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Liquid Stranger - The Invisible Conquest
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Morpheus Music
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
94
Posts :
165
Posted : Dec 13, 2007 10:18
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STYLE
Bass driven atmospheric chillout. Liquid Stranger creates mostly instrumental montages with strong rhythmic content - lumbering beats propel much of the music, the drum tracks taking a live sound approach although clearly with plenty of digital enhancements to keep the grooves lively and interesting; and some gutsy dub coloured bass lines that have no intention of sitting in the background. In keeping with its reggae roots The Invisible Conquest features a variety of the genre's trademark sounds - although most have a new twist, effected, distorted, reframed - brass phrases, gritty vocal snatches, echoing stabs and percussive flourishes. There are plenty of ambient corners and freeform introductions where special effects and unusual sonic juxtapositions create some evocative moodscapes. The overall effect is one of a heavy, prowling sound with psychedelic veils and tribal hints.
MOOD
The Invisible Conquest is something of a melting pot, having the low end guts of a dub bass album and the chilled atmospheres of psychedelic downtempo. The lively percussion is suggestive of tribal rhythms at times, yet there is an urban aesthetic too. Not quite dwelling fully in the crepuscular cityscapes of some of its genre mates, this CD wanders from concrete grey shadows to lush exotic colour and even drifts skyward into the air during some of the lighter interludes.
ARTWORK
Presented in a three panel digipack The Invisible Conquest is fronted by a rainbow coloured snake emerging from a silhouetted tangle of black foliage. Green leaf edges bring a little more colour to this primarily black and white composition that stretches across to the back cover and reappears in partial form on the remaining outer panel. Tracks are listed on the back along with website details. Inside the remaining information is laid out upon a backdrop of coloured planks with a subtle overlay that echoes the front cover. Here are credits and a generous list of thanks.
OVERALL
Liquid Stranger is primarily Swedish Martin Staaf who has also released sounds under the titles Rhoca and Slugger as well as making up half of the progressive Necton. As Liquid Stranger he has previously appeared on a number of Interchill compilations where the emphasis is on beaty downtempo with a tendency to blur the boundaries and break the rules.
WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM
If you've enjoyed Interchill's recent bass explorations in the form of Ashtech or Subsignals - then this might well fuel the thirst for more shadowy urban electronic dub - although Liquid Stranger is inclined to explore the sun of far away vistas as well as the darkness of the streets.
  MORPHEUS MUSIC
www.morpheusmusic.co.uk
ELECTRONIC MUSIC MALL
http://www.electronicmusicmall.com |
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Fragletrollet
Fragletrollet
Started Topics :
111
Posts :
1748
Posted : Dec 13, 2007 20:58
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Galaxian
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
40
Posts :
661
Posted : Dec 14, 2007 00:10
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Le Lotus Bleu
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
114
Posts :
438
Posted : Jan 10, 2008 23:27
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Liquid Stranger - The Invisible Conquest (Interchill) 2007
Tracklisting :
1 Vibration Ruling The Nation (8:01)
2 Liquid Stranger On The Run (2007) (5:56)
3 Djarum Express (7:32)
4 Familiar And Unknown (5:55)
5 Drop Sacrifice (4:06)
6 Splash Matters (7:18)
7 Cook N Curry (5:02)
8 Wallflower (1:07)
9 Confusion (6:51)
10 Mutants (Sneaky & Adaptable Mix) (7:21)
11 Doncamatic (5:41)
12 Faun On The Waters (8:34)
Artwork By - Luke Brown
Artwork By [Design] - Nick Edell
Mastered By - Dave Blackman
Vocals - Shuggoman
Voice [Spoken Word] - David Icke
Written-By, Producer - Liquid Stranger
Written & produced in the forest and in the desert by Liquid Stranger and his friends 2005-2007.
Liquid Stranger is Martin Stääf one of the numerous scandinavian producer (swedish to be precise) in the psycene and probably not the most notorious one nevertheless you might have probably listen to his past project productions. Actually Martin is one half of progressive band Necton & has also release tracks on his own on Plusquam compilation such as Bomberclaad under the name Slugger, more recently he focused on the down tempo side with his new project Liquid Stranger.
Taking these two examples (The Slugger's tune & the last Necton album 'Children of the noisy village' in which some tunes were an alchemy of chunky prog & dub). So, you understand Martin isn't recently involved in Dub territories & has always developed an interested for this style, so that's not a surprise to see him coming with a full length Dub album.
Now, let's take some time for decrypting some of the songs in The Invisible Conquest.
2 Liquid Stranger On The Run (2007) (5:56)
The opening is especially interesting, it puts you nicely in an expectation feeling. There's immediately coming in my head the vision of a fat & funny cartoon smiling guy trying to walk but who is forced to bounce each 3 steps coz he would have too much fizzy cola drink for example.
3 Djarum Express (7:32)
Here we recover some trademarks from Necton in the chunky approach of the choice of sounds. Otherwise there's an exercise of jumping contrast between the warm deep bass & the other sharp melodic instruments. If Djarum Express was a train, it would be an old slow but sympathic one, travelling through the desert from oasis to oasis in circle.
4 Familiar And Unknown (5:55)
Before i forget it, i'd like to mention how i find globally humoristic the Liquid Stranger's tracks, this one is a good example of it. For the break at 2''15, the bass line becomes very catchy, sexy (!?) for me, it's like if it makes me a wink or if it would be possible to pull out me its tongue...i must admit it, i'm sure i always meet this person somewhere before 
6 Splash Matters (7:18)
Good, good, the base line is going freaky jazzy in this song, where does it drives us? Indeed up to the 3'55 break, very psy-floating with the '' weird whirldpooling'' escape. Compare to the others, it sounds much more hypnotic, repetitive & some may consider it annoying.
10 Mutants (Sneaky & Adaptable Mix) (7:21)
This is the speediest tune of the album. It also brings something different through the bank tones used in order to cook a different feeling; something sweeter & mainly more evanescent as a woman's fragrance.
11 Doncamatic (5:41)
In this track there is a succession of many little weird details which actually are the spice of this production. One of the best prove could be the little break at 4''10 & the embellishment of the bicycle' ring as a triangle. Once again i perfectly imagine this song as a cartoon's TV soundtrack.
12 Faun On The Waters (8:34)
As conclusion, Liquid Stranger delivers an enigmatic dub-atmosphere jewel tinted of fairish.
The Invisible Conquest among the dub albums productions takes place in the emotional, intimate & sometimes fairish side of it, the music delivered is much story-telling if you focus on if you listen to it with your cortex. Liquid Stranger for his first album proposes an interesting refreshing entertaining content, it's not the most awaited album of the period due to a lack of notoriety of the artist but like i enjoy to say : this album wins easily the title of the best of chill album of end 2007.
mark:8,5/10
recommended
you can find easily all my psytrance & chill reviews on my blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/le_lotus_bleu |
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amphiton
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
136
Posted : Jan 26, 2008 02:12
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Good review, Le Lotus Blue.
It has everything I like about dub though I'm not a dub-lover. It's really refreshing!
• [ cuBe ] :: cubeg.org • |
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kenny
Started Topics :
4
Posts :
116
Posted : Jan 29, 2008 11:11
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