Album Review: Black Frames - Dave Aju

Dave Aju's Heirlooms was one of my favourite albums of 2012 and therefore the follow up, Black Frames, was very welcome upon arriving in my inbox.

This new album comes amidst some personal turmoil for Aju... Since his last full-length release he has gone through the break-up of a long-term relationship and moved away from his home city of San Francisco. The title of Black Frames is taken from both the picture frames that house the 60s and 70s artwork in Aju's studio together with a reference to the place where breaking a sweat and breaking the rules both come together.

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Black Frames - Dave Aju

The album that ensues is lean and tight in comparison to Heirlooms. There are just nine tracks here and whilst the album still clocks in at almost an hour long a lot of the loose funkiness of the last album is gone. In its place is a comparatively stripped back and focused set of techno influenced house tracks. This is still unmistakably Dave Aju... there is still a lot of funk here, it is just buried considerably deeper than it was on his last album. Much as Matthew Dear has crafted several albums out of a sound that skirts pop and techno with intelligence, Aju does something similar here... Creating an album that is almost exclusively deeper and more minimal than the last, but still boasts a confidence and approachability that beguiles Black Frames' relatively heavy nature.

The resulting album takes a little longer to worm its way into your head, but still has some standout moments. Race On Haight opens the album with a slinky and soulful jazzy sound, gentle piano keys tinkle as if hiding nervously behind Aju's big deep voice amidst smoky instrumentation, one of Black Frames' rare slower moments. Nu Threads is a jacking house track built around a big bass line and Aju's vocals whilst Clean St is one of the album's highlights, a similarly jacking track that builds over nine-minutes.

Nobody Knows uses vocal manipulation to create rhythms out of Aju's repeated refrain "Where we get our shit together" and contrasting them against layered melodic vocals. Psylica hints at the personal strife this album was born of, an eight-minute throbbing bass epic that culminates in a vocal duet, both parties informing the other "My love can you see we are stuck between a rock and me / you", seemingly persistent, immovable and misunderstood...

It is clear Dave Aju has poured himself into Black Frame - the depth of the subject matter and the style and finesse evident in the album's production is evident. If it isn't as instantly gratifying as Heirlooms it will certainly reward those with the appetite and patience to explore electronic music with soul and brains.

Black Frames is out on 16 June through Circus Company, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD or MP3 [affiliate links].

EP Review: Kisses - dOP

Having just got back from on tour this new EP on Circus Company sees dOP bring back some new influences and a fresh sound.

'Your Feelin'' on side-A is a synth-pop / soul / house blend that conjures thoughts of sweaty nights of unfulfilled promise on the dance floor. It is the result of meeting of minds with Pillowtalk when in San Francisco - this being what the two groups ended up collaborating on once dOP were back in Berlin. Pillowtalk have already impressed with their mixture of house and R&B and this shines just as bright - it's a strangely sparse track for either group. The restraint creates an uneasy tension, giving the vocals a neediness that feels like a vice gripping the vocalist tighter so he can't escape.

'Kisses' is similarly withdrawn but more reflective. The gentle looping chords and deep drums form a very minimal texture to a track that sees the trio pause for thought and give thanks. It's both deep and contemplative, bittersweet in its execution, gradually building around a mood.

The Kisses EP also comes with an acapella version of 'Your Feelin'' and an instrumental of 'Kisses', but your focus should really be on the two original versions, which boast a greater subtlety than expected.

Kisses is released on Monday through Circus Company, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link].

Album Review: Space Is Only Noise - Nicolas Jaar

Nicolas Jaar just made something indescribable. Space Is Only Noise isn't techno, but it feels a little bit like techno. In fact, it isn't really dance music at all yet it is routed in Jaar's earlier experimentation, but the songs themselves feel like they have got all twisted up inside his head. Imagine one of Ricardo Villalobos' most off the wall efforts, give it enough rope to hang itself and then watch it take it and simply run away.

This is music for listening to. Not dancing, working or talking against. BlackPlastic put this on in the office to the visible frustration of colleagues - the beauty is in the detail and the texture and in in anything but centre stage it just doesn't work.

But give it room and Space Is Only Noise can blow your mind. Jazz flourishes and four-four kicks and spaced out, warped vocals make this a strange varied listen. Space Is Only Noise is an appropriate title - just like on James Blake's recent debut this has bags of the stuff, and a lot of the time it is the space that defines the sound. In fact just about everything that James Blake just did for dub step Jaar does here for techno.

At it's best the tracks come together to make something brilliant, confusing and startling. 'I Got A Woman' feature one simple broken beat and various instruments seemingly falling apart whilst a looped soul vocal repeats the song's title. It doesn't sound like much - indeed it isn't - but it manages to capture a strange feeling, with the vocalist seemingly conveying disdain at his apparent emotional attachment.

'Balance Her In Between Your Eyes' snaps and crackles with jazz piano samples and snatches of soul to beautiful effect before transforming into 'Trace', which sounds like little more than a band sound check as an interlude. And that says a lot about this album - these aren't songs so much as pieces or movements. Each intriguing and beguiling in equal measure, but it comes together as a magnificent body of work reminiscent of some of Eno's mist experimental moments.

The title track is the album's real standout moment. Slinky, loose and paranoid, Jaar's vocals sound like the ravings of a man losing his way through his own mind. Uttering about his subject's past habits of checking the weather and the time. BlackPlastic has no idea what any of it is about (people's tendency to change no matter how much we may wish they wouldn't?) but it works. Gradually a strummed bass becomes the only dependable aspect of the song as everything else descents into glorious chaos before it all comes back to kick your arse with it's bouncing bass line.

Space Is Only Noise is an album of atmospherics and it pursues pure sound and feeling at the expense of all else. Frankly it's an astounding listen.

BP x

Space Is Only Noise is out now on Circus Company, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].