SI-CUT.DB

From tears: beach archive

CD, Bip Hop

The first warm days of a spring finally in full bloom, so I was thinking, that I should get a gentle and laidback electronica-record with funky yet avantgarde beats to get me through summer. So “from tears: beach archive” came in at just the right time. And it is not only the title that evokes images and metaphors richly analogous to summertime, but also the flowing and driving, multi-textured soundscapes of Si-Cut.DB are enhanced with straight, crunchy but never prepoisterous beats. There are little noises buried into the synthie-ambiences and waves of frequencies seem to hazily wash in and out of your hearing range. The feeling is laid-back, somehow as if meditating, yet some basic rhythms and beats keep a pulse going that is akin to the gentle moments when falling asleep.

In “despite of, not because of” or “authenticity” for instance, the clicks and cuts are worked so deeply into the funky beat that what you get is a cool disco-beat for post-modern dance-lounges in Ibiza or any other sunny coastal region of the world, where people get together to have holiday, hang out and look good. All of that mixed to some funky keyboard sounds, that’ll make you bang you head, yet not too much. You wouldn’t want to spoil your mixed drink. Exceptions to this are some ambient or rather microsound tracks that sit easy between the tracks with a more exponated groove, and the crazy retro-keyboard excursion “based on the lost episode” that evokes memories of Giorgo Moroders stacks of million-dollar-synthies as well as title-themes of long gone science fiction shows. But mainly it is delicately programmed beats with noises and sounds flowing around them.

Now isn’t that a long stretch for Douglas Benford aka Si-Cut.DB to have panned? From one of the most interesting and progressive poles of electronic music (Bip Hop, Tennis) to playing soft background music for slightly drunk and sunburned premium-vacationers? What’s next – retro-lounge? Well, don’t worry, we are still a far place from anything to happen that is tragic. The last album by Tennis, “furlines”, might have given it away anyway quite a long time beforehand. And actually, for most people this album will still be as far away from their favorite hearing than his six solo albums and multiple cooperational releases before.

And maybe that is just what happened – while the world turned onwards pretty quickly in the elctronic music scene (as it always does) Benford was busy travelling the world, playing shows, curating festivals, recording here and there and everywhere (with his laptop in his backpack) that somehow the music seems to have gotten stuck in a time warp. A beautiful, cosy and relaxing little bubble, very much like a luxurious holiday ressort, to stay within the established frame of metaphors for this review, but a place where nothing new is bound to happen and all the excitement and exhilariation is relooped every fortnight, when the new customers appear. And nowadays, in a world moving so fast and expanding so tragically over night even, going on holiday just isn’t possible anymore, if you catch my drift. In result “from tears: beach archive” is a great record, but with an almost nostalgic feeling to it. Even when speaking out the title of this CD, “from tears” somehow always transforms into “frontiers”.

So maybe it is just me, my short attention span, my need for a relaxing summer holiday and my lack of interest, that makes me turn to Droneament, when I need some longwinding electronic ambient mixed with noises, or to Doghouse when I like to listen to some homemade, and to Häpna, if I am looking for a record label to write down the words to “avantgarde with a heart and a mind” new. The most interesting thing might be, that inspite of all the bad things I just wrote down about this record, I am planning on listening to through this year’s summer. Because it has a special lightness, an almost lucid tranquility and elusive quality that makes it good listening, for instance while lying in the grass or on a sunbed watching the clouds go by and imagining sitting at a beach and watching the sea for hours. Which is something I like to do a lot. Maybe this year I can go without (I guess I’ll have to, due to some reasons) but this record could make up for it.