Ital – Hive Mind

Label: Planet Mu

Doesn’t Matter (If You Love Him)

Israel

First Wave

Daniel Martin-McCormick, aka Ital, has got quite a history behind him. From his beginnings with the group Black Eyes to Sex Worker’s indefinable Dance releases, he’s always had a powerfully independent voice. Having spent some time recently releasing on Not Not Fun and 100% Silk, his debut LP as Ital takes a very different route to his punchier early singles, presenting four long-form pieces (and a short one) that take the listener on mesmeric journeys through shifting soundscapes.

Ital is a real export of the internet’s role in music, and has spoken very interestingly on the subject in a recent interview with The Quietus. “The internet has become this place for evil,” he says, going on to explain that Hive Mind was born as a response to the “crushing aspect of our society” and “the glacial onslaught of the world we’ve made for ourselves.” Interestingly, then, the first track here samples Lady Gaga, who could justifiably be named the most enormous product of the internet thus far in the celebrity sphere. In Doesn’t Matter (If You Love Him) the titular vocal sample is looped to a nauseous, inhuman degree, and it almost feels as if Martin-McCormick is reducing Gaga to a droning electronic loop with a toneless, generic quality that aurally symbolises the same depthless anonymity of most music born from the internet generation. If we take it away from the more philosophical angle the sample is clearly indebted to the recent rise of Footwork, but the composition is firmly rooted in the world of House. A warm bass loop belies well-paced percussive textures and a huge host of glittering synth accents that swoop across the track magnificently. Although there’s a lot of repetition here there’s a keen sense of pacing throughout (as well as a curiously relevant Whitney Houston sample), and clean micro-edits ensure that the length of these songs never undermine their intentions.

All this seems to put Martin-McCormick on a level with many Dance producers who, when putting out a long-player, try to do something different; to use dance styles and tropes to create something that can no longer be danced to. The tracks now serve as cerebral journeys through twitching Electronic soundscapes, with scattered ideas and stylistic references cohering into a sound that is both heady and challenging. It’s not an easy thing to pull off, but most of these tracks really work. After Doesn’t Matter (If You Love Him) ends tellingly with Gaga’s voice looped and crushed into an uncomfortable, inhuman sonic mulch, second cut Floridian Void provides a more laid-back slice of cosmic House. A solid kick-drum is the only constant here amidst a swirling mass of garbled voices, squealing synth deviations and lush pads. It’s a track that, like most on offer here, reveals its beauty slowly over careful repeated spins, allowing you to discern the moments when the clouds part and a gorgeous melody makes its slow way across the soundfield before receding back into the ether. Most of the reason that these moments are more obscure is the shear amount of layers here, but they rarely feel gratuitous, for example there’s no faulting the sharp snare that appears in the last few minutes of this second tune.

Privacy Settings is the central axis of these more lumbering House numbers, and it’s clearly the sonic black sheep. It’s about a third of the length of anything else on here, there’s no anchoring drum kick or pleasant synth melody to draw you in, and Ital ramps up the broken-audio rips and effects that he has always enjoyed implementing. It’s a menacing and disorientating tune with ghostly synths and threatening percussive snaps, and it seems the perfect analogue for Martin-McCormick’s alarming vision of today’s internet culture. As the track recedes, synths slowly morph into the sound of howling wolves, a well-chosen symbol for the power of machines; whether a vision of our internet use or electronic music production itself.

Fourth cut Israel opens with a barely audible monologue, overpowered by some of the sharpest beats on the record. The track has a great swing to it, with cosmic synths washing dramatically over well-structured percussive sequences. Even though these songs can feel repetitive at times, the moments where they deviate are always so impressive that it’s hard to mind. This is just the case on Israel, when hollow percussive bounces take centre-stage only to be effaced by too-bright synth streaks from around the 6-minute mark. These are the moments that open up over repeated listens, and highlight just how surprising and satisfying Ital can be as a producer. Final cut First Wave closes the album in stunning fashion, souping up the languid pace of Hive Mind into a decaying Disco number that combines bright synths and gloopy acid basslines with an enormous amount of canny micro-edits. It comes off as the album’s most overtly beautiful track, and will probably stay with you longest after it’s over.

