Yuzo Iwata
Kaizu

Butter Sessions: ...Ewan Jansen, Perth artist, producer and founder of Red Ember Records, presents his second offering to Butter Sessions following the 2017 EP Best Intentions. The colourful LP from Jansen, Island Diary, wraps up the end of the year at the label on a distinguished note -- courtesy of Jansen’s 20 years of experience in the Australian electronic landscape.Island Diary was recorded over the last 12 months as Jansen returned from a frantic European tour. He was granted a breather with the lockdown, which allowed Jansen the necessary time and space to properly produce his record. Using this period to create intuitively, Jansen refers to his time spent in lockdown as a “chance for discovery,” discernible throughout the record with his novel genre interpretations.The refined character of Island Diary is made clear with Jansen’s experiments in structure and tone, distancing his LP from the formulaic and conventional approach to classic house music.The LP’s opener Mussel Hustle is a nostalgic and shimmering composition with an infectious hook, evidence of Jansen’s versatility as a producer. Kooka utters fleeting minimal techno with vigorous drum programming and hardy synthwork. In contrast, Hot Rain hits like a cool change with its breezy and balmy melody. Proteus Vs Yoshimitsu channels YMO and other proto-electronic affiliates with futuristic sci-fi electro-pop. Jansen’s signature house sound reveals itself more so in the LPs finale Breadcrumbs, which carves out a joyful and yet refreshing passage of house music.Jansen refers to Island Diary as a “palette cleanser,” an apt sentiment. There’s something here for everyone. He has crafted a release to be taken in from start to finish, a treat for eager ears.

Butter Sessions: ...Following on from their contribution to the Butter Sessions Come Together compilation released in March this year, Melbourne’s Polito deliver their debut EP Ultraparallel. Polito is the collaboration between musicians Robert Downie and Finnian Langham and dancers Arabella Frahn-Starkie and Hillary Goldsmith. The ensemble integrates improvised techno and contemporary dance to form well-considered and captivating performances. The spirit of these performances are masterfully captured on the 12” record. On the transition between mediums, the group states; “we always aim to capture the unpredictability and liveliness of our improvised performances when we record, and try to sculpt the feeling of continuous movement which is so intrinsically tied to Polito’s identity.”Ultraparallel consists of four tracks that were extracted from studio sessions, emerging organically whilst jamming. The EP’s introduction Hornet’s Web wields mutilated samples of vocals and spoken word, paired with abrupt rhythms to forge anomalous techno. The eponymous track Ultraparallel, recorded in 2018, is a dark and brooding arrangement with a murmuring melody and an infectious recurring bassline. Polito reflects; “this track is from the first batch of studio sessions we had as Polito where our intention was to create more discrete ‘tracks’ which could be played by DJs, rather than the longform compositions more similar to the live performances which we had recorded up to that point.”Turning the record over, Seventh Limb embodies the music for dance nuance by infusing dub with sounds from outer-space. Polito reveals; “we wanted to explore creating something more in line with the mood of our live performances, which are typically slower and have a rather meditative atmosphere. The more relaxed tempo allows the dancers to move at a sustainable pace and gives the musicians more space to prepare and manipulate the various musical elements in real-time. The result is our first formal exploration of ‘the chugger.’” Ultraparallel’s finale Sublunary is a playful sequence mingling electronics with an airy clarinet and saxophone.Attuned to their audience, Polito imagines how their music will be consumed throughout the creative process. They comment “while making music in the studio, we try to transport ourselves mentally to hypothetical dancefloors the music we’re making could be played on, adding moments and sounds which would excite, energise, disorient, or have some other desired somatic effect. We’re also considering not just how the music sounds, but how it would ‘feel’ when played on large sound systems.” Ultraparallel ultimately presents a refreshing visual take on literal dance music; a considered and holistic approach to enhancing the experience of listening and moving.