Sandwell District ‎– Feed-Forward

Sandwell District - heed the word of the people! You are losing fans with your limited release BS just as soon as you are winning them with your productions. Why sour folks by giving them the impression of grandiosity and exclusivity? I will be waiting down here on Earth for your answer to my question.

Thanks, A Wavering Fan

they released a cd version, but this is not the same...

I agree, awesome release, lame number of copies. Try and let the people that stay true to the wax actually buy a copy and fuck the hype.

I know, lets release a stupidly limited first LP that'll appreciate so much on the secondary market that no one can afford it. That'll treat the only fans that pay decent wedge for our music...

Great music, lame release plan... thanks guys. I feel loved.

In my opinion this is a majestic release. While I haven’t previously been the most ardent and dedicated Sandwell District follower, this is on a whole new level. What bugged me from time to time on their previous releases was the overload of Chain Reaction/Echospace-like luxuriant atmospheres, the endless reworks (a fair chunk of their catalog contain three variations of the same piece by the same four artists) – make no mistake though, they do have one of the finest rosters in the industry today, and I have been down with the likes of Sumner, Sutton & O’Connor since their early Downwards days, but sometimes when you have the same people reinterpreting each other’s creations in circles, I get, how to put it eloquently, lost in the shuffle.
However, that changes with Feed forward. While some of their offspring I’ve had a chance to listen to boasted refined, voluptuous production; nice, deep and crispy sounds, their latest has that wonderfully warm, human, even – if I may come across as trite – analog touch. Don’t misunderstand me here and confuse analog with lame, out of date. The whole album has a really live, palpable feel to it, and it shows. The music actually breathes, whereas many modern albums are just so damn loud, sharp and overly crystal, with their obsession to sound perfect. This one throws me back to the days when human ingenuity was preferred to the mathematical exactness of state of the art software, and when the likes of Regis could publish an unmastered album and still get it deemed a classic.
Full of delicate sound textures, Feed forward is set with inconspicuous field recordings, which frequently sound like someone was passing through an orchard early morning during spring, letting their dainty fingers tips remove the dew, left the previous night by the emerald rain, off the leaves. Exuberant in detail as it is copious in versatility, Feed forward is from my viewpoint the incontrovertible pinnacle of the label’s collected output thus far.
Be it the breezy, chilly opener Immolare (First), the groovy drive and meticulous, progressive introduction and manipulation of passages on Hunting Lodge and Immolare (Main) – notice how both have that distinctive rhythm patterns and dense layering, a trademark of Regis’ peerless knack for crafting a vivacious beat. The bare, susceptible and harmonic beauty of Falling The Same Way and Speed + Sound leave a mark where it hurts the most. It’s true that the latter contains elements of the melody from Function’s track on "V/A Sandwell District (sampler single one)" [SDSMP1], but listen sincerely to any of the two tracks, and tell me you actually mind.
Grey Cut Out will make you want to lose it like nobody was watching, laying down those heavy BMB off-beat drums and industrial whispering, and when combined with the sweet melodic break down halfway through, it leaves you torn between transforming the dance floor into an asylum or annexing your ear lobe to speaker at home.
The peeled, captivating and reverberating Svar is a nod to the more common SD stuff we are accustomed to. Double Day is old school with the acid bleeps arranged throughout the background and a lush lead solemnly entering after the track comfortably took time to properly build. With gentle beats, yet a pretty pulsating bass line, the emphasis is on the hypnotic, unremitting lead sequences.
The A side of the bonus 7” included with the package displays a unsettling piece, due to its uncanny, isolated yet peculiar charm. A desert island ambient track, graced with floating beauty and enchanting sorrow. Just when you thought you were going to get away in a placating manner, the B side hits you with a heavily cerebral, rusty as the Titanic’s door knobs leftfield noisy avalanche, in the vein of Downwards recent Six Six Seconds or Collin Gorman Weiland’s recent releases. A sudden metamorphosis – and voila – you are suddenly offered a gorgeous, levitating ambient soundscape like few others I’ve heard recently. Too bad it ends so soon, I could go on listening to an elaboration of that theme for twenty minutes, if aptly done.
The packaging. While most of us are all about the music, every once in a while you stumble upon a release which buys you right off with something extra for your money’s worth. Well, this is it. Two pieces of smoked clear vinyl, a bonus regular black 7”, a badge, an eight page fanzine, with trippy, awkward psychedelic photos/art pieces inside, some of which can be found on their website… Let’s be honest here: all personal issue aside, there really isn’t much to complain about. Well, I would have preferred two more vinyls, but I already excluded the personal stuff in my previous sentence, so let’s leave the wishes for Christmas. In brief, this is as good of a reminder as any you’re likely to get as to why selling your record player maybe wasn’t such a good idea in the first place.
Sandwell District does the right thing here, realizing that if you want people to buy the physical item rather than go digital, you just have to lure them, go out there and give the fans that little something extra to win them over. That is precisely what they do. Phenomenal music topped off by a carefully designed and highly collectible packaging. In my years of collecting music that is a safe purchase. Cracking music + an awesome layout/presentation = a more than good reason to own this.
Is that hype? Perhaps. If it by any chance is, I am right on top of the bandwagon, and damn proud of it too. In my cook book, along with the slamming fifth Ancient Methods installment, the re-release of the 2000 "Againstnature" album on Downwards (does that even count or am I cheating?) and Petar Dundov’s astounding instant classic Distant Shores, this is the quintessential release of 2010, which, as far as my ears can tell, turned more heads and raised more eye brows than anybody could have anticipated, in addition to squeezing the best out of its four respective makers. Maybe their output on Sandwell District hasn’t been always consistent, but I reckon Feed forward earned its place in the Champions League of techno music. For what my pennies are worth, this one has ‘future reference point’ scribbled all over it.
"Don’t believe the hype!" – hm, maybe Chuck D & Flava Flav ought to reconsider their chorus and get with the program here. Don’t sleep on this one.

