Year0001 has started a series of compilations called RIFT, whose first edition just came out as RIFT One. The artists come from the label’s historic roster, such as Bladee, Thaiboy Digital, jonatan leandoer96 and Nadia Tehran, as well as associated acts like Quitland, Quit Life, bod [包家巷] and others from the outside. We are given a complete vision of the current experimental sound panorama, although Year0001 has always been multiform and many-sided itself.
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RIFT One starts off with “Circles” by Torus, that sounds like the prodigy son of The Flash. It floats in a charmed ambient frame but shows definite trance tendencies at the core, whose dance-y feeling is immediately taken up by the following “Sky Wheel”, by Chariot. This one opens the leading club vein of the compilation with a progressive layering of codes, constantly marked by what seems to be a synthesized dog growl. This trend goes on through the whole selection, as with Dark0 and Mssingno, who worked respectively alongside Graeme Norgate and HXE for “Scrapyard 1v2” and “MXE”, in which their long-time iconic sound meets here Norgate’s hard kicking drums and HXE’s solid synths and evocative vocals. On “Powerbank”, Lokey creates a thick lead tune pattern that gently fades in an ambient-like dimension during the last minute, while oqbqbo and Scandinavian Star’s “Wakening” rises in a timid climax paced by vocal chop loops running faster as the track grows. Similar gradual path for Prim, by Quit Life, that veers towards a sublime form of drum and bass. “WiLD & BeAutifuL” by ishi vu, instead, is pure kineticism, steady at the root while a sequential admixture of new sounds (cries, clacking) progressively joins in.
Trance doesn’t emerge only this way, indeed it evolves hand in hand with an airier and more and delicate version of itself, beginning with “Still”, by Quitland, in which the stream of energy goes up and down in hills of sound. The same grace is found in Mechatok’s “All The Time”, whose resonant tunes recall the masterpiece that All My Time is. Toxe, then, turns primordial serenity into music in her “Be By The Sea”, with its dew-like gliding synths plus sounds of the ocean waves against the shore.
Varg2TM and Mini Esco’s “I’m Waiting For It (all the time)” is impeccably neat. The kick is vibrant, constantly prevailing, whereas the rest divides into stinging segments and fleeting gentle synths, perfectly converging together. As vigorous as the latter, “Speed Goat” by FAKETHIAS shows a possibly even more hectic approach, voluntarily nervous and strongly communicative.
Rift One also branches off into multiple other genres. A dreamy electropop stream unfolds according to different schemes, as in Namasenda‘s “I Could Die”, recalling her forever PC Music bond, that is somehow echoed by Xtos’ “Let It Burn”, less shimmery trance-y and definitely more danceall-ish. The cloud rap counterpart lies in the hands of Bladee, Thaiboy Digital and Bloodzboi. The latter’s “Mist” is tenderly built with softly sung Chinese lyrics and a rarified, angelical melody, whilst the others’ “Anywhere” and “I Go I Go” represent the deepest sadboys essence made of rolls, ethereal synths and pitched reverberant vocals half between emotional feeling and flexing. bod [包家巷] sort of suggests the same vibes, but the song – “coda of the freelance AV technician” – moves way slower and is quite ambient-oriented, as the artist’s distinctive pianos dominate the entire track. Palmistry’s bare voice comes in all its smoothness with “Basho Dew”, on an almost drums only beat in the first half, featuring the lightest synths in the second as the drums leave room for a celestial composition. jonatanleandoer96 and 1985’s “Burning Star” develops in complex ways. Lean’s typically scratchy and non filtered voice is still the protagonist of this project, although the production seems to follow a less lo-fi folk direction than the one taken on Nectar, sounding more like his previous works under this moniker, with the addition of potential new industrial/noise structured sections and theatrical percussions, conveying a sense of possible meta experiment. Last but not least, at all, Nadia Tehran’s “Sergelized” majestically closes the compilation with a sharp drum beat featuring a classic ’90s hip hop piano riff, all overwhelmed by her loud, explicit and exasperated rap.
RIFT One contains the ideal parameters of a mixtape that is various – and variant, as the listening path proceeds non-randomly but in constant flux – natural, yet consistent. We are sure that we can expect the following RIFT chapters to stick to both the committed research of soundscapes and the engagement in spreading actual values.
Last modified: July 23, 2020
