The third of the Bristol purple triumvirate, Guido, nee Guy Middleton, throws a symphonic slurve across the dubstep template. While his colleagues veer towards hip-hop and video game inflected soundscapes, Guido’s tunes reflect his training in both classical and jazz piano. Not to say that the gamer and rap inclinations are absent–after all, the Punch Drunk recording artist openly touted his Final Fantasy fandom in the RA feature that ran last month. I’m unsure how that translates to English ears, but in America, that statement is roughly equivalent to owning Star Trek stationery. Inevitably, the nerds always win.
Because there is little that isn’t winning about last year’s breakthrough “Orchestral Lab/”Way U Make Me Feel” 12″ and the 29 minute mix Guido compiled earlier in ’09. A stoned Sleestak symphony– or a vision quest for kids raised under the Reagan years. Sheets of slanting synths, mean, buzzing drums, and dive-bombing violins sliding in for a clean landing. I suppose I like this sort of music so much because it sounds stranded, marooned between modalities, styles and shapes. A bastard of Two-Step, Dub-Step, Hip-Hop, 8-Bit video game music, and classical. Not the sublimated retro-fetishism of Memory Tapes, Washed Out, and Delorean, but the fractured alchemy that bubbled in the skulls of those Nintendo and hip-hop headed 80s babies. I understand why the guy liked Final Fantasy so much–this stuff is addictive.
Download:
MP3: Guido-“Orchestral Lab”
MP3: Guido-“Way U Make Me Feel”
ZIP: Guido-29 Minute Mix (Left-Click)
