Geiom - Island Noise

Following an acclaimed series of five 12” releases, the Berkane Sol label brings its long awaited first CD album by Nottingham producer Geiom. As Geiom navigates his dragon boat into uncharted territory accompanied by a crew of trusted retro hardware, ‘Island Noise’ forges dubstep’s desert island material of the future. A tropical melancholy runs right through the album from the nostalgic flutes and colourful keyboard lines to the cheeky dub swing and rustic electric pianos to the cover art. Geiom draws a whole world of music into his menagerie of sound. The title track sets the tone with a warm reggae style melody alongside futuristic arpeggios and an aquatic sub-bass. ‘Farski’ delves into the little known world of 70’s Persian funk ballads whilst ‘Canopy Desire’ evokes a filmic narrative revolving around digitised Angolan percussion. ‘Pheli Nazir’, a magical collaboration with singer Khalid, closes the album with a classic lovesick Indian vocal. ‘Island Noise’ combines dancefloor dynamics with real attention to song structure and an intricate and playful use of dub style delays that make it well suited to home listening but still heavy on a sound system. Exploring the many possibilities of the 140 tempo, tracks such as ‘Inbuilt Chaos’ and ‘Getaline’ feel something like languid, laid back dub, whilst tracks like ‘6 times 7’ and  ‘Cardoza’ pick up the pace with some crisp 2 step riddims. The album has been getting props from bass visionaries Kode 9 and Benny Ill of Horsepower Productions, and radio support from the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs (Radio 1), Bobby and Nihal (Radio 1), Skream (Rinse FM), DJ Rupture (WFMU) and Boomnoise and Sgt. Pokes (subfm.com).

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!