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Reviews & Discussion:
Various - Butterfly Dawn
Jan 20, 2008
Subsurfing
May 21, 2003
Subsurfing is Greg Hunter and Obi. I know more about Greg than Obi - but both have broad musical pedigree. Greg was heavily involved in engineering for the Orb, especially early stuff like Ultraworld and UFOrb. He has subsequently created a beautiful arabic/indian masterpiece under the name of Alien Soap Opera with Amir Abdel Maghid (sorry if I got the spelling mixed up) in Cairo. He is also to be found as a regular in the System 7 and Juno Reactor lineups and as such has spent a lot of time working on the music for the two Matrix sequels. Find him also on other projects from the Electric Melt label and Liquid Sound Design. He worked with Youth (Killing Joke, The Fireman, Dragonfly/LSD/Butterfly records)to produce the Dub Trees album and he has produced another arabic excursion as Fifth Sun. In fact he's worked with so many well known names it is hard to understand why he isn't better recognized. He's even worked with Depeche Mode, Erasure, Tom Jones and Mike Oldfield to name but a few.
Subsurfing is a truly beautiful project - the title track Frozen Ants still gives me the chills a decade after I first heard it. If you like it, then seek out Alien Soap Opera and Lotus Blossoms(a project that sadly never made commercial release). Greg has worked on a follow up album called Metasurfing but, partly due to his perfectionism, he hasn't got a release set up for it yet. | ||||
album.
To my ears this is the best of Humph?s compilations to date. It carries the ethnic flavours and warmth of Mana Medicine with more of the creative beat structures and psychedelic moments heard on Elucidations. Still, there's no point comparing only to these forerunners as this album has a musical pedigree that will make it stand its own against any chillout disc out there. If Shpongle and Ott?s Hallucinogen in Dub captured the essence of a gloopy, dripping Otherworld of magic plants and psychedelic visions, Butterfly Dawn takes us to a place much more firmly rooted in our own planet Earth. It is the natural extension of the tribal and ethnic into the electronic.
One key theme is reserve - none of the tracks let fly too early and they all give the impression of having deep maturity. There are hooks and melodies to be found but they aren't flirting with your head from the outset. When they do reveal themselves they carry so much more passion for having withheld themselves. Of course the production is of excellent quality too, as you would
expect from LSD.
The album begins in a very laid back manner with a gently progressing track from Nada - Humphrey Bacchus and Russell (Abacus) Davies. Soft, Indian samplesset the mind at rest as the crisp beats keep the pace.
Then we have Biddu Orchestra?s offering 'Gayatri Mantra' - majestic and continuing the Indian theme. From a man who has sold 36 Million records and had 7 number one hits worldwide, this is very down to Earth and a beautiful piece of music in any context... not even a Kung Fu Fighter in sight!
Then comes one of the highlights on this album for me ? the stunning Raja Mati from Nada. With a child's voice singing a Nepali folk song and the Himalayan instruments to back it up, all passed through the Abacus sonic effects that were the signature of Return to Rama on Elucidations, we have here something
special. Breathe in that mountain air!
I like a bit of Loop Guru from time to time, though I knew that it wasn't Humph's favourite sound. So when I saw that he and Youth had got to work on Climax, I was a little surprised. However, if you didn?t know Loop Guru well, you probably wouldn't have realised this had anything to do with them! Much
more in the vein of East of the River Ganges or Dub Trees with all the Youth signature noises and beats - puts a fat smile on the face.
If you heard Shamanic Tea on Mana Medicine, or the Circuit Breaker album, you will know that Tripswitch has a bag of tricks that can make your head spin. Exiled is an absolutely superb
tune and if, like me, you are a sucker for a catchy hook then the final part of this track will give you the shivers. It's a properly psychedelic tune with plenty of far Eastern and aboriginal flavours. It sneaks along on a very deep bass line and every sound seems well placed, gradually growing to the splendid finale and leaving you wanting more. Epic.
Nada's third tune is also astounding - the most trance-orientated tune on the compilation, leering with Leary and riding on an extremely clever beat structure. Somehow I think the production at the beginning of this track slips a little ( probably due to some of the samples ) but it soon picks up. The vocal samples - Leary and chants - create a very rich atmosphere of something
very beautiful happening all around.
I can't tell you much about J.Viewz, except that he/she/it produces a smooth and warm tune that does indeed get me Into the Mood. Balearic in flavour and sweetly melodic, I can see this getting a lot of playtime on beaches around the world.
Adam Shaikh can always be relied on to deliver the goods - his tune as Drift, 'Arc en Ciel' is one of my favourite chillout tracks as are his outings as Ekko. This tune takes some time to take off, but when it does it will have your hips wriggling in your hammock. Effortless rhythms and melodies deliver big morning smiles all way to the end from this one.
Benji Vaughan needs no introduction as Prometheus, and unsurprisingly this is a deep and trippy number. Some Ninja-Tune styled beats and samples thrown into a ripped and twisted framework make it distinctive on this compilation. It
builds again to a Sweet Toothed vocal climax, but still in keeping with the reserved and withheld feel of the album. I can't say I've heard anything quite like it, but it works for me!
After all these strong tunes, it takes big feet to fill the shoes of ending this compilation. Tripswitch is the man with just those oversized feet. This tune is definitely more about atmosphere and texture than about going to a particular destination, but it is the perfect ending to the best chillout compilation I have come across in ages.
I am sure that most of you will have just skipped over all that bomble-drivel to the punchline - which is: favourite tracks 3,5 and 6 (for today?) no bad tracks, no filler and an ultimately magnificent chillout voyage. I know how much work and emotional energy went into bringing this to release, but it still seems like it just arrived effortlessly to my ears. A well deserved 9/10.
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