DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Blame – Sigma EP

2001

Today’s review features an artist that usually unlocks a rather large quantity of words. This is largely due to the standard, the vision and the damn fine humble approach that he has in regard to the music scene. It seems we have travelled to the far corners of our universe, following his unique way of creating sounds for the Good Looking Records label, and we are not finished yet. Conrad Shafie redesigned the way that atmospheric drum and bass could launch you into a future that our species will never reach. We return to the distance echoes that communicate a world of unfathomable tinkering, surreal torments and unmistakable triumphs. We return to Conrad Blame. 

   This copy is another Limited Edition of 3000, mine being 002988. Looks like I crept in the last 12 copies then? I have to say that I did have this release earlier, but I had a fault with one of the discs being cut so off center, that the needle weaving in and out made me feel fucking sea sick listening to it. There may have been a few copies like this, so I hear. Luckily I did manage to grab this copy, which is a lot more stable. 

   The artwork on this release is another visually stunning collection of material from Nick Purser. He places the viewer in this colossal space station that houses the space pods that transport the unknown life forms, between worlds. While the sleeve holds this hub of intergalactic technology, this computer layout of a shuttle depot on the labels capture some of the passing space debris that hold the stories from further afield. These flying meteors of unclassified minerals and undiscovered matter, pass by in a silent trajectory, lacking the resistance to hinder their path. 

    I do wonder what concept of Sigma that Blame was using for naming this EP. There are many variations on how Sigma is used, however as the symbol is Σ then I’m assuming it’s the something linked with the infinite sequence of events? It may be something else, and I’m getting a headache just writing now.. Conrad, if you can let us know, that would save me necking too many paracetamol now. Ha ha! 

   Let’s get cracking on with the music. It’s no use me waffling on like an old fart. We will review this first plate today, next plate tomorrow, you know the drill. This first record sets the tone and pushes the imagination out past Blames previous release (Between Worlds), and gives us the full Blame artillery. 

    Side A is ‘Spectre’, holding its docking station steady as the crosshairs align and the thrusters burst a minute puff of air into the stabilization procedure. Blame coats the metallic beats with polished finesse, the cyborgs circuits recall the programmers course for a new route into the explorers manifesto. Blame was reinventing time with his music, and something beyond the realms of comprehension were materializing. Those footsteps in the breakdown and the re-establishing mechanical chimes, fix you in awe. 

   The vinyl still has a slight waving in and out with an off-cut pressing as I’m watching it spin, but it doesn’t produce a problem when listening, that I can fully detect. The tune sounds top notch. 

    ‘Binary Sunset’ disassembles the monuments and repositions the fragments of the future technoid machinery. Here is Blame lathering the vast skin of the new world, with a code that typifies the logic gates of an either/or system of understanding. The rebellion appear from the gore soaked taverns to take over the operations, yet the human driven machine that Blame conducts via his hyper critical and lighting quick productions, quash the clocks of a three dimensional time, and as darkness floods the horizon, it’s the unique power of 2 that enables the code to revitalize the empire of the future world. 

   Blame had his 720 sound obliterating the possibilities of this music and proving once again that the universe has already been sent its signals into the galleons of the unknown. They’re out there and moving in ways we’ll never understand. 

   The second record is up tomorrow. If you want to check out my reviews of Blames work so far on Good Looking, you can dig into this blog more. It has his 12” singles and his album, along with his previous EP, ‘Between Worlds’, engineered by Odyssey. I hope you enjoy it?!