iTAL tEK - Midnight Colour

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Ant on Thu 03 Jun, 2010.

I do enjoy this guys stuff. Within the realms of dubstep his style stands out, although here he seems to have caught a little of the Flying Lotus virus - but that's really no bad thing. Generally speaking this record is not as dark as his previous stuff and he's really refined and polished his production style. There's a sort of interplay between stuttering 90's rave riffs and IDM. The melody of 'Moon Bow' could have fallen straight off The Black Dog's classic Bytes album, albeit with a current 2-step shuffle. The album sort of sits halfway between club and home listening , feeling more cerebral than floor friendly but that's not to say there aren't a few basslines on here that would whip up a frenzy on the dancefloor. So yeah I think this is one of the better records to come out on Planet Mu recently and another quality record in Alan Myson's discography.

To play these clips you need to either update your browser (Norman Records recommends Google Chrome) or update your Flash plugin.

* Brighton based producer Alan Myson’s Ital Tek project returns to Planet Mu for a second long player.

* Meeting dubstep and garage’s matrix of sub bass and lurching 2-step rhythms half-way with electronica at its most melodic, ‘Midnight Colour’ is its name and it’s epic.

* The mood has lightened since his debut ‘Cyclical’ plus the tempo has dropped to a more languorous 130 bpm creating more space to enfold the melody and texture. Songs like ‘Moonbow’ or ‘Subgiant’ embody an optimistic nocturnal reverie that could count the Black Dog’s ‘Bytes’ album as it’s ancestor. In contrast, 'Satellite' has a darker feel with it’s New Romantic style synth melodies set to a skeletal rhythm, and ‘Black and White’s surging, wordless vocals are carried by gentle synths and bass arrangements. 'Strangelove' has a more stepping feel, set to a tough 4/4 beat and 'Infinite' marries throbbing bass with marimba and echoing Timpani crashes. The album fittingly culminates with ‘Restless
Tundra’, a song that features the vocals of Anneka, which feature in sampled slithers throughout many of the tracks, the piece summing up the reflective mood of the album.

TRACKLIST:

2LP: A1: NEON ARC A2 TALIS A3 MOON BOW B1: BABEL B2 SUBGIANT B3 BLACK AND WHITE C1 : STRANGELOVE V.I.P. C2 MOMENT IN BLUE C3 HELIOPAUSE D1 MIDNIGHT COLOUR D2 INFINITE D3 RESTLESS
TUNDRA (FT. ANNEKA)

CD: 01 NEON ARC 02 TALIS 03 MOON BOW 04 BABEL 05 SATELLITE 06 SUBGIANT 07 BLACK AND WHITE 08 STRANGELOVE V.I.P. 09 MOMENT IN BLUE 10 HELIOPAUSE 11 MIDNIGHT COLOUR 12 INFINITE 13 RESTLESS TUNDRA (FT. ANNEKA)

Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!