Babylone Chaos / Lambwool / Le Diktat – Shi

The object you are holding in your hands is special in many respects. The product of a collaboration between three artists with a divergent, and indeed sometimes opposed, approach of music, this work plainly demonstrates how their musical universes ultimately complement each other along three axes – noise, rhythm and melody.

The melodies are provided by Lambwool. A talented musician adept at creating musical landscapes fraught with melancholy, he colours the record with layers of keyboards and acoustic instruments samples that conjure up the crystalline, meditative melodies he has become renowned for.
Babylone Chaos has long been an avid proponent of chaotic, oppressing climates and deals in suffocation and saturation. The nefarious vapours of his distorted, out-of-joint universe bring a great measure of entropy to this opus.

Le Diktat is the only duo involved in this three party collaboration. Le Diktat brings the rhythm to the table. Break-core loops, drum n’bass rhythm patterns, trip-hop, electro and rock elements coupled with scratches create the most unexpected stylistic fusions, even on the most haunting instrumental tracks of this album. The result is a surprising collision between acoustic purity and punishing industrial beats, but a remarkably daring demonstration.

Jembes, flutes, scratches, harp, piano, samples; intense episodes or long, meditative soundscapes; sometimes quiet, sometimes heavy with saturation, this work of contrasts displays a thousand faces, takes a thousand forms which will not fail attract any and all who would take a musical journey in unchartered territories. The soundtrack to the End Times!

The object you are holding in your hands is special in many respects. The product of a collaboration between three artists with a divergent, and indeed sometimes opposed, approach of music, this work plainly demonstrates how their musical universes ultimately complement each other along three axes – noise, rhythm and melody.

The melodies are provided by Lambwool. A talented musician adept at creating musical landscapes fraught with melancholy, he colours the record with layers of keyboards and acoustic instruments samples that conjure up the crystalline, meditative melodies he has become renowned for.
Babylone Chaos has long been an avid proponent of chaotic, oppressing climates and deals in suffocation and saturation. The nefarious vapours of his distorted, out-of-joint universe bring a great measure of entropy to this opus.

Le Diktat is the only duo involved in this three party collaboration. Le Diktat brings the rhythm to the table. Break-core loops, drum n’bass rhythm patterns, trip-hop, electro and rock elements coupled with scratches create the most unexpected stylistic fusions, even on the most haunting instrumental tracks of this album. The result is a surprising collision between acoustic purity and punishing industrial beats, but a remarkably daring demonstration.

Jembes, flutes, scratches, harp, piano, samples; intense episodes or long, meditative soundscapes; sometimes quiet, sometimes heavy with saturation, this work of contrasts displays a thousand faces, takes a thousand forms which will not fail attract any and all who would take a musical journey in unchartered territories. The soundtrack to the End Times!

"This is a charmingly peculiar release with three French artists each contributing a solo track, as well as remixing pieces by their album companions. We have the cinematic Babylone Chaos, the more dark ambient Lambwool, and really adding flavour to the mix, the dark hop styles of duo Le Diktat.

The album is book ended by tourist sketches, with Babylone Chaos opening the proceedings with Made in Phnom Penh, and Lambwool closing it with the more reflective Tokyo 4:AM. Between these, with the exception of Le Diktat’s solo track, are a selection of gorgeously produced remixes, or collaborations, it’s hard to tell without knowing if these tracks existed in previous versions. According to the OPN website, Lambwool provided the melodies on piano and other acoustic instruments, Babylone Chaos contributed the, erm, entropy, and Le Diktat brought the rhythm. While the contributions from Lambwool and Babylone Chaos, based on the style of their solo tracks, don’t sound too different, it’s Le Diktat who prick up the ears with a distinctive and infectious sound that first comes to the fore in their remix of Black Wave by Babylone Chaos. Here, one assumes, the hip hop scratching and huge lopping bass drum was never part of the original. Returning the favour, Babylone Chaos’ remix of Le Diktat’s Contagion adds more of an industrial weight to the duo’s drums, sprinkled with tabla and choral pads. On their solo contribution, Bad Vibe, Le Diktat produce anything but that with a huge dark hop melange of a growling bassline buried in the mix, the same kind of shuddering, lopping beats they use elsewhere, and strings stabbing out a melody.

It is Le Diktat who provide the key to the beauty of this album, helping to add extra elements to the sound palettes of Babylone Chaos and Lambwool, and adding just enough hip hop-isms to the industrial grounding to create something that genuinely sounds unique. Once again, the music is beautifully produced and recorded, with a depth and wideness to a sound that travels from cinematic sketches to thundering moments of bass and drum." by Abby H for Judas Kiss magazine