Shapes by Diamont Dancer
Mood music with guitars and ambience
What connects Varg, Nadia Struiwigh, Les Halles, Worriedaboutsatan, Rex Kyed, JK Flesh and Eraldo Bernocchi & Chihei Hatakeyama?
The guitar.
It's an instrument they've all used in their recent music productions, each with quite different results. Beyond traditional electric/acoustic or bass usage, the treated guitar, stretched and filtered into brave new sounds, can careen, caress, mystify and delight the ears to the extent that the listener is even aware of its inclusion; its versatility and deployment limited only by the imagination of the strummer. In retrospect, hearing so much guitar in the Electronic music I've been consuming in the last two or three years, it's almost becoming de rigueur! (Hey, I wonder what Elektro Guzzi are up to these days?).
Diamont Dancer, is a new project, from vastly experienced Spanish duo Nacho Marco and Pau Roca, which doesn't stray too far from the beaten track with a powerful and emotive form of Electronic Guitar music; a bit like Glaswegian rock band Mogwai but without the thrashing chords to shock your senses.
Roca is the guitarist from La Habitación Roja, the celebrated Spanish indie-rock group, and Marco is a highly respected DJ and producer who combines his work as a tester for Roland with his duties as professor at the Berklee College Of Music. They list their influences as Fripp/Eno, Steve Reich and John Carpenter and that can be clearly heard across the seven tracks that make up Shapes, their debut album. Full of endless melancholic melodies, processed guitar loops and evocative analog synth drones, they've produced the perfect imaginary soundtrack with anecdotal passages and contemplative escapism.
- Rating: 8/10
- Listens: 28
- Highlight: Cube
- Label: Canoa Snake Records
- Release Date: 25th June 2018