This is an interesting release for me because up until this point i've had no interest in any Sandwell District releases or related Artists. I say "up until this point" and i'm talking about the years between 95 & Now. But some of the tracks on this lp have rekindled a long lost love i felt for early Luke Slater, X-tront & Planetary Assault Systems releases. In fact this lp has stirred certain feelings & memories from the old Colin Dale / Faver era that i've not felt in many many years of continued listening to techno. Furthermore, and after a pause of about 3 years, It's also giving me the inspiration & energy to re-start my own musical endeavors, although not necessarily in this style. Anyway.....I'm sure there are many more amazing artists creating this kind of music, albeit unknown to me at present, but i'm simply grateful to have found something to reignite my love & passion for techno & for the inspiration to start producing again.

Good stuff but still like the older, bolder Regis sound :)
Having said that the B-side of the 7" is a cracker.

To dreamstatesounds: If it's not worth that kind of money then why did you pay it? It's not like there weren't plenty of clips on the internet, especially by the time you paid such a stupid amount. Personally I didn't find it worth the 17 GBP Juno was asking let alone even more so I didn't buy it when I had the chance, though it seems I made a gross miscalculation as I could of cleared more than a bill off of a fool like you and put it towards some incredible music.

This is all hype, that's all, even down to the numerous delays. Fuck, with all those delays (and the complementary artificially increased demand) you think they could have pressed a few more copies. I had high hopes and have been a Sandwell supporter since the early days but this simply isn't equal to the mass fanfare. And yes, I've heard the full release, I downloaded it seeing as the SD crew gave 99% of people little choice. I like it, don't get me wrong, but these practices really turn me off. Hell, I've never bought another Fachwerk release after Dehnert's little MD2 shenanigans and I can see an end to my support of the SD crew as well. These things are only a matter of time. It's sad that almost no one who creates anything these days can keep it going strong—they always succumb to delusions of their own grandeur.

I cant believe I paid $200.00 for this with shipping. It's good but not worth that kind of money.

Diggin this one a lot, cool packaging to! Reminds me of Echospace's first one with the 2LP + clear 7" format, I wish more artist and labels would do stuff like this.