You can put it in your pocket
Portable makes intelligent techno music inspired by the world around him - the kind of stuff that clicks, sputters and hums along in the background like some kind of machine from the future. It might be a machine that destroys puny humans, or maybe its a life-giving device... a food synthesizer? An atmospheric moisture collector? Some of his songs are simply texture turned into sound and music, some have a soft organic feel, others have a nice round groove, such as this one.
As you know, I'm a sucker for a shuffled beat, and "Typhoon" doesn't disappoint, especially when you get to the halfway point and the chopped up vocal sample starts and skips along with the percussion and the shimmery guitar effects. I also love the effect this song has on me. I'm still at work, but leaving soon, and listening to this song (and this was the case even from the very first time I heard it) plants an image of me sitting on a beach someplace warm with a very cold beer in my hand...
Portable is the recording name of Alan Abrahams - a Londoner born in Cape Town, South Africa - and this song comes off his most recent album, Version, his second full length. The music on the album is based on a bevy of field recordings made sometime during the sixties, seventies and eighties, at various locations around the African continent. Abrahams has then taken these samples, preserved for posterity, and used modern audio software to digitally rework and filter them. A damn cool idea if you ask me.
Version was released last week by the Berlin-based ~scape label - home to many experimental artists I dig, including Jan Jelinek, Kit Clayton and Pole - you can buy the CD here.