November 18th, 2009
The label says “featuring Aarya,” but you’d be forgiven for mistaking the digitized vocalist on Guido’s newest A-side “Beautiful Complication” for yet another sheet of synths layered into the mix. Taking Autotune&B to its logical conclusion, the Bristol Wunderkind’s blend of early experimental Timbaland, Rave music euphoria and Dubstep heaviness smoothes over any roughness inherent in the track. The results practically negate the lyrical drama: this is seduction music for the medicated generation with production so shiny it should come with it’s own Pen & Pixel cover and Hype Williams video. With so many producers retreating to predictable Garage rhythms when faced with the onslaught of filthy half-step tunes now dominating the scene, it’s encouraging to see the Bristol kids finding a third way forward, keeping the swinging heaviness but saturating the high end with musical neon and much needed femininity.
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October 14th, 2009
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)
Posted in Guido, Dubstep | 1 Comment »
