Kuedo – Severant

After listening to this for years on CD and considering it one of the best albums of the 10's I think this press sounds fantastic. The packaging is barebones and the artwork is slightly modified (albeit still beautiful imo) but the sound that comes through the speakers and the inclusion of the extra track make it feel like a special 'directors cut' edition. Fitting for an album as cinematic as this one.

The Good News:
In some aspects this is an upgrade from the original edition. For starters, it is pressed on two discs instead of one. I don’t have the original edition to compare, but this pressing sounds OK to my ears, it is not plagued with common annoyances like surface noise or warped discs.

We also get a bonus track that fits the whole set perfectly. “Work, Live & Sleep In Collapsing Space” was released after the album as a single and was the last Kuedo track in his “Vangelis high on 808 fumes” style for some time. His later releases went in a different direction, and then he completely vanished for a few years. But he’s back with it BIG TIME on 2022’s “Infinite Window”.

The Bad News:
Artwork is a significant downgrade! The original is one of my favourite electronic music covers of all time. Both the music and imagery have burned into my memory just like any classic, iconic music album. A cool mashup of M.C. Escher and Patrick Nagel, just brilliant!

Here it is brutally cropped for whatever reason. I just don’t get it, why? Even worse – the original colors are gone. The image is dark, lacking contrast and detail, some of the linework is just invisible because it all just drowns in blobs of black. It looks like an error/misprint or a complete lack of quality control, like nobody cared to check out a test print. What a shame.

About the Music:
What an underrated classic this is! Although it seems that every time this album is reviewed or commented it mentions Vangelis and juke/footwork beats, I think this guy created his own unique sound Universe. “Vectoral” still gives me goose bumps every freakin’ time I hear that crazy rollercoaster of synths and rattlesnake 808 beats. “Flight Path” should be part of the Bladerunner 2049 score. A definite nod to the orignal soundtrack, but also a very fresh, futuristic reinterpretation of “End Titles”.

If you love electronic music, and at the same time grew up on 80’s scifi, THIS IS A MUST HAVE FOR YOU! And then check out “Infinite Window”, and incredible sequel to this story.

why the hell has this not been repressed. absolutely time for a 10 year anniversary repressing, preferably cut across 2xLP PLEASE

Was concerned about the number of tracks on each side sacrificing sound quality, but my concern was unwarranted. Great sounding pressing. The low end rattled my windows.

This definitely needs a double LP repress. Fantastic album, as someone mentioned – ahead of its time.

I would really like to buy this tape if anyone would be willing to sell it. Please send me a message if you are.

I still do not understand why you would cram up 8 tracks on one side of a vinyl - and never will.

This is an album that mind-bogglingly succeeds at integrating the skittering rhythms and energy of Chicago Juke/Footwork into classic early-'80s electronic and ambient music, stabilizing the entire package with cinematic elements that are not, surprisingly, cheesy at all. During 2011 and 2010, I found it very interesting how dance producers are approaching the Juke/Footwork aesthetic currently gaining amazing amounts of international critique, and either recontextualising the style into a more popular one or, like the label Planet Mu, taking it on almost as their child savant, giving it space to grow and show off its raw and unadulterated talent. Planet Mu also gives the hi-fi vinyl treatment to straight-up Chicago Juke and Footwork which popularized itself by cellphone and Youtube videos—what a riot, that is. From what I can gather, this style has taken a saturation of pop and hip hop music inevitably found throughout the South Side of Chicago (and, like, everywhere else) and set it out to dry—no, wrung it tight in strong hands, forced dry in seconds—letting any remaining dampness bake and sizzle in the sun. The crustiness of the scorched pop and hip hop rag begins to disintegrate, and each particle is used to decorate urban monuments of fractured, perpetually crumbling mainstream relics. To this decorating, Kuedo contributes using long, wide brushstrokes of syrupy, oil-based paint.