Review: Since 2011, or what we could describe as the rebirth of vintage electronic music and the muddled, increasingly convoluted evolution of 'bass' music, Nick Harris aka A Sagittariun has been providing our charts, and the wider scene, with consistently high levels future-proof techno. Slightly Ajar is his third release of 2017 already, and it comes through on his own Elastic Dreams imprint with a squadron of deep and effortlessly mesmerizing electronic shapes. "Stingray" opens with an ocean of euphoric pads and industrial rhythms coming together as one, and is followed elegantly by the much deeper, more reflective broken patterns of "Burning Crystal". On the B-side, "An Infinite Number Of Possibilities" kicks the gears into motion with a much bouncier, club-centric techno groove filled with surreal melodies, and "720 Degrees" buries a load of bleeps into a hypnotic bundle of sci-fi sonics for total dancefloor domination. Effective and ultra-sleek - the lot of them!
Review: When Bristolian man-of-mystery A Sagittariun released his debut album, Dream Ritual, back in 2013, there was a brilliant freshness to his '90s inspired intelligent techno sound. Since then, many others have mined similar inspirations, but few can match the authenticity of his sound. Elasticity, his sophomore set, widens his palette of influences further, via nods to blissful ambient house, trippy interludes (complete with spoken word samples from famous psychedelic thinkers), Drexciyan electro, the guitar-laden atmospherics of Jonny Nash, and, most surprising of all, classic UK garage. It's a fine set, all told, and one that reveals greater details with each successive listen.
Review: There are few producers out there trading in anonymity that escape the sense it's being used purely as a marketing tool, but A Sagittariun belongs in this small group. Having established a particular style of house music with a series of releases on his own Elastic Dreams label, the supposed Bristol elder turned in one of last year's finer debut long players in the shape of Dream Ritual. His first release since then is The Jupiter Chronicles, a four track EP of diverse productions that will please A Sagittariun fans no end. Lead track "Wave Upon Wave" is a fairly well titled exercise in unrelenting breakbeats and rolling Roland 303-esque riffs, and the shifts upwards as the EP progresses. There's an undeniably subtle euphoria to "Re-Ignition" whilst wonderful chaos seems to grip A Sagittariun with the other two cuts, where the freneticism of "Ascella" is well complemented by the rugged yet playful "And The Moon Be Still As Bright".
Review: Arriving back in late 2011, A Sagittarium brandished a fully formed blend of house and techno and a cloak of mystery, and both elements have remained intact across the smattering of material that has surfaced in the subsequent period. A Transparent Mind is a fine return for A Sagittarium pairing two original productions against remixes from Marco Bernardi and Aubrey. "Eye Against Eye" demonstrates just why so many people lap up these Elastic Dreams releases, arising from cinematic beginnings into a unique sounding array of deep pads, cavernous bass stabs and slowed down but still eminently rolling jungle breaks. Mr Bernardi switches the mood from dream laden to nightmarish on his crunchy lo fi remix which will appeal to adoptees of the Jamal Moss school of thinking. The wonderfully named "Funky Archer" meanwhile is pure intergalactic bliss, with crisp 808 programming rising delightfully over a bed of interplanetary gurgles and streamlined synths. Again the source is flipped on its head in superlative fashion, as Aubrey transforms the track into a reverberant, clanking, yet still very funky techno track.
Review: The incognito A Sagittariun returns for their third outing on Elastic Dreams, and it's the best EP from the producer yet. "Wind Tunnel" is a hypnotic cut, as sizzling leads rise and intersect from the murky ether, while "Cyrannus 247" takes a good three minutes to get started, throwing organic percussion over a slick arpeggio, before morphing into something much deeper. "West Of Ophiuchus" and "Somewhere In Montpelier" both see the producer deliver their own warm take on early Detroit techno, as sci-fi pads go against loose, punchy drums.
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