Ikonika - Contact, Want, Love, Have [2010, cd, hyperdub]

rel. date: 6 april 2010

lbl: Hyperdub
#: HDBCD004
electronic
dubstep, wonky
192kbps
tourmaline [7.3]





01. Ikonoklast
02. Idiot
03. Yoshimitzu
04. Fish
05. R.E.S.O.L
06. They Are All Losing The War
07. Millie
08. Sahara Michael
09. Continue
10. Heston
11. Psoriasis
12. Video Delays
13. Look
14. Red Marker Pens




producer: Sara Abdel-Hamid

note: "After a string of 12"s on Hyperdub over the last couple years, at long last we have the debut album from Sara Abdel-Hamid aka Ikonika. "Contact, Want, Love, Have" doesn’t mess around or waste a note as Ikonika colours in and then discards the rulebook. Maybe it’s her background as a drummer in a post-hardcore band, her love of R&B and hip hop that bring in the extra dimensions that makes her music stand out from the legions. Or maybe its just her ear for an odd melody. While on the face of it the album seems to traverse a number of retro-futurist styles, including dubstep, UK funky and garage, 80s synth pop and computer game soundtracks, it remains totally contemporary, coherent and focused, making the idea of restricting Ikonika’s sound to a single genre irrelevant. In its sometimes brash tone clashes, Ikonika has produced an album that feels emotionally powerful and brave. Never obvious, and bordering on the maniacally deranged at times, her hyperactive, tough and sparse drums and bright, citric synthesizers splash new shapes and fizzes of emotion all over the place. From the first woozy breeze of the accordian-like synths of opening track "Ikonoklast", on to the deliriously twisted stomp of "Idiot", the synthetic beauty of "Yoshimitsu", "Fish" and "Heston", the computer love of "We Are All Winning The War", the mutant G-funk half-step of "Sahara Michael" through to the atonal soca-tronics of "Look" and the space funky of "Psoriasis" and "Video Delays", if you listen carefully you’ll hear one of 2010's most original producers at work."

crawling piranhas

[fixed / 24 march 2010]

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