Nathan Fake - Crystal Vision (album)

  On 4/13/2023 at 9:48 AM, lawrenke said:

The title track drum part sounds very similar to BoC's Kid For Today (which IIRC sampled one of Ringo's drum fills in Strawberry Fields Forever). Maybe an homage? Or just a coincidence? Lovely album though!

Expand  

It reminds me of Gyroscope drums too. I think title track is def my fav.

Lots of Boards of Clark moments on this but it’s really enjoyable in a reference way and not a copy way. Much like the Principles of Geometry album from a few months ago.

edit: there’s also something with those huge kicks on the title track. There’s some thing with the panning and placement that it’s like they suck the air out of the room and it’s slightly disorienting. Cool as shit. 

This whole release really holds up well; I've had it on background much of the day.  Love the amen breaks

Too lazy to open a new thread, but he dropped some fire stuff in the meantime. Reminds me a bit of 'Hard Islands', just modernized and way more stripped down.

Edit: Thanks for not implementing BC Links automatically lol https://nathanfake.com/album/guiro-ep

I just did a relisten to https://nathanfake.com/album/drowning-in-a-sea-of-love to see if its me or him that changed since back then. 

its him. which is ok but also explains why I am not so much into it anymore. the songs sound much colder and rough. 

yeah - drowning in a sea of love is his best work - and his earliest. has yet to really get there again. granted i always check his stuff but am always left a bit underwhelmed.

For me, Steam Days is primeNF

sounds like it’s time for Nathan Fake to get back to Nathan Real

also: that Guiro track is the most annoying thing i’ve heard in a very long time. goddamn i hated every second it was playing.

There are also technical mistakes where you can hear some drums clearly clipping. this is just technically wrong. You can do distortion in a way that gives the track character but it does not work like this

This is kind of a stylistic question and I am pretty sure intentional as he is a true master of sound design.

'Blizzards' and 'Providence' is where he lost me, but with 'Crystal Vision' he's got my heart back and these rough workouts are just so much fun.

Nathan Fake: "Guiro started out as a laugh and then became something more serious. Further exploration into lo-fi hi-energy electronic music utilising cheap drum sounds and  state of the art(?) DSP. This whole EP is something a bit different for me, harder and more playful than Crystal Vision I'd say but still cut from the same cloth."

  On 11/1/2023 at 1:15 PM, species8472 said:

yeah - drowning in a sea of love is his best work - and his earliest. has yet to really get there again. granted i always check his stuff but am always left a bit underwhelmed.

Expand  

The Sky Was Pink.

Hoo mama, I doubt he’ll ever top that one.

  On 11/1/2023 at 4:08 PM, o00o said:

There are also technical mistakes where you can hear some drums clearly clipping. this is just technically wrong. You can do distortion in a way that gives the track character but it does not work like this

Expand  

Theres a lot of folks that are intentionally hardclipping these days.

  On 11/2/2023 at 2:35 AM, tokn said:

This is kind of a stylistic question and I am pretty sure intentional as he is a true master of sound design.

'Blizzards' and 'Providence' is where he lost me, but with 'Crystal Vision' he's got my heart back and these rough workouts are just so much fun.

Nathan Fake: "Guiro started out as a laugh and then became something more serious. Further exploration into lo-fi hi-energy electronic music utilising cheap drum sounds and  state of the art(?) DSP. This whole EP is something a bit different for me, harder and more playful than Crystal Vision I'd say but still cut from the same cloth."

Expand  

Just echoing this sentiment really. "Blizzards" is not bad. There is promise in every track but it has a sketches/meandering quality that never seemed to coalesce for me. I like when Nathan does bangers so "Tbilisi" is dope and "Vitesse" is a very spooky bit of ambient for me. "Vitesse" is "speed" in French and shares the Latin root for "life" or "strength" so when the track unfolds like a failing erection, it's a special sense of unease. 

"Crystal Vision" shores up the aimlessness of "Blizzards". It's punchy, has diversity, plenty of good melodic snacks to be had and doesn't overstay its welcome on anything. I definitely see the criticisms for "Guiro" but, like I said, I love Nate Dogg for his heaters so I love the whole thing. 

so hot right now https://nathanfake.com/track/outhouse-2023

Boss Core 2:40 in gives me classic black dog vibes. Love those synth melodies against stubborn beats.