Millimetrik - Mystique Drums

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4...according to our Brian on Thu 16 Sep, 2010.

When I started working here all those years ago the kind of electronic music we flogged fell largely into two camps - A/ Awkward bastard minimal glitch/broken (nee smashed) beat fannies with no discernible rhythm or melodic appeal or B/ Hyper tuneful, smiley bunnies with tons of warm enveloping synth lines, cute melodies & catchy drum breaks. I ususally enjoyed the more left-field end of the melodic stuff but wanted to kick Lemon Jelly in the face after one album. And the Schnausser...the schnausser. He upset me he did. Millimetrik used to hark back to those simpler times before the genre explosion really took off in earnest but he infused his particular brand of cheerful electronica with all sorts of subtle nods to various movements. Now he's obviously enjoying the cream of the post-dubstep stuff. 'Mystique Drums' possesses that hazy, upbeat disposition & those reflective moods he often saturates his music in but now it has a thoroughly engaging contemporary sheen. One tune has me thinking of Ceephax at his most accessible & chilled, but then again he flits in & out of many genres, borrowing countless different moods to create an intriguing tapestry of cracking post-club groovers - mid to downtempo electronica with heart & substance.

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Make Mine Music has made a name for itself over the last nine years with the innovative way in which the label, an artist-led co-operative, releases music. It has also been making waves with the music on the label, boasting an impressive catalogue of releases by artists such as Epic45, July Skies, Library Tapes, Manual and Piano Magic.

Millimetrik – the artistic nom de plume of Quebec resident Pascal Asselin – has been with the label since 2006, releasing two EPs and an album “Northwest Passage’s New Era”, which “nailed precisely the frozen-out, future techno chic of early mid-period Warp releases from Black Dog and Autechre and applied a good shaking of crushed-diamond sheen so beloved by the shoe-entranced post-rock should-have-beens like Flying Saucer Attack and Bowery Electric” according to Word Magazine’s Rob
Fitzpatrick. “Truly, this is the sound of the young people and it is very, very good.”

Over the course of these earlier releases, Millimetrik’s music shifted from dark ambient, through hip hop influenced post-rock, to the engaging blend of vocals, shoegaze and melodic electronica evident on the last album.

Never one to sit still, the new album “Mystique Drums” once again sees Pascal advancing Millimetrik’s sound into new territories, with far greater emphasis on bass and rhythm. It is probably fair to say that parts of this album will surprise both fans of Millimetrik and Make Mine Music, not least
its incorporation of dubstep alongside the more familiar elements. Like Millimetrik’s live performances, the music is created using electronics and live drums (something which marks Pascal out in the sea of laptop-based solo musicians) and as with “Northwest Passage’s New Era”, the album features a number of guest vocalists and musicians, this time including Elika, Josue Beaucage, Music for Money, Olenka and Jacobus.

Recorded between May 2008 and May 2010 in a variety of locations including Paris, London, Wheaton Aston (alongside Ben Holton and Rob Glover of Epic45), Quebec City and Bromont,
“Mystique Drums” is a rich and varied record, as you might expect from its diverse influences and
range of guests.

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