Lorin Ashton, better known by his stage name Bassnectar, is a freeform electronic music artist and producer based in San Francisco, California. He is best known for his live performances, light shows and community engagement.
Bassnectar was originally influenced by rock and grunge groups such as Metallica, Megadeth and Nirvana, bringing these influences with him into his own musical career. He released album after album, while pioneering creative approaches to electronica and house music, along with his exceptional style of dubstep.
The title of Lorin's lastest release is Vava Voom. The album explores new sounds but still highlights Bassnectar’s creative spontaneity, resulting in an intensely energetic album, which has its tiny handicaps as well. Here is a link to his website.
The title track of Vava Voom features Lupe Fiasco, which in my opinion wasn't a well timed move. Let's note that old school Lupe was my childhood's favourite artist. Sadly, he gave up too much of his best virtues for fame. There are some great rapping on this track, however, after a few seconds the beats are getting a little monotonous and boring, just like in Ugly. Between the two mentioned hides an interesting song caught somewhere between chillout and aggressive dubstep. Its addictively fine female voices are perfectly synchronized with the rest of the track. Empathy is a hypnotic, refreshing part of the album.
Ping Pong features very innovative and imaginative samples, the sound of a table tennis match. Its genius is in its simplicity, and it’s really nice to hear some of these strange hollow noises that don’t come out of a synthesizer easily. These noises quickly transform to an escalating bass-heavy audio affair. After the encouraging starting of What, the track falls into the same trap as Vava Voom and Ugly, but climbs out of it. Reggae influenced vocals, screeching, bassy halftime sections and brief snatches do their work. Pennywise Tribute is a straightforward tribute to the rock music that Bassnectar is clearly influenced by. A song that refuses to stop your feet from moving. Butterfly has a slow, booming bass, it's technically dubstep, but actually more atmosphere generating than anything. Mimi Page's stunning vocals give me an undefinable, sensational feeling. She's one of my personal favourites. Nothing Has Been Broken is very similar, it evokes a feeling of relaxation, mixed in with a dash of dance. Bassnectar has a particular talent for sculpting basslines that lift a song from the ground-up instead of simply weighing it down. Vava Voom was a two-faced album for me, which had a lot of unique traits and specialties, but a recurring, boring effect too. Still, Lorin brings creativity and musicality to bass.
No comments:
Post a Comment