Ital gives you a lot to think about and a lot to listen to with Hive Mind, but it’s not quite a perfect album. The track lengths mean that the LP lacks a certain dynamism, and while there is an abundance of ideas on show, perhaps they could have been employed more deftly to give these tracks a little more pace and excitement. Because these tunes are so densely layered they require quite a lot of time to fully absorb but their formidable length and lack of clear hooks mean it might not be an album you’re dying to return to. This isn’t helped by the fact that most of the tracks here are constructed in a fairly similar fashion, but if you listen with patience and allow the sounds to immerse you it’s easy to lose yourself. Apparently Ital constructs all his tunes on Audacity, so I’m willing to forgive some of the effects sounding a little flat because it’s remarkable just how many of them don’t; frequently individual sonic elements leap out at the listener just for being so crisp and interesting. If you can give Hive Mind some time you’ll find yourself rapturously hypnotised by these flowing tracks, and there’s a wealth of detail and innovation to explore once you’re in there.

7.5/10

Dance Playlist and Track Reviews

So I've got another selection of great dance tracks for you guys, just a collection of tracks that have been worming their way into positions as permanent installations in my brain. Here we'll move through some lovely garage beats via choppy vocals to 2-step and a couple of choice remixes, all perfectly suited to getting you moving throughout the night. Also obviously these are all fairly high scoring as they're my personal pick of tracks. Enjoy!

Shower Scene – Huxley

This track just has everything. With its classic UK garage stylings it builds over a simple but brutal beat to a drop that could knock out almost any contenders so far this year. We are treated throughout to a tense vocal loop and some stabbing synths but it's the force of this track that makes it a winner, not the precious details. Gonna be a hard one to beat.

4.5/5

Locked – Four Tet

Hebden's latest single for Text came off his upcoming fabriclive mix. Four Tet crafts a simple house shuffle and interlaces a few meaty bass drops and a luscious pitch-shifting synth melody to create a real winner. It's restrained but tough while remaining pretty, exactly what we've come to expect from the Tet's more dance-orientated releases.

4/5

Another Girl – Jacques Greene

I know this isn't the newest track but in my opinion it's one of the best of the year so far and so I had to squeeze it in somewhere. Greene's shimmery, patient sound is made up of some sharp snares and deep bass throbs, but it's those emotive, sighing, story-telling vocals that give this cut its special shimmer and that will keep you coming back. That ecstatic looped sigh has gotta be one of the sounds of the year.

5/5

Culture Clubs – Ital

Again, I know this isn't super new, but I've not found space to plug it until now. Ital's new release for Not Not Fun's dance label 100% Silk is better than I could've hoped, and is definitely in my list of best tracks of the year so far. A simple house click is undercut by warping, pitch-shifting synths that never quite sit still, and when that vaguely tropical melody comes in it's too clear this track is on another level; a gorgeously detailed composition likely to cause euphoria.

5/5

RDI (Girl Unit Remix) – Breton

Fresh from club anthem Wut, the best of Night Slugs serves us a delicious slice of woozy bass in this remix. Sirens cry out over harsh synth loops and ocean-deep sub bass to deliver a hot (yes, and heavy) tune that it's very difficult to stop listening to. Gun gestures at the ready.

4/5

Box of Birds – Antix

Okay, a psytrance track from a while back is definitely not the 'coolest' inclusion into this playlist but I just discovered it and I really can't stop listening. Here a clipped distending rhythm contorts around a heavy bassline and immediately fills the room, resulting in a real unexpected dancefloor favourite for me. Each change is welcome and interesting while the core of the track is always guaranteed to get you moving, and that's all you need really.

4.5/5

Lotus Flower (Jacques Greene RMX) – Radiohead

I'm half harking back to the fantastic Twelves remix of Reckoner I put in a playlist a while back, this track luxuriously plays Yorke's inimitable vocals over a constantly shifting composition that switches up every minute into a new part. It's fantastic as a whole and one of the better Radiohead remixes floating around, but be sure to stick it out to the full-throttle beat masterfully conjured up in the fourth minute.

4/5

Into the Night (Nicolas Jaar Remix) – Azari & Iii

End of the night house closes the playlist with my very favourite track of the moment. Followers of this blog will know I'm a big fan of Nico Jaar, and the very simple reason for this is that everything he touches... well, you know. This masterful rework strikes me as a great deal more thought-provoking than A&I's straight-up original, with an emphasis on that warm piano and an irresistable beat coupling midway through. The acid deviation towards the end of the track is oh-so-welcome, but what really shines here is Jaar's teasingly clipped vocal samples that make you wait before the whole line is revealed in its isolated, emotive glory. As always, a stellar production from Jaar tinging effortless clubby warmth with the slightest hint of melancholy he so interestingly brings to his compositions.

5/5