Actress - AZD

I think this might be my Actress joint. But yeah, it helps to never read an interview with this dude. 

Thanks to Blank for bigging up this album last week, got totally addicted to this track especially:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVW2Td-q2Zk

Whole album is deece though. I kind of stopped listening to Actress in 2012 so I'm pleasantly suprised again here :) 

  On 5/23/2017 at 6:41 PM, dr lopez said:

this is ok...... better than the last one i think. still incredibly pretentious music that does not deserve the hype

i live to serve

yeah definitely echoing the thoughts here. its a good record but the bag is so gaudy and doesn't fit on the shelf. the sleeve is also incredibly thin for a special edition release. seems off. but yeah the music is good. 

Being a total sucker for his past stuff, i was admittedly put off by my first couple listens. Everything from Splaszh to Ghettoville seemed to permeate from the get go. I guess AZD has more of a slow-burning effect; i found myself just thinking about certain parts of tracks and how i wanted to listen to them again, then the album just seemed to click for me. How didn't i recognize the undeniable Actress-ness of it all? The musical equivalent of a good sativa stupor. Definitely effective use of white noise, accenting the overall diminished tone of the album

Falling Rizlas is strikingly humanistic, possibly the most organic sounding shit heard from him. The way Fantasynth and Blue Window melt into each other like a hazy daydream is a definite highlight, right before the full-on techno flex arcing from CYN to Runner, with the Rammellzee vocals opening like an alarm clock. Dancing In The Smoke and There's An Angel In The Shower are equally incredible, but in their own way. It's just too bad I have to skip over Faure In Chrome every time lol

Man i am so FUCKIN excited to hear the man live in miami this year

He's playing at the moment in Marseille. Just a shiny mannequin with a korg synth and some visuals but the guy is nowhere to be seen. What the fuck?

Decent set though

  On 6/23/2017 at 11:41 PM, fairuzosman said:

Decent set though

To contribute something weird, this as the precursor sounds really amazing on bad soundsystems.

Sweet Dreams + Blue Monday = Runner's left-panned melody

Put this one after being initially confused and I'm feeling it more now. Still think Actress is a touch overrated as a producer but I can't help but be interested and buy his shit for some reason. And as always Ninja puts together an amazing package with the ghostly translucent records and silver bag. 

Going to give this a try soon. Was never able to get into any other of his albums nearly as much as R.I.P. Just a fantastic, other-worldly record. Some REALLY eerie and emotional stuff in there.

RIP is much much further ahead of all the others for me. I felt like the tracks I dug on this record didn't have much longevity, but it might grow on me with time like many other albums, music is a funny thing

  On 7/5/2017 at 8:23 PM, kites said:

RIP is much much further ahead of all the others for me. I felt like the tracks I dug on this record didn't have much longevity, but it might grow on me with time like many other albums, music is a funny thing

exactly my toughts, can't see it coming near RIP in the future but music man!

I've been quite into most of the album, i feel like with all his albums there is a song or two i feel nothing for and the rest i really dig. 

Its such a great take on heavy, subtle, loop based techno.  
My picks are FANTASYNTH, Runner, THERE’S AN ANGEL IN THE SHOWER, Visa and even Untitled 7 once it starts rolling with the kick.

Its awesome listening through to music like this and you click into the zone and it all sounds so right but you can step back and it can sound very weird or wrong, especially if you just skip into the middle of the tracks.   I feel like its music that takes an element of participation from the listener, you have to give yourself into it somewhat. Let the strange, slightly off rhythms do their own thing and embrace them and when you do the its really enjoyable.  

I find a lot of techno like this, I remember seeing PVH at a festival that also had lots of guys who would do the summer festival circuit and i remember huge parts of the crowd clearing out after some dude played a typical festival 'deep house/ modern edm house' set.  Afterwards PVH came on and opened with 5-10 min song that slowly brought in elements in a minimal fashion.  Had minutes of a bassline folding in on itself before a sole off beat hihat came in and i feel like i got way too much enjoyment out of it. By the time the kicks came those who were giving into the music were loving it but these typical fans who are after the big white noise drops cleared out.  Is condescending the right word for that kinda music?  Each drop told to you by huge amounts of white noise and synth filters opening up, its like house taking cues from shitty modern psytrance.

Actress's music is not for all the time but its damn good when the time is right.  Its refreshing to hear someone with such a unique sound and approach, I hope he keeps on pumping out records for years to come

  On 7/6/2017 at 8:37 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

 

  On 7/5/2017 at 8:23 PM, kites said:

RIP is much much further ahead of all the others for me. I felt like the tracks I dug on this record didn't have much longevity, but it might grow on me with time like many other albums, music is a funny thing

exactly my toughts, can't see it coming near RIP in the future but music man!

 

Yeah I haven't felt arsed to listen to this a couple times. Haven't even unwrapped the condom on my super ultra deluxe copy, for shame. And RIP is breedy close to untoppable... right up there with Replica which imo OPN hasn't topped yet either.

I much prefer Splazsh and Ghettoville (and this one is just crappy), but i was never a fan of his, especially after i saw this bitch talking

Can you expound on that? Cuz from what little that i've read or heard in interviews the worst thing that I can see being leveled at him is that he comes off a bit pretentious. So are tons of other artists worshipped on here and I don't see them getting called a bitch (unless that's Andy's character in the Shoeballadeers)

As for this album its grown on me nicely, I'd rate it a notch higher than Ghettoville

  On 7/7/2017 at 9:22 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

Can you expound on that? Cuz from what little that i've read or heard in interviews the worst thing that I can see being leveled at him is that he comes off a bit pretentious. So are tons of other artists worshipped on here and I don't see them getting called a bitch (unless that's Andy's character in the Shoeballadeers)

I personally don't worship anyone and can easily get at someone else if that would level your worldview in my case. You mean Squarepusher, who else are these tons? I could call names at Tom, like an asshole for example, yet i perceive his usual tone as mostly informed and competent, though unnecessary. Me, i was called a cunt on here and OK with that type of reaction.

