Inside The Microbeat - Sync 24 (Cultivated Electronics)

 

Title: Inside The Microbeat

Artist: Sync 24

Label: Cultivated Electronics

Cat Number: CE040

Genre: Electro

A1: Oriental Sunset

A2: Inspired Law

B1: Drunk On Delays

B2: Inside The Microbeat

C1: Sluper Smashed

C2: The Arrival

D1: Haunt Times

D2: Solvent Flavours Revisited

E1: Lightwire

E2: Avoid The Ploid

F1: Spatial Racing

Phil Bolland, aka Sync 24, is the brain behind Cultivated Electronics; a trailblazer for electro and a major reason for the genre’s current state of good health. After a slew of split releases with other leading lights on CE, the time has come to release his debut album. The physical release is triple different coloured vinyl and features a print from award winning animation director and street artist Will Barras, along with the by now ubiquitous tote bag. Phew! Well, there’s no point in not going on a multi-pronged attack on the occasion of your full-length bow is there? As far as the music is concerned, the bulk of the content is made up of uptempo electro which, in turn, is a mix of the floor-friendly and the wonky. There is a conspicuous funky veneer to everything however, with the pace only dropping on tracks like ‘Haunt Times’ and ‘Spatial Racing’. Others, like ‘Sluper Smashed’ and ‘Spatial Racing’ keep the pressure on, but go down a slightly more unorthodox route, jacking off the beat in order to loosen the wild style constraints a little. Album opener ‘Oriental Sunset’ throws the gauntlet down immediately with a wonderfully syncopated voyage into the heart of the bass, and this is only amplified by sundry other offerings. ‘Drunk On Delays’ is indeed a fitting evocation of the headspins and ‘Inside The Microbeat’ one of exploratory beat surgery. What this album does very well is operate on the eponymously onomatopoeic. The track titles almost instantly justifying themselves within the space of a few beats. I like that, no matter how contrived it might seem to others. Strangely, the tunes with the most insect menace ‘Lightwire’ and ‘Avoid The Ploid’, are a couple I can’t figure out the idea behind. Not that one is needed. I suppose I shouldn’t be looking for meaning in everything, should I?