Lazyfish. Various - Deep Sea Shipping

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brian on Thu 08 Jan, 2009.

What a wicked way to start a sleepy Thursday than to have a minty fresh comp o' icy Russian electronica. 15 tracks from folks who's names veer between the cryptic and daft, Selffish provide aquatic techno pulses dueling initially with mild industrial clanking and ambient soundscapes that could only be sourced from minds dwelling in the Northern hemisphere. The next two tunes give us some sinister, amorphous glitch with a degree of stealth & eerie pulsating drones before the androids start chattering briefly about what to do with the frozen yeti they've found half submerged in an iceberg. Unit 21 uses the disembodied atmospherics of an airport as the backdrop to some blissed minimal techno, Oloolo goes more down the cold abstract noisescape route before Sever soothes you with some twinkling, morphing field recordings and synth pulses. I wish I had time to do an in-depth overview of every single track as Deep Sea Shipping is a wonderful, eclectic insight into the young minds on the Russian electronic underground, making mechanical, icy technoid sounds often imbued with a very human soul. If you yearn for the older sounds of EU, Syntetika & suchlike & labels such as Shaped Harmonics, here's the new breed! Excellent!

Tracklisting:
1    Selffish    Initialization (2:17)
2    Selffish    Deep Sea Shipping (6:13)
3    Lazyfish    Calm The Warm (3:29)
4    Abstract Avenue    Submarine (6:08)
5    Unit 21    Lonetrip (3:43)
6    Oloolo    Nano Snoi (3:14)
7    Sever (2)    Waterproof (2:36)
8    Riverz End    The Flight Day (3:19)
9    Holden    W.K.W.W.D. (6:49)
10    Unbound Persistence    Radio X-Range (3:28)
11    Batiskaf    A Shifting Reef (6:26)
12    Total Reboot    Inside (3:38)
13    Kriipis Tulo    Frozen Morning (4:45)
14    Father?    Underwater Government (5:18)
15    0ID    Daywater (Outro Version) (3:13)

Deep sea
http://www.igloomag.com/reviews::1526::V_A_Deep_Sea_Shipping_Lagunamuch_Community_CD_

(04.16.07) Not many compilations actually feel like their title. This one actually does. Especially on the opening track with the sounds of the sea, birds and the creak of boats giving that feeling of relaxed desolation what being in the middle of the ocean with nothing but water in sight must feel like.

Let me give you a bit of history first, so you can get a feel for where this is coming from. The Lagunamuch Community are an Eastern European (primarily Russian) collective of artists formed in 2004 to release experimental electronica, and the music they produce does manage to have a very Eastern European feel to it. Deep Sea Shipping showcases this very well.

So how does it sound?

Generally very relaxing drenched ambient with found sounds, M2 style bilps/squirts and nicely reverbed electronic drums. Each artist does contribute their own feel but the Lagunamuch Community very clearly has forged its own sound. The music is very minimal with as many nods to the early days of electronic music as there are to the more modern sides of electronica. For example the Abstract Avenue track on this compilation keeps the ambient mood while having an almost Kraftwerk-esque drum pattern and bassline. In addition to that we are also treated to some interesting little bent guitar melodies from Batiskaf and female vocals on the Kriipis Tulo offering.

Due to the nature of the music on this release, the tracks can (and do) nicely fade into each other to make one whole piece and this works very well to turn the whole album into a tasty listening experience which takes you on a journey through the lighter and more open side of electronica.

It's not all roses though unfortunately, sometimes the mastering appears to over-saturate. For example on the Holden track you can hear the compressor running at full trying to cope with the bass. It's not fair to blame the artist for this but the constant saturation becomes a bit much for me by the end, but in all fairness not everybody's ears will pick this up. However as this is the only criticism I can give this rather delicious slice of ambient experimental music you're probably starting to get the picture that the rest of it is really rather good.

This is a rewarding listening experience that I recommend to anyone who has the feeling that their ears need something new and different to keep their faith in the world of electronic music.