ADAADAT

Trade & distribution Almanac Volume 1

CD, ADAADAT

ADAADAT is a specialist-label for electronic music that ranges in the narrow grounds between complex-drum-pattern and 80ies-retro-computer-sounds, which might be small grounds but very interesting, energetic and lively nevertheless. This “Trade & Distribution Almanac Volume 1” is a testament to the feeling that there is new and exciting music coming up behind the horizon. Or rather, that there is an exciting and lively underground around that a lot of people are about to miss.

Don’t ask me through which winded and secret pathways this little gem got onto my desk because I don’t know, I am just glad that it made it. I have never heard of ADAADAT before and I guess neither have you, but if you are interested in weird electronica, something that is completely different to what you are used to than check this one out. It is a compilation – as the name tells you – of the bands / projects featured on ADAADAT-records, a London-based label with fine sensitive tentacles into the deepest underground of electronic music all around the continent. But the title is some kind of a fake, since this is the very first release on this label. (A new adventure ahead?) The only artist on here, that I know is Jean Bach (of littlebrutalravebastards-fame) and he is usually the one artist really standing out by weirdness on any compilation. But this time round he isn’t, his raw and distorted boller-beats really fit into this here perfectly. ADAADAT mainly explores the strange grounds that lie somewhere between multi-rhythmic, avantgarde beats (think of Aphex Twin for instance) and simples 80ies-Synthie-sounds. Take for instance the very first track by Cow’p called “Dub and electro” which features one of these very complex drum-patterns as made famous by Aphex Twin but features a prominent one-note-kiddies-synthie-line on top of that. All the other tracks go into the same direction, sometimes leaning more towards undanceable drum-patterns-only (such as Romvelope’s “Memu”), sometimes leaning more towards the retro-melodies side of things (such as Jean Bach’s track “Colder than Ice” which is really a masterpiece of unnameable, distored qualities. Let me guess, some 80ies-Disco-track inspired you? Along with some C64-game-music? Are train-operators allowed to take that many drugs?), and sometimes more towards exploring sounds and the little differences between various noises (as OT’s “Bakamono”).

This is great stuff. You really don’t want to put this on if you are having a party and you want people to dance, but if you had a hard day at work and you are looking for a complete way out of your head and mind, than put on headphones and listen to this loud. These tracks will then creep into your head and thoughts and completely occupy you. There is an interesting thing, though, that if you are letting this CD run in the background while you are doing other stuff, such as surfing the internet, cooking or reading, these very strange and complex tracks, which are really ennerving and exhausting if you are listening to them closely and with great attention, they will recede into the background. Suddenly you’ll listen up and hear these crazy drum-patterns mixed with spherical pads and you’ll realize that you’ve found the groove in this kind of beats. Somehow these tracks get "regular" or rather the listener gets accomodated to them. Which means two things to me: first, you can only find the real groove with your stomach and not with your mind. Secondly, this music has the potential to become customary in the new millennium, which has really just started, but deserves a new kind of music nevertheless. Bury rock’n’roll, maybe, and head on for new shores and a new musical aesthetic.

www.adaadat.com

12/2002