As for Actress, he just talks bullshit after bullshit constantly reminding of his artistic outlook and sensibility, so it just feels natural to call him a bitch. My scepticism began to grow perhaps when he called AFX god on twitter and followed it by praising his label protegee Zomby as being better than AFX. I'm OK with both assumptions on their own but not in combination.

I mean it can't be really asserted with evidence that someone is a bitch. I can only envy you that you don't see him as a bitch, because all in all i'm interested in his output and my impression of him as a bitch doesn't help.

RIP is way overrated on here for some reason. Much prefer Splazsh and Ghettoville. I like this one too.

Got this today aaaand..  it's really good house. Just now need to erase all the memories of the reviews, blurbs, interviews, etc.

  On 7/7/2017 at 9:22 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

Can you expound on that? Cuz from what little that i've read or heard in interviews the worst thing that I can see being leveled at him is that he comes off a bit pretentious. So are tons of other artists worshipped on here and I don't see them getting called a bitch (unless that's Andy's character in the Shoeballadeers)

Cos we're all RACIST...

In all seriousness, I don't mind his pretentiousness one bit, I wouldn't even call that pretentious, just self-indulgent (which I don't consider a bad thing at all). I wish more artists were like that, wide-eyed, full of wonder, and speaking a language of their own design, I would trust their aesthetics more. I just wasn't getting grabbed by it (so far) like I was by R.I.P which was incredibly self-indulgent and imo also beautiful and even spiritual.

I admit that Squarepusher rubs me a bit the wrong way with his diatribes but he does make some good points too. I just think he's got a bit more ego, less humility, has some kind of chip on his shoulder about being misunderstood which makes him come off as kind of bitter at times. Maybe I'm projecting onto it though.

  On 7/9/2017 at 8:13 PM, mokz said:

Got this today aaaand..  it's really good house.

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  On 7/8/2017 at 8:23 AM, Amen Lare said:

I personally don't worship anyone and can easily get at someone else if that would level your worldview in my case. You mean Squarepusher, who else are these tons? I could call names at Tom, like an asshole for example, yet i perceive his usual tone as mostly informed and competent, though unnecessary. Me, i was called a cunt on here and OK with that type of reaction.

 

As for Actress, he just talks bullshit after bullshit constantly reminding of his artistic outlook and sensibility, so it just feels natural to call him a bitch. My scepticism began to grow perhaps when he called AFX god on twitter and followed it by praising his label protegee Zomby as being better than AFX. I'm OK with both assumptions on their own but not in combination.

 

I mean it can't be really asserted with evidence that someone is a bitch. I can only envy you that you don't see him as a bitch, because all in all i'm interested in his output and my impression of him as a bitch doesn't help.

Sorry that you we're called a cunt on watmm (unless it was deserved, then apology withdrawn ). Sarcasm aside though, thanks for replying with the anecdote about AFX/Zomby, which is the kind of tangible example I was looking for.  A bit absurd to compare the two innit, esp. when most all I know about the latter is that he's been called out for some blatant plagiarism and has lame-ass album titties like "where were u in '92?" when the answer was clearly "in yer mom;" stupid shit that effectively prejudices me from ever checking out any of his stuff, no matter how good it might be.  TBH the only reason I don't consider Actress a bitch is precisely what you said, all I'm interested in is the output, not interviews 'n shit.  And I'm okay with dude being a little pretentious (or self-indulgent as Sweeps better characterizes it) for the reason that it often comes part and parcel with vision in an artist.

  On 7/9/2017 at 8:23 PM, sweepstakes said:

Cos we're all RACIST...

 

In all seriousness, I don't mind his pretentiousness one bit, I wouldn't even call that pretentious, just self-indulgent (which I don't consider a bad thing at all). I wish more artists were like that, wide-eyed, full of wonder, and speaking a language of their own design, I would trust their aesthetics more. I just wasn't getting grabbed by it (so far) like I was by R.I.P which was incredibly self-indulgent and imo also beautiful and even spiritual.

Lol, wasn't going there but on a certain level it probably exists amongst some lesser evolved primates, even in teh IDMx.  Thumbs up as to rest of post, though right now I'm probably digging AZD more (than you, not R.I.P) despite some of it's eccentricities.  I remember reading some early presser BS about the album being influenced by 80s NY graffiti artist & MC Rammelzee, only to finally hear it and there be a track sampling Rammelzee talking about Rammelzee. It does evolve into a pretty badass track though and one of my faves on this.     

  On 7/9/2017 at 8:25 PM, sweepstakes said:

I admit that Squarepusher rubs me a bit the wrong way with his diatribes but he does make some good points too. I just think he's got a bit more ego, less humility, has some kind of chip on his shoulder about being misunderstood which makes him come off as kind of bitter at times. Maybe I'm projecting onto it though.

Lol agin, didn't mean to bring TJ into the fray but he was first to come to mind.  I'm also able to look past his musings & ego because he has made some brill stuff over the years (like HND, Go Plastic, Venus 17), but also some total wank, esp. the more recent stuff.