“Ian Boddy knits a wonderful musical pattern where every style, nevertheless so different, coils up in a splendid mosaic of 77 minutes”
1 B2 Gigacosm (Surface 10) 4:38
2 Foundry (Ian Boddy) 3:18
3 Geode (Boddy/Rich) 2:53
4 Particular Moments (Tetsu Inoue) 4:31
5 Conundrum (Hoffmann-Hoock/Wöstheinrich) 4:21
6 Slow Hand (Boddy/Rich) 5:56
7 The First Cry (Radio Massacre International) 4:05
8 Rapture (Arc) 4:38
9 Beneath Fear (Parallel Worlds) 4:03
10 Veiled (Boddy/Rich) 4:32
11 Trident (Radio Massacre International) 3:52
12 Distracted (Parallel Worlds) 2:46
13 Dawn/Bleep/Dusk (Surface 10) 3:01
14 Tane (Tetsu Inoue) 4:41
15 Lithosphere (Boddy/Rich) 5:37
16 Phased Realities (Hoffmann-Hoock/Wöstheinrich) 3:29
17 Fracture (Arc) 3:09
18 Elemental (Ian Boddy) 4:12
(DDL 73:53) (V.F)
(Ambient, Berlin School, Prog EM)
EM sorely lacks visibility. For many so-called experts, it's a big multi-sonic thing where styles intertwine regardless of origins. As long they are synths in it! This is why the influential men behind the labels must innovate in order to make their products better known and thus broaden the horizons for a public curious but more perplexed than dumbfounded in the face of an art that we consider to be built on the lines of coldness. Ian Boddy is taking the lead by offering a free compilation of his label's works, such as Index02 last year. INDEX03 brings together works from artists with such diverse styles that the range of Electronica's genres and of progressive EM is adequately represented. You just need to click on a link, download and let yourself be rocked by a music without borders.
The adventure begins with B2 Gigacosm from Surface 10 (album Surface Tensions) which offers a delicious psy down-tempo of which the structure turns into a jerky, a spasmodic one in a smooth organic musical fauna. The synth layers inject a disturbing lunar ambience with spectral waves which little by little lose their threatening shadows in more dramatic lines of violin. Ian Boddy's Foundry, from Elemental binds itself to the finale by displaying muffled pulsations which marries a tortuous rhythmic pattern. The rhythm is loud. Each chord trembles under its weight, unveiling a resonant ray where are banging percussions of a sordid universe and are ringing frivolous sequences which shine in this chthonian universe. Geode from Lithosphere (one of the two albums of Ian Boddy and Robert Rich to lie down on this compilation) calms down a little the mood with a more ambient title. Keys are clinking into bright hoops beneath guitar strata forged in howling twilights. Particular Moments is from Tetsu Inoue's Yolo. This is psybient music with a low volume texture. After a chloroformed intro, Hoffmann-Hoock/Wöstheinrich's Conundrum (from the album of the same name) attacks our ears with a delicious lascivious and pulsating tempo of a Hindu tribal kind where Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock's guitar is simply brilliant. It's as much beautiful as extremely mesmerizing. Ian Boddy masters his mixes and Slow Hand from the Boddy/Rich's React album follows immediately after Conundrum. The rhythm and the ambience are quite similar, at some variances near. More quivering, Slow Hand trembles of its fragile chords and floats of its guitar strata sounding like ethereal choirs, shaping a strange hypnotic trance which espouses at no moment the glaucous pulsations that are pounding in a thick cloud of colorful jingles. We are at one of the strong moments of INDEX03 which continues on this momentum of loud but static rhythms, wrapped by a somber chthonian approach, with The First Cry from Radio Massacre International's Septentrional which is a mixture of Arc, Boddy and Boddy/Rich. And speaking of Arc, Rapture from Fracture intoxicates our ears with heavy and dark Berlin School. The rhythm runs after its breath, trying to avoid these mephistophelic synth pads and these bats of which the winds and the metallic jingles crisscross those dense malefic woods. Beneath Fear, from Parallel Worlds' Obsessive Surrealism concludes this 1st half of INDEX03 with a heavy rhythm which resounds of its percussions to hybrid tones, bearing a surrealist melody whistling its innocence in a rhythmic chaos scattered by its bewitching traps of naivety.
With Veil we redo the tour of the 9 works that fill this compilation. Contrary to Slow Hand, the approach is ambient and very contemplative. Trident from RMI charms us right on the spot with its synth pads à la Tangerine Dream which wrap a torrent of percussions from which the captive thunders release themselves to forge a hard-line of rhythm. It's an electronic rock which pounds with its numerous knocks of percussions and which rolls under the chords of a mordant bass line. This wild rhythm won't get rid completely of a Ricochet influence. A strong track! Parallel Worlds' Distracted intensifies this very rock progressive portion where Redshift, TD and King Crimson are living under the same roof over heavy undulatory rhythms which are not quite defined with their tentacular grips. As for me Surface 10 is the best surprise here. Dawn Dawn/Bleep/Dusk Bleep is a kind of lunar hip-hop which swirls in uncountable synth lines, holding captive the harmonies swooshing in loops. If the rhythm is curt and hatched, the harmonious envelope has soon gulping it down to make it swirls into some electro-cosmic phases. Tane from Tetsu Inoue confirms him in his morphic electro acoustic style, while Lithosphere embraces the tangents of Geode. After the eclectic Phased Realities, Fracture entails us in the dark ambient phases of Arc. And even if a string of sequences sparkles there and even if the rhythm unwinds little by little, the title will see its explosion only in the movements of the percussions from DiN boss' Elemental, so concluding a superb compilation put together of a master hand by Mister Boddy himself.
One would play me INDEX03 without telling it, that I would have difficulty identifying each track as they sound so different outside their usual contexts. Ian Boddy has knitted a superb musical canvas where each style, yet so different, is nestled in a superb 77-minute mosaic.
Sylvain Lupari (July 9th, 2012) ****½*
Available at DiN Bandcamp