“source_direct”
Source Direct
Controlled Developments
Astralwerks
Grab your mixer. Insert one part standard drum and bass mentality, one part ambient, and one part space age sounds. Blend to a cross-sectional nightmare and thicken with serious pitch shifting, flanging, and reverb. Thus you have entered the realm of Source Direct. “Call and Response” begins the album with a heavy, building soundscape. As the song reaches a “beginning” it is reminds me of an over-looked Mission: Impossible theme. “Black Domina” contains the closest to live drum sounds but is very syncopated in nature. Compared best with Phyler, Matera, or mid-to-late Scorn, with serious bass to rattle apart every bolt and weld in your car. Enemy Lines and Two Masks are complimenting tracks. “Enemy Lines” is very Scorn with ambient textures floating in and out to create a haunting mood. “Two Masks” steps down from “Enemy Lines” in ambience, but has better drum variations. Capital D : acid-house turned drum and bass. It fails to bring that “What my body needs… X-tacy… X-tacy” feel, classic to acid-house, but it is obvious this track was not intended for this purpose. The bass walks and wanders farther than most drum and bass, and is much gentler on the spine. Overall, Controlled Developments is space-age drum and bass. In another album or two, the bumps and kinks should be sanded smooth; today it’s best left for DJs to alter. Astralwerks, 104 W. 29th St., New York, NY 10001; http://www.astralwerks.com
