FADE TO YELLOW

RECORD OF THE WEEK 

Bitcrush – Collapse

Bitcrush have just released their 6th release (well 7 if you include a remix album) on N5MD records, Collapse is the most powerful sounding yet. It mixes tranquil electronic and soundscapes with crushing electric guitars. It also has the distinction of being the release with the least number of tracks. 5 tracks at just under 50minutes in length. But these 5 tracks are quality, this album is for sure one of my top 10 releases of 2012. I played the opening track of the album on my show, and this track has some incredible changes in tempo and sound. There are long lingering big guitar riffs, they fit the music beautifully. It really is a mixture of sounds that I didn’t expect to come from Bitcrush, but it is one that he executes so amazingly well. It is not a totally instrumental album, there are some vocals along the way but i wouldn’t let that put you off.

In summary, this is an awesome release and one that blew me away the first time I heard it.

Bitcrush – Collapse (from the N5MD website)

Bitcrush has always had a knack of making something as intangible as emotion seem somehow within reach, and on Collapse Mike Cadoo has taken this project to a new level and managed to create the most human and powerful record of his career to date. While this is beyond doubt a Bitcrush record and still invokes a feeling of a desperate nostalgic hope like a crack of sunlight through parting clouds, this time the clouds are much blacker and tempestuous, the viewing platform less stable. Bitcrush has changed, adding almost JK Broaderick-esque detuned guitars and fragile yet distressed guitar parts, he weaves these new elements into his work effortlessly and somehow manages to make Collapse feel like a living breathing entity.

As Bitcrush has always been the sleeve on which Cadoo wears his heart, the fact that he puts this stylistic shift down to, as he puts it, “emotionally exhausting events in my life”, is hardly a surprise and can be felt in every note. More expressive and emotional than ever – pain, hope, slivers of broken joy – Collapse is not a safe record, but somehow manages to take the emotions that created it and make them yours in a journey you’re unlikely to forget

Bitcrush Biography (from N5MD website)

From 1995-2005 Mike Cadoo crafted some of the most forward-thinking music available as half of the post-industrial/IDM duo Gridlock. Few could claim a more visceral, workmanlike approach to electronic music in a scene deluged by laptop upstarts. However, by 2004, the balance between personal fulfillment and external accolades had shifted. In surveying the unending pursuit of “future music,” Cadoo realized that a personal retreat was due. And so by re-embracing his love for live instruments and raw expression unhindered by the demands of trainspotters and gearheads alike, he formed Bitcrush.

Although 2004’s Enarc differed minimally from Gridlock, 2005’s Shimmer and Fade announced a meld of shoegaze fuzz, pop drumming, faded vocals and epiphanic structures. Jittery beats now bowed to truer rhythms while complex synth lines were retraced along the necks of distorted guitars. This sound climaxed on 2006’s In Distance—an album that created a unique space for followers of Slowdive, Lush and Mogwai to seek agency with fans of Swans or Sigur Rós. With Bitcrush, the aim had been soundly reset from the head to the heart.

While no less the skilled programmer, Cadoo then advanced to his “rock” album—2008’s Epilogue in Waves—in which analog instruments were favored over electronics. The title was also meant to be literal. With the birth of his son in 2006, priorities had shuffled. Stretched thin by running the n5MD label, a mailorder business and the travails of any adult life, Cadoo felt that the role of musician was one too many to ensure family time. For someone who wears his emotions on his sleeve (even if that sleeve is rarely black), it felt right.

Only later, after seeing Sonic Youth with their children in attendance, did Cadoo realize the necessity of remaining true to himself as a musician and for his son to grow up knowing him as one. With this newfound vigor, Cadoo embarked on Bitcrush’s most spacious release yet—2010’s Of Embers. While no “ambient” album per se, Of Embers sets a much earthier and echoing foundation with some cuts eclipsing fifteen-minutes. The walls of sound now seem more tidal; the rise and retreat of each layer more natural. Whether this broader compositional approach stems from the broadening of Cadoo’s own life, or merely the evolution of a veteran composer reaching for new heights is as unknown as it is irrelevant. Now more than ever, it simply is what it is.