mark. It's a unique approach for sure, and caps off the LP's sound quite nicely, think of it like a sandwich with all the LP's ingredients in one neat package.





You can find more Carbinax on:
Twitter
Soundcloud
Facebook
Bandcamp


-Claude Van Foxbat