- See all the Ratings
- Add my Rating now
- CD
(Soma/Stomp)
The dictionary definition of Incommunicado is ”...without the means or right of communicating with others”. It also happens to be the name of young, Glasgow producer Alex Smoke’s debut album. Released on the 28th February through the excellent and well respected Glasgow label Soma Recordings, its Smoke’s (real name Alex Menzies) first attempt at conveying issues important but perplexing to him through a medium he understands well. As he says, “It’s a combination of influences really; the idea that somehow, even with all the advances in the world and the pace of technology, we are becoming worse at communicating with each other, more selfish and less in touch with the world as a whole”.
Alex Smoke is part of a generation of producers of primarily electronic music who aren’t relying on or necessarily thinking of the dance floor, and how to move it, when creating their music. Along with well-known producers such as Carl Craig, Mathew Jonson, Ricardo Villalobos, Dominik Eulberg and Matthew Dear, Alex Smoke draws on a wide array of influences to create deep, electronic, melodic, inspiring and emotional tracks that blur the boundaries between minimal, techno, ambient, glitch and electronica. This is the relatively new and untapped horizon of dance/electronic music, beat driven music that can be danced to but, more importantly, can be listened to away from a sometimes impersonal and sterile dance floor.
The haunting beauty of Smoke’s melodies are crisply evident in tracks like 6am, Lost In Sound, Don’t See The Point and Passing Through. All deeply emotive tracks utilising Smoke’s uncanny ability to draw the most from simple but highly effective melodic lines. The glitchy Don’t See The Point (my favourite on the album) also sees Smoke take advantage of his 4 years in the Durham Cathedral Choir by offering his view regarding the world’s apathy towards injustices through some ethereal vocal pieces.
He delves in deeper, minimal territory on tracks like No Consequence, Coda & Clang, OK and Nuance, which remind of the darker, moodier moments that Jonson and Villalobos often reach. However, he doesn’t forget that his biggest audience may still tend to reside on dance floors, so tracks like the two excellent singles Don’t See The Point, and Chica Wappa (mejor edit) and the old skool rave flavour of Brians Lung are intelligently placed throughout the album providing a fine balance of moods and emotions.
The album is so personal to Smoke that he sung on all vocal tracks and also designed all the artwork for the cover and sleeve, so Incommunicado is truly a personal work of art. In this age of musical disposability, unashamed commercial viability and absence of true subtleness it is heart-warming to come across a selection of music that chooses to ignore all these ugly elements of the music industry and instead embraces a simple ethic rooted in the personal, emotional and introspective aspects of a musician’s world. Sure, Incommunicado won’t make musical history but is a worthy addition to those who have already discovered these sounds, and a must for those unfamiliar to more minimal techno sounds but looking to experience them through something a little more accessible.
Like all memorable albums, Incommunicado stands up to repeat listens, with every new listen revealing more unheard sounds and emotions. Debut albums do not get much better than this! 9/10.
