Mike Shannon – Memory Tree Review
Monday, September 15th, 2008 | Album Review, Music
Mike Shannon marks his ten years in techno with his third EP release on Plus 8. Plus 8 themselves haven’t really been releasing too much of late, but when they do the quality is usually high and different to its younger sister label Minus.
On this release Shannon revolves the LP around a central style of warped alien like melodies and effects with plenty of mechanical/robotic beats and noises all layered in a classic Detroit futurism way.
Enero the third track on the LP uses a wobbly echoed alien like melody which rides over the top of layered soft pads, creating a dreamy disjointed outer space atmosphere. Love Fry soon follows with a more sinister feel. A distorted organ riff runs through cycles of builds and drops in intensity over skipping beats and interludes of airy synth stabs. Again there is a dreamy nature to the track but this time edging towards a sinister nightmare.
On Uno Para el Sol a different tact is taken. Syncopated jazz percussion and improve electric organ skits drift over a wash of well layered string pads. Its light with a hint of funk and quite different to the other tracks on the LP. On the other hand Closed Question runs with a squelching static background and heavy kick drums whilst a number of pads and synths intertwine keeping the alien theme running.
The final track, Japanese Censorship finishes the album on a bang. A big muffled acid bassline wriggles about in a foray of clean techno percussion, providing the album a full on filthy track for the clubs.
There are some great tracks on here, which are very well produced and with great depth in layers. As a whole I wished Mike Shannon would have ventured further from his central theme like on Uno Para El Sol. Instead when listening to the whole LP, some of the tracks lose their identity. That aside Love Fry, Uno Para El Sol and Japanese Censorship are great tracks.
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