“There is for all tastes and styles in a good mixing and editing from Ian Boddy”
1 Regained Paradise (Subsonic Experience) 4:40
2 History (Markus Reuter & Ian Boddy) 3:53
3 Hydrosphere (dbkaos) 3:11
4 Ecliptic (Ian Boddy) 4:51
5 The Mystic (Ian Boddy) 2:28
6 Edge of Nowhere (Robert Rich & Ian Boddy) 4:41
7 After the Migration (dbkaos) 5:11
8 Arcturus Part 2-Intro (ARC) 3:16
9 Arcturus Part 2-Sequenz (ARC) 5:55
10 Aurora (Ian Boddy) 5:15
11 Chiasmata (Ian Boddy) 4:57
12 Tuning Out (Robert Rich & Ian Boddy) 4:14
13 This Life (Markus Reuter & Ian Boddy) 4:17
14 Moiré (Boddy/Wöstheinrich) 4:47
15 Treasures of the World (Subsonic Experience) 3:21
16 Silent White Light (ARC) 4:31
17 Smash and Grab (Boddy/Wöstheinrich) 3:08
18 Corrosion (ARC) 4:50
(DDL 77:40) (V.F.)
(Ambient, Berlin School, Prog EM)
Like its title suggests, INDEX02 is the second compilation of DiN label. Following the same principle as Index 01, that I never got the chance to hear it, Ian Boddy has carefully chosen, mixed and edited 2 tracks from the 9 albums released by DiN after Index 01 (DiN10). The result is a superb mix of styles that floods our ears with 18 very different tracks that become entangled in an impressive musical canvas of 77 minutes. Making of INDEX02 an edifying witness to what has happened in the corridors of DiN these last 10 years!
Regained Paradise, from the Präposition album by the duo Subsonic Experience, opens the ball. The rhythm is heavy, fluid and incisive. It runs furiously with an intense and wild amalgamation of percussions and percussive effects under a sky variegated of streaks and strata, coming from so many guitars and /or synths, which tear the musicality with powerful hoots. History, by Markus Reuter & Ian Boddy, calms the game with a curious rhyme whose arpeggios of glass twirl alongside fluttering percussions to form an astonishing spiral as colorful as melodious. Dbkaos' Hydrosphere brings us in the soaring corridors where chthonian breaths wander among murky and supernatural ambiences. The cosmic waves of Ian Boddy's Ecliptic and his album Chiasmata follow. The rhythm is soft, bordering on very magnanimous, and is finely drummed inside a circle of crystalline arpeggios. A short intro into the morphic spheres of The Mystic, from Boddy's Aurora album leads us to the intriguing and tribal rhythms of Edge of Nowhere by Boddy/Rich. A very good track which mixes the subtlety of the soft rhythms and the ethereal ambiences of the creepy world of Steve Roach. In the same vein, but with more vigor, Dbkaos offers a title as playful as experimental in After the Migration. A title that deserves we investigate a little more this duo with very mixed tones. Arcturus from Arc doesn't really need an introduction. But just in case, it's heavy and dark Berlin School to which Ian Boddy made a good cut with 2 titles at the antipodes of rhythms and ambiences.
The title track Aurora continues its astral surge with a wonderful divinatory melody, while the title track of Chiasmata shows a more aggressive Ian Boddy with good percussions which hammer a heavy and slow rhythm. A rhythm encircled by fine sequences which flutter in a beautiful harmonious pattern. Ian Boddy marinades skilfully the genres on INDEX02, so the rhythm a bit funky and groovy of This Life from Reuter/Boddy's Pure clashes from the morphic moods of Tuning Out from Boddy/Rich's Outpost which really gets out of the floating and tribal territories of Steve Roach. The musical universe of Ian Boddy and Bernd Wöstheinrich is very coloured and set by spontaneous rhythms which skip and teem in good synth layers. Stemming out of the Moiré album, Moiré and Smash and Grab are 2 titles for ears found of a parallel musicality and of which the attentive listening allows us to discern a stunning sound fauna. Treasures of the World makes us discover the other face of Präposition with an enchanting ambient rhythm where percussions prevail beneath superb synth layers filled by tones of old organs. It is simply delicious! It is in the twilights of Blaze, the 2nd opus of Arc on DiN, which ends INDEX02 with 2 titles to diapasons of their antipodes. If Silent White Light is dreamy and ambient, Corrosion drags its heaviness and its slow rhythm in the ashes of some good Redshift.
From glaucous to ethereal ambient while passing by heavy Berlin School and a more creative and a more progressive EM. INDEX02 is a great compilation which airs all the available styles on DiN. There is for all tastes and styles which beneficiate of a good mixing and editing from Ian Boddy who which tangles all its rhythms and atmospheres with a master’s hand. A little as if INDEX02 would have been the fruit of a single artist.
Sylvain Lupari (December 30th, 2011) ****½*
Available at DiN Bandcamp