Tales From the Oxygen Den by Various Artists (Review)
Radical Turf Records is a relatively new electronica (for lack of a better term) label that got its start in 2003. And although this is the only release under the fledgling label’s belt so far, the artists featured on this compilation have all been active in various underground scenes for quite some time. As a result, the comp is far from an amateur-esque affair.
Given that this the label’s first release, it’s still too early to tell where they’ll be at in a few year’s time — all their website basically says is “Turf does hope to stylistically embrace the future while respecting the past.” But I get a definite Darla Records vibe throughout the CD, specifically Darla of the late 90s/early 00s when they were consistently putting out releases by the likes of Junior Varsity KM, Sweet Trip, Color Filter, and Flowchart. Which is by no means a bad thing in my book, as Darla has been one of the most eclectic and affluent indietronica labels out there.
The comp kicks off in high style with Coin Operated’s “Can You Feel It?,” a humorous and nostalgic piece that blends samples of kids discovering the joys of a synthesizer with bubbling analog goodness and infectious rhythms. Think classic 808 State or even Flowchart’s Cumulus Mood Twang. Ike Mentry’s “Fossilized Laptops” is one of the disc’s more captivating tracks, with stratospheric synth lines soaring high above Kraftwerk-esque tone clusters as a fog of analog noise hovers nearby, waiting to envelop everything.
Mike Taylor takes a slightly darker direction with “FX->DY,” as deep-seated analog basslines squirm and squelch away beneath squiggly keys. Synaptic Flow’s “Almost Dawn” is classic drum ‘n’ bass, full of soft ambient textures and stuttering beats that take me right back to the 90s. The aptly-titled Glossolalia contributes the aptly-titled “Hologram God Food,” a lovely assortment of fluttering, Reich-esque synth textures and soft, pulsing microbeats.
However, other parts of disc a tab spottier. Quetzatl’s drum ‘n’ bass just seems too simplistic as it plods along with its funk-derived basslines. Light Body Vehicle can’t quite seem to find a rhythm that works on “Sounds Good To Me,” and as a result, spends the entire track shifting between any and every loop he can think of, with predictably uneven and jumbled results. And Konrad tries to one-up Squarepusher’s jazzy breakbeats with some of his own, this time upping the jazz quotient. But it just doesn’t quite work, the beats sounding incredibly incongruous and tacked on to the jazz instrumentation.
Overall, though, Tales From the Oxygen Den is a pretty solid comp, and is quite inline with the label’s stated goal of respecting the past. However, they perhaps show it a bit too much respect. Depending on your tastes, and how demanding you are that your electronica be new and cutting edge, you might find the sounds and styles on Tales From the Oxygen Den fairly dated. I prefer to think of them as “classic,” even somewhat “nostalgic” in the case of Coin Operated and Synaptic Flow.