Mary Anne Hobbs – Wild Angels (Planet Mu)
4/5
By: Tim Smith
It seems Dub step artists have traded their flat peaks for thinking caps. Radio 1 DJ, Mary Anne Hobbs, the dub step disciple and bestowed follower of groundbreaking electronic music has brought together a collection of songs that are rounded up to open our eyes to these new artists and our ears to new sounds and ideas. And to call these laptop arbiters ‘artists’ would be no exaggeration. This 18 track compilation takes to the cold but edgy and fearless side of electronic music.
When listening to this confederation of anti beats and random electronic sounds, it’s like staring into oblivion and only being able to see two feet in front of you. Then, all of a sudden, a tune hits you out of nowhere, occasionally with a scuffed up vocal loop, pulled out from the archives just to reassure us it’s still made by someone from the human race.
The compilation starts with a euphoric progressive haze of guitars and deep synthesizers. Mark Pritchard’s ‘?’ slowly delves us into a different place outside pop norms, drops and bass lines. 5 and half minutes float by and you find yourself listening to a dystopian sound, created by someone who had just polished off an eighth of weed. But this is only one side of Wild Angels. Hobbs then partially brings us an insight to some uplifting tunes, amazingly, finding melody from numerous broken arpeggiators and contorted drum beats. This is brilliantly found in Mike Slott’s ‘Knock Knock’. The rhythmic and euphoric post garage sounds of Floating Points exist amongst Darkstar’s reinterpretation of Radiohead’s ‘Videotape’ showing the broadness and ingenuity of Hobbs’ compilation.
Wild Angels continues to shape shift as it progresses through the seedier side of the UK’s electronic underground. Artists all through the track listing seem to push components of music together that shouldn’t seem to work, but they do, seemingly effortlessly – but actually only after days staring at waveforms and eq’s on their computer. The technicality of some of the arrangements is something to behold in itself. The fact these pieces of music form at all leaves me gobsmacked – such leftfield aspirations are so refreshing to hear from the standard dance electronics we hear day in day out.
With all of these songs, there is no movement to befit or inclusion to seek. It is just a beautiful thing to find groundbreaking sounds of something entirely concrete in what was thought to be a fad. Dub step was pornography when it first appeared, the low point probably being Doorly’s remix of Calvin Harris’ ‘I’m Not Alone’. But cutting deep into this amazing, versatile genre and the associated genres around dub step and contemporary electronica, we could end up anywhere. Once more we could forget these songs ever existed. Mary Anne Hobbs flags down where we are and where these tunes can be found.
The way this fine compilation presents so well the mysterious nature of these artists allows you to hold the music for what it is, rather than Caspa twittering us endlessly about what he had for breakfast this morning. It’s also good to hear songs chosen for their own merit rather than how well the song mixes in to its previous track. If you’re craving some new Aphex Twin or some Jackson And His Computer Band, this compilation is unmissable. Mary Anne Hobbs uses it to shed just the right amount of light on this fascinating world under ground.
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