According to Pleq (Bartosz Dziadosz from Warsaw, Poland)“Ballet Mechanic” is “his most personal, abstract and intellectual work to date, never to be repeated.”
“Ballet Mechanic” contains six tracks, over 70 minutes in total, “inviting the listener to travel through crackle, screech, squeak, sizzle and subtle drones”.
Some of the tracks have a natural feel, like if it was created from field recordings instead of electronic sources. Other tracks sound like distant machines humming while doing their work.
All kinds of subtle shifts are happening in the immersive sound spectrum, but you’ll only become aware if you submerge yourself in the sound. The overall atmosphere is very calm and relaxing.
“The Harvest”, the closing track of the album, takes the concept of minimalist distant machine drone into the extreme, combining its length (over 27 minutes) with a progression that is hardly noticeable. Although different in concept, this will probably especially appeal to fans of William Basinski‘s music.
Pleq – First to Fall (promo video)
One of the tracks on “Ballet Mechanic” -“Good Night (Glitch Remix)” – also featured on last year’s 4-track EP “Good Night” (released on Basses Frequences ) with additional remixes by Pjusk, Offthesky and Philippe Lamy.
As the title suggests, “Good Night 2” presents additional remixes of the same track. It also includes the original (non-glitch) version of “Good Night”.
Unfortunately for the non-japanese, at present this album is only distributed from Tokyo, Japan. To make things complex, this album comes in two different versions: the CD version (released by Progressive Form) contains two tracks not on the download version, and the download version has four additional four versions that are not included on the CD.
The basic “Good Night” track is fairly minimalistic: just a few repeating piano chords slowly played over a glitchy background hiss.
It’s interesting to hear what different artists come up with when working from such sparse material. Some focus on the melancholy mood of the piano chords, others enhance the distorted electronic background effect. Remarkably, most remixed are only half the length of the original track.
Different as they are, together the mixes become a well-balanced album, not unlike a reggae showcase album (where the same riddim background is used to feature different singers).
Some of the remixers are familiar, like Konntinent, Seque, Porzellan, Yui Onodera, Pawn, Strom Noir.
But the less familiar names (unless of course names like con_cetta, Lauki, Hajimneinoue, Go-qualia, Fuji, Haruki, Flica, Marihiko Hara mean anything to you) also deliver equally interesting remixes.
The end result is a remarkable album – A Good Night, indeed!
Pleq – Good Night – Porzellan Remix
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