Tuesday 27 August 2013

JULIEN MIER PORCELAIN DUST

Yeah so I know this isn't new. I know that. If you've heard this already thinking 'omg dis aint nu' then I have that one covered. I just like it. But then again I always shoot myself in the foot because of this simple fact: not everyone is always clued up music (I'm definitely not), and I'm sure there are some people reading who will treat this track as new as I am finding it to be - which is extremely new, because I've never heard it before. But then again why am I touting this as a "new music" blog? Who CARES anyway why am I talking about this.

In any case. Well! Well well well. This is a really nice song. It's by a man called Julien Mier, who is from Apeldoorn in the Netherlands (do we always have to say THE Netherlands?) and it is from an album he released earlier this year called Jane's Junkyard - so called because Mr Mier likes to salvage old and tatty bits of sound to create new beautiful stuff. And he really does do just that. The results are rather lovely.

Beginning with minimalist snapping clicks and momentary synth waves, high-pitched melodies descend from above - sometimes clear and sometimes glittery - and a low pop of a kick drives the song slowly along. Right into a raining-down of veritable junkyard percussion, zing-clinking bashes, drillings, a tin-pan assortment of concussive donks that spices the beat very nicely indeed. Sounds too - synth washes, squeaks, bleeps; all frenetic and brought to life through tireless and careful attention to detail.

Vocals - sample or Mier's own I dunno - cut through emotively charged and almost caught in heat distortion from the intense noises of the track. There's something in the voice that charms, even whilst the near-chaos of the sounds boils underneath. It has the feeling of recycled life, coming up for air after a long stressful time, things whirling around your head still but at least knowing that you now have time to relax. Kinda like porcelain dust, in a way: the thing's been smashed. Now there's just the dust to contend with. But still there is the memory of the breakage. That's what I get from it anyway.

If I had the time and if I were not so lazy I'd talk about the whole of Jane's Junkyard, but instead I am just going to heartily recommend that you listen to it.

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