UK orders over £50 ship free!
Recommended by us on 8th July 2011
...according to our Brian on Fri 08 Jul, 2011.
He's most definitely got a bit of a magic touch about him this feller. From the finger clicks, gunshot explosions and haunting synths of the opener 'Witch Hunt', you know you're in unique territory. The delectable 'Natalia's Song' is a post-Burial slice of chimerical wonder that sets the stall so high that much of the album, no matter how sublime, doesn't unravel and fold around your heart in quite such an stirring fashion. It's a much mellower counterpart to his retro-rave odyssey 'Where Were You...", bringing on the more contemplative, zen-like aspect of his sound. There's lashings of his trademark space-trance synth work throughout, conjuring up vivid images of Galaxian raves on distant planets but the beats are lighter, breezier - pulsing and skittering away like on the contemporary update of mid-'90s ambient techno which carries the unlikely title of 'Riding With Death'. He's more than successfully bridged that all-important gap between the cosy immersion of home listening and the euphoria of club culture. The production hallmarks that this guy conceals up his sleeve are truly impressive. It's a crisp yet womb-like sound that zings deliriously around your mind and I, for one, am quite addicted. A nice surprise for the modern indie kid comes with the excellent 'Things Fall Apart' featuring the hazy mantra-like vocals of one Panda Bear. It's a great downtempo hallucination of a tune with a slow, strutting stepper of a beat and features those bubbling, escalating synths that you've all come to love. Many tunes appear like all-too-brief incidental vignettes and mood pieces, folding into one another like the wax in a lava lamp. This album rushes by in one colourful fantastical surge and before you know it you reach the delectable finale 'Mozaik' with its bouncy stepping kuduro-style beat and giddy stratospheric trance keys. It's the perfect combination of hands aloft '90s ecstasy and wholesome contemporary rhythms and just suddenly ends...stops dead, like someone's just dropped a steel shutter onto the autobahn of your mind. What a fucking tease of a man, gotta love his style though...
Zomby is both a purist and a perfectionist. One of the most talented producers of a generation and someone capable of negotiating skilfully between genres, be it jungle, dubstep, rave, garage or whatever tag you want to put on it.
Couple this with the numerous and incredible 12”s, EPs and remixes that have been aired over the past five years and it’s clear just why he’s built quite a heady reputation for himself.
It’s been over two and a half years since he released his debut album, 'Where Were U In ‘92?', a rave record evoking that titular period, when Dreamscape, Fantazia and Universe flyers adorned bedroom walls, tape packs and pills became a national staple, and the Daily Mail were only hours away from their next denouncement.
Using early-90s equipment like an Akai S2000 and an Atari ST, he captured the moment: “a history lesson, a depiction of a musical timeline that folds in on itself, and a revival that works because it approaches its subject with the idea that it simply evolved instead of died” - Pitchfork.
Following a series of releases that switched from the melancholic to the menacing, 'Where Were U In ‘92?' further marked the producer out as a unpredictable, underground hero.
Among discerning listeners, anticipation for new Zomby material is now high but outside of him teasing fans with a few out-takes via the internet, there hasn’t been much to go by in recent times.
That was until the end of last year when hauntingly beautiful new track, 'Natalia's Song', appeared unannounced in a Burial and Kode9 mix for Radio 1.
Catching people off-guard, it served to pour and leave all anticipating what was to follow.
Having signed a worldwide deal with 4AD, that wait is almost over. ‘Natalia’s Song’ is being afforded a proper release as a single and is also included on this, his second album, 'Dedication'.
A wholly different record to its predecessor, Zomby returns from his hiatus with typical style.
It is both a dark and absorbing listen that engulfs the listener, running between sparse electronics, techno hooks and minimal piano riffs.
Making up for lost time, 'Dedication' continues to put Zomby at a distance from his peers.
By the time they’ve caught up, he’ll no doubt be somewhere else entirely.
1. Witch Hunt
2. Natalia’s Song
3. Alothea Black
4. Orchid
5. Riding With Death
6. Vortex
7. Things Fall Apart
8. Salamander
9. Lucifer
10. Digital Rain
11. Vanquish
12. A Devil Lay Here
13. Florence
14. Haunted
15. Basquiat
16. Mozaik
Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!
Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
LS11 9RT, UK.
Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
Follow us on Facebook
We want to be the best online record store in the UK, so please send us your ideas and feedback.
(We don't spam and we won't give your email address to anyone else. One email a week is all you'll ever get. Read our privacy policy.)
For payment and account functions on this site, all traffic is encrypted with SSL. Our SSL certificate is provided by Thawte: view our certificate.
This site is regularly audited for security problems by Netcraft. For more information please take a look at our Netcraft Security Seal.
We don't handle credit card details on this site. When it comes to taking your card payment we hand you straight over to eWAY - a secure, PCI DSS compliant payment gateway.
