Papa - Legba - Dead Air

[abasio]

 

Artist: Papa Legba

Title: Dead Air

Label: Celestial Dragon Records

Released: 22nd May 2009

Style: Ambient, IDM

 

Tracklist

 

1 Night Surf (Ishq Remix) (8:43)

2 Digital Ice Pipe (6:01)

3 I Want To Believe (6:20)

4 Recovering (6:44)

5 Greek Opium (6:52)

6 Arranged Memories (5:42)

7 Abandoned Window (6:35)

8 Barely Holding On (7:13)

9 Namek Coastline (Extinct Planet Mix) (6:50)

 

Papa Legba aka Peter Pan aka Peter Zuniga is out with his debut album on Celestial Dragon Records. This was an album I was anticipating ever since hearing Papa Legba's track, Night Surf on the compilation Intermittent Memories released in 2007 so it has been quite a long wait but in my opinion that is usually a good sign. It usually indicates that the artist has spent a long time getting it just right to his own standards and design and hasn't rushed it to meet a labels timing demands.

 

Papa Legba did not disappoint me with this release. Dead Air is an album of 2 halves, the first half is full of very relaxed ambient soundscapes and it dangerously starts of with an Ishq remix of Night Surf. I thought this was a risky idea because if he started with music as good as Ishq then he might struggle to follow it with his own music. This fear of mine though proved unfounded as Papa's own music flowed nicely after it, just as good if not better. The second half of the album is more upbeat in a kind of dark IDMish style. For me, the second half of the album is not as good as the first and there are a few moments where Pete's taste clashes with my own. Namely in the latter half of the album with the Banjo melody in the beginning of Arranged Memories and the penultimate track Barely Holding On at times sounds like it is describing a gun battle down at the OK Corral. These blips aside though this is a very good album.

 

Throughout most of the album I get the feeling of being on a misty ocean in a small craft, in the beginning sirens sing to me but I can never see where their song comes from as progressively the fog becomes thicker and thicker. The music is quite mournful with themes of loneliness and temptation abound. When the music gets more upbeat I feel like I have come through the fog and landed on an island where the natives are performing a tribal ritual. Unfortunately I have to cross through some redneck yokel’s yard to get to it.

 

The best tracks as I said are at the beginning. I really like Night Surf (Ishq Remix). It is more melodic than the original with as you can imagine more of an Ishq sound to it. There is more emphasis on the magical atmosphere created than on the waves and birdsong in the original.

 

Digital Ice Pipe and I Want To Believe both have a cold horror feel to them with the former building up the atmosphere and the latter raising the urgency creating a narrative in my head of floating through the mist then being chased by some unknown horrors.

 

The rest of the ambient tracks have a similar feel and some of the IDMish tracks as well, so all in all it is a good album with a few blips which I should have expected as Pete Pan’s taste has always been that way for me mostly great with a few things I hate.

 

Recommendation: If you are expecting this to sound like the front cover looks and the title indicates then you will not be disappointed. The music is cold and mournful, moving from dead ambient soundscapes to harsh unforgiving IDM beats. For me the first half of the album is better but the second half is good in parts. It’s a good album with a few weak moments later on.

 

Favourites: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7

 

originally written for http://www.isratrance.com

 

Some track by track analysis

 

Ishq’s remix of Night Surf is more melodic than the original with as you can imagine more of an Ishq sound to it. There is more emphasis on the magical atmosphere created than on the waves and birdsong in the original. This sounds more like Sirens tempting sailors onto the rocks.

 

Digital Ice Pipe is another long droning piece with a lot of emphasis on melodic sounds creating an atmosphere of floating on misty oceans. The vocal sample in my head sounds like a warning beacon being transmitted from a lost ship in the centre of the fog.

 

In I Want To Believe we start to build a little bit of rhythm. The same cold atmosphere lingers from the previous track but the beats add a more energetic almost urgent feel to the music. The glitchy sounds and the glitchy plucked melody really add to my feeling of being in some horrific fog while floating on the ocean with who knows what lurking in it.

 

The vocals in Recovering again remind me of siren song, the background feels like murky waters with mist floating in ominous clumps over it. In my mind each clump carries a rock or an iceberg that can dash my small craft if I’m not careful. There is nice melody that floats through the air after a male vocal sample not quite shattering my picture before some steady rhythm makes me feel like I’ve come through it. Or is it just illusion?

 

More sirens in Greek Opium at the beginning but the quickly disappear as the sound becomes thicker as if the fog is engulfing everything around me. It’s quite a heavy feeling track for one that has little to no beats, it all sounds very ominous. I like it in its disjointed randomness.

 

The start of Arranged Memories really grates on my nerves. The harsh banjo playing is quite a show to the system and even when I am ready for it, it hits my annoyed spot. It’s a shame because when this melody calms down the track is really nice. In fact the guitar melodies in the second half of the track are really nice. The tribal drumming as well is pretty cool. It feels like through the fog I have landed on an island shore with the natives in the midst of some kind of tribal ritual. But to get there I had to go through a hick yokel’s yard!

 

Abandoned Window is a very random IDMish track with a lot of sporadic beats, ambient drones and splashes of random melody and a plethora of trippy little noises here and there. It creates quite a cool atmosphere but with the beats being all over the place it is hard to lose yourself in the images like in the first part of the album. It’s a nice track though for what it is & I’d like to put it in a set I am planning which is all this kind of sporadic disjointed stuff.

 

The most upbeat track on the album is Barely Holding On with strong steady beats right through it. They are very hypnotic in the right mood but it took me the longest time not to hate this track. At first I found it boring and out of place. I didn’t like the beats & I thought it ruined the album. While even now I think it is the weakest track here it has grown on me a little as it has a nice mournful feel to it but only at times, other times sound like a gun battle down at the OK corral.

 

Namek Coastline (Extinct Planet Mix) rounds off the album with a kind of mix of both sides of the music. It is like a softer more ambient IDM glitch than the previous few tracks, or if you like a glitchier more rhythmical IDMish ambient than the opening tracks. It’s a nice finish to the album but far from spectacular.

[raverozo0]

gRAXX

[abasio]

gRAXX

 

Some great comments you've made so far

[skyclan]

Some great comments you've made so far

 

hahaha...good one! \m/\m/\m/

[Trance2MoveU]

If I had to sum this up in two words...random; harsh. I don't really hear many melodies and it seems the compositions are all over the place. Also, it tends to be atonal, dissonant. Abasio was right when he said this was cold. I had to put on a jacket. There is no warmth here at all. This disc is not for me.

 

But the cover kicks ass.

 

Mdk

[DisKtroyer]

I guess the only good thing about this album, is it's Cover. :p

I do listen to quite a bit of Ambient/Psy Chill, but this one...i dunno why but I found it quite dead..so i guess the title is quite apt!

 

I don't think I'd like to recommend it to anyone.

 

Peace

[Yard Hippie]

Surprised that the only 'proper' comments to this have been so overly negative. I can't say I actually own the album but from listening to it through other means I didn't find it bad at all... In fact it's been on my 'to buy' list for some time now. I guess I'm really just posting this to balance out the bad and would probably elaborate more if it were not for the fact that I rarely listen to still buyable albums I havn't yet purchased more than just enough to get some sort of grasp on whether I actually like them. In fact I rarely use other means at all but Abasio's review got me interested and I liked the concept. It doesn't sound like it'll be competing for 'best of 09'' but still it doesn't seem to warrent such negativity. I thought it was a solid and fairly cool release.