Vladislav Delay - Rakka

i finally realized what it is about this album that keeps it from really connecting with me. it's too soft.

like, obviously the compositions are full of harsh/abrasive sounds...but everything has been sanded down. the attacks are all lost, the transients are all shaved off. the hits are all dulled. at first i was thinking it was just a shitty mastering job but i don't think that's it fully, and maybe it wasn't a mistake at all. a lot of the sounds within the compositions are rounded over and weakened. they hit but they don't hit. even when there's some moments of punches, it seems that's where there was a mistake. if you don't believe me listen to something like Rampa when there's these 'big' harsh kicks that just....they're like just sorta plopping in. they're not HITTING. even like the drumbeat that comes in the undercurrent on Rampa at about 4:35, it's all bubbles. it just ends up being a blur. those 'heavy' drums/percussive sounds at like 4:00+ in Raataja, they just sound weak. by 5:00-5:15 it's just a mess. 

occasionally there are some moments of attacks but just overall, everything is just lost to me. it all ends up sounding like it's washed out and muddied (but not like, low-register muddiness, just all frequencies are blah and mushy)

maybe this is all intentionally done for some reason, but to me it ends up losing all dynamics and feeling. entire thing sounds like it's being piped through a series of tubes before it gets to my ears so there's only the aftermath of the sounds...and maybe that's the desired effect? but it leaves me feeling entirely disconnected for the entire album, every track. every time i've listened. i thought it was just me at first but then i realized what was going on and i don't like it and felt like blabbing about it.

considering sasu has made some of the greatest electronic music ever, which would put him high in the running for greatest music worldwide.. this album is 100% not worth it and skippable. I'm better of listening to Multila again than this. 

  On 6/28/2020 at 1:20 AM, dr lopez said:

considering sasu has made some of the greatest electronic music ever, which would put him high in the running for greatest music worldwide.. this album is 100% not worth it and skippable. I'm better of listening to Multila again than this. 

Love you dude but totally disagree. Rakka slays. Multila is him in a completely different mindscape and is completely different (and equally valuable) music.

(But the heads all know that Whistleblower is the best.)

I continue to find this to be the album of 2020. Like precognitive. Already topical with climate change and what not. But I will forever have memories of driving 90 mph on empty Los Angeles in what should have been rush hour during the height of the pandemic quarantine blasting this.  Then became perfect for the social unrest following George Floyd.  Just in general seems to get the frenzy and pace of life in 2020.  Both ominous and ecstatic at the same time. Love it. (Usually just repeat the first three  tracks though).

  On 5/2/2020 at 6:05 PM, dr lopez said:

blue on. Synkro too got locked in a few spots.

ok i've played it a few more times and no skipping. one day I'll write a post about this album. it is a remarkable stroke of absolute brilliance - in the architecture world (a world I live in) we obsess over art like this - taking an established style and breaking it apart into its intoxicating components and synthesizing something timeless, where even the most rote elements (aka a vocal sample going "mmmhmm") become recalibrating moments and grand artistic gestures given their new context. fucking amazing. it takes at least 20 years to understand a great work of art, im sure in the next 10 we'll really understand how important vocalcity is

Rakka II

https://boomkat.com/products/rakka-ii

  On 2/24/2021 at 3:01 PM, species8472 said:

Rakka II
https://boomkat.com/products/rakka-ii

  On 2/24/2021 at 11:46 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

  On 2/24/2021 at 3:01 PM, species8472 said:

Rakka II
https://boomkat.com/products/rakka-ii

So acording to this boomkat review it's gonna be a romantic version of frozen dudes in a tank being bombarded to shreds

Count me in.

new album on planet mu under ripatti???

https://www.redeyerecords.co.uk/vinyl/134289-ziq432-ripatti-fun-is-not-a-straight-line-clear-vinyl

If you can survive the first minute it actually turns into a solid slice of choonage

  On 4/7/2021 at 3:11 PM, BobDobalina said:

If you can survive the first minute it actually turns into a solid slice of choonage

haha yeah - thats exactly what i thought...

Re: speedmemories : these 30/40 seconds, starting at the 1 minute mark, are so freaking massive. Huge.

here is the full deets:

https://vladislavdelay.bandcamp.com/album/fun-is-not-a-straight-line

You guys need to sign up for his subscription service. I got this album and Rakka II as part of it, plus a lot of other unreleased tracks and studio experiments. Well worth it if you are a fan.

Wow two preview tracks are great.

Cool tracks! Nice tot see the man on Mu

Just listened to Rakka II (yah, it's out). decent

Need to give this a spin today.

Ok. This SLAYS.

Rakka I = Soothing train ride to hell at the speed of sound

Rakka II = Soothing industrial car wash inside a volcano spinning in a washing machine

The second one in particular reminds me of the rush of energy I used to get with the earliest Tim Hecker albums