blueOrb Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Promotional Text - Welder’s debut downtempo album combines organic broken beats with urban and world flavors. Welder has been compared to the likes of Moby and The Orb and in our view brings whole new elements of flavor to the table. This is the kind of album that you’ll grow to love the more you hear it. Artist Bio. - https://cyberset.cc/artists.php?tr_artist_id=27 Artist - Welder Title – Vines And Stream Label - Cyberset, San Francisco Format – CD Genre – Downtempo Electronic Release Date - Nov2006 Tracklist – 01. Rain (6:31) 02. Ants Are Small (3:09) 03. Purple & Orange (7:28) 04. Crosshatch (5:17) 05. Valeez (4:29) 06. In The Park (5:27) 07. Shiva (6:57) 08. Distance (5:05) 09. Find You Here (6:36) 10. Amber Dime (5:36) 11. Isle Of Skye (6:35) 12. The Heart (6:23) Vines And Stream by Welder who is also know for his House and breaks project “Eskmo” has hit me like a whiff of fresh spring breeze. The album is all about Welder’s unique fusion of world music with downtempo breaks and freestyle electronica with generous doses of psychedelia, somewhat in similar vein to albums by artists like “Flexitones” or “Deviant Electronics”. The first track “Rain” is a steadfast one with a nice groovy bass with tinkering bell sounds along with a rolling drum beat that sets the mood for rest of the album. Next track “Ants Are Small” has bought about the biggest smiles I have ever seen when I am playing, the playful orchestral sounds that keep evolving along with phat beats and some squeaky bits splattered across, a sure winner. “Purple & Orange” kicks off with a oriental gong and some Chinese instrument with lots of dirty turntable sample loops mapped onto acoustic guitar riffs with a very mystical vocal sample mentioning something about some floating object that bursts into a purple and orange aura, another winner. “Crosshatch” changes the direction to a more broken beat oriented style and once again its the groove that gets you hooked almost instantly. Next track “Valeez” has a very glitchy hiphop beat with lots of multilayered percussion. “In the park” has a industrial and urban feel with a somewhat darkish atmosphere somewhat similar to sounds by artists like “Moby” or “Enigma”, a great track anyways. I just don’t believe the quality of sounds on this album, we are half way through and each and every track till now is just pure auditory bliss. lets see what follows. “Shiva” as the name suggests is a very ethnic influenced track with broken beats that are intertwined with the Indian instrument called sitar. “Distance” maintains the ethnic effort and has a wide range of instruments like tablas, sheenai etc, another lush and exotic world beat influenced track. Nearing the end welder chooses to drop the tempo a bit and give us laid back breaks along with serene and mild atmospheres with “Find You Here”. Welder explores his experimental side with “Amber Dime” which has a very sharp beat with a cartoonish vocal sample looped over and over, a strange but decent effort. Continuing further we stumble upon “Isle Of Skye” that has a gritty and industrial sound that blends into a melancholic but melodic vibe. The last track “The Heart” has lots of layers with a guitar loop that dominates, not a favourite but I can’t really make up my mind. Welder is one of the best surprises of 2006, I am simply loving this album. This is an astounding effort for a debut with excellent production quality. All the sounds are playful, organic, very uplifting and danceable. I see many happy faces listening to Welder this summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abasio Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 Welder Vines & Streams Cyberset 2006 Tracklist 01 Rain (6:30) 02 Ants are Small (3:08) 03 Purple & Orange (7:27) 04 Crosshatch (5:16) 05 Valeez (4:28) 06 In the Park (5:26) 07 Shiva (6:56) 08 Distance (5:04) 09 Find You Here (6:35) 10 And We’re Dying (5:35) 11 Isle of Skye (6:34) 12 The Heart (6:36) I bought this one completely blind! The cover looked nice & the titles made me think that this must be some soft natural trippy journey So, was I right. Well yes & no. I didn't expect this to quite so upbeat but I also wasn't expecting it to be this good. Oh yes it's a good one!! 1. Rain Soft & dreamy with trip hop beats. A nice simple shifting melody feels like soft grass between my toes. 2 seperate vocal samples, one continuous child like chant another one sounds like a telephone chat which gives this track an urban nature feel. Like a big park in the middle of the city surrounded by skyrise. 2. Ants are Small A cool marching beat sets this track up. Squelchy electronic sounds gives this track a very positive up beat tone. It's warm like summer it's cool like the wind 3. Purple & Orange Starts of with an oriental sounding (but not oriental) melody, like san francisco china town. The beat kicks in to give it another urban feeling. Nice chimes some bluesy guitar as well as Spanish ones makes this track just a little bit lovely 4. Crosshatch This track is pretty industrial sounding (for the album) Heavy beats, background noises reminiscent of factory machines clunking away all under a very weird twisted melody. Good Stuff! 5. Valeez Hip Hop beats, colourful melody which sounds like random penny whistle sounds that have somehow come together into a tune that's easy on the ears. The track shifts about & has a very disjointed feel to it at times. It changes again & again in feel so that at the end it's either sounding melancholic or just feeling sorry for itself 6. In the Park You can hear the sounds of kids playing in the park throughout. The track as a whole feels like I'm driving past the park in the car, maybe leaving the city forever & feeling a bit sad about it. The beats are amazing the melody blue. The synths too make this as a sad track. I love it 7. Find you Here Ah.... a middle eastern sounding track. Not my favourite style usually. It has that instrument that you always here surrounding stoned hippies in the movies, the one that always manages to sound tuneless & which I find really annoying. Anyway here it is. To be honest it's used quite well & welder has managed to eek out some kind of tune from it. But seeing as I hate the instrument it kinda ruins the track for me. The times without it are sublime 8. Shiva Continues with the same vibe, the same instrument. At least these track are actually playing a melody and not the tuneless drone I heard when travelling through the middle east or china. The track is actually really good after you get past the intro & before the instrument returns. It has a nice beat, cool background sounds & a long beautiful drawn out synth like vocal. 9. Distance I knew I'd find you here, the time has come This track is back in my good books. Seems like we have been travelling east in this album & we've gotten into a Chinese kung fu movie. From the beats to the sample to the vocals it has a very Kung Fu (the TV show) feel to it. But much cooler 10. And We're Dying Feels like I've just been walking through some remote mountainside, miles & miles from civilisation but when I get to a peak I can see in the valley below a temple full of Beings, chanting! The track as you may guess from the title is quite sad in a beautiful way. Well placed lyrics sung well, sound nice. A great track 11. Isle of Skye A bit heavier now, beat wise, with a beautiful vocal sample in the background dragged out like a long haunting synth. Underneath a techy little melody. It sounds traditional & modern all at once. I'd say it sounds like Japan but it sounds nothing like you'd expect with no Japanesey things in it, just the feeling. 12. The Heart A twisted mix of sounds to finish us off. Not sure how this track makes me feel but it's a good feeling there is no doubt about that. There is amazing guitar in this. Think acoustic but cut up & twisted into something much cooler. Great track to finish a great album All in all I feel like this albums has a journey quality to it. The opening 6 tracks make me feel like I'm in western cities but tas the album progresses it seems to trek east! Not many of you have probably heard of this album, the label - cyberset only has one other release which I will be sure to check out after the strength of this album. Favourites 6, 9, 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sideffect... Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 nice ambient, very floating, natural feeling, the pattern of the baseline is dub minded, not bad @ all... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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