[Mix] NAP DNB presents NAPCast 313 - Dyonysiz

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Wardown Review

Hey gang! I’m back and I hope you’re ready for a long bit of something different from me! I’ve had some…. extra time on my hands you could say, so I figured I’d see what I could tippy-tappy out for the ol’ blog. Since it’s been so long, I wanted to revisit what my return to writing about music would look like. While I loved listing to all the new mixes from friends all over the country (world?!), I had long wanted to do some deeper dives on albums. Covid times have forced us all to rethink what our lives look like, so what better time than now! So maybe for the only time ever, #thanksCovid? Is that a thing? I’m making it a thing. Covid has ruined/disrupted every aspect of our lives around the world. Some good has come from it as some of us returned to old hobbies or started new ones, rekindle old friendships through technology. Then of course it’s also broken friends and family apart. Our bars and clubs have reinvented themselves as outdoor venues that turn the lights off at 11 pm instead of 2 am. There has been one stabilizing force for me personally, and I’m sure many of you too. The music released this year has been some of the most thoughtful, introspective and creative that I’ve heard in so long. I’m not just taking about dance music either, however deep that well is (and I’m getting there). Taylor freaking Swiift plopped down what is unquestionably her greatest work to date this year and Redeyes returned to North Quarter with his deeply personal take on drum and bass and these isolation times. These are just some of the people I’m in love with, I’m positive thousands of others have used their quarantine time to produce aural expressions of their hearts in ways they never would or could have in the “before times”.  In a time when music can be produced and mastered at warp speed, the flood of mediocre, stream-lined music seems to have slowed while a turn to highly curated quality, thoughtful work seems to have found it’s rightful time to shine.

One such aural expression has come to us in the form of a new moniker from one of liquid dnb’s FINEST purveyor of splendor. Technimatic has provided me with uncounted pleasures on the dance floor and are the type of dnb I play for my friends who AREN’T already into dance music.  When people say “I want baby making dnb” Technimatic is who they’re asking for. Their “Through the Hours” release was full of memory making music that I played on repeat for several months. This past Bandcamp Friday, while searching the dnb selections, I was shown a thumbnail of an album cover that contained a slightly blurry, oil-painting-esque pond scene. The artist name was Wardown and I assumed this would be somewhere in the territory of something pretty aggro. The cover art was too intriguing given the name, so I started the first track, “Culverhouse” and was immediately transported into a hushed world of soft static and voices. These voices are telling the secrets of this record I was diving into. Already getting chills just from this one track, I read the album description on the page I was DELIGHTED to find that these beautiful sounds were coming from one half of Technimatic, Pete Rogers! Wardown…. what a trick! And out on Blu Mar Ten soooo…. I knew I was in for an absolute pleasure ride of a feel trip!

Let me stop here by telling you a quick story about how I’ve spent Covid. Besides working from home and doing my best to support the local businesses in my hood that have fought to stay open and distanced to stay alive, I’ve been diving into all that Bandcamp has to offer. If you’re not already using this as a primary source for your music, dance or otherwise, you’re missing out. The album, genre and scene reviews they provide understand the true meaning behind creating music and it’s importance as a driving force in people’s lives. I have discovered Surf Rock from Australia, Drone from Sweden, a juke/hip-hop/techno rapper from Cali. So much music has poured into my brain I definitely can’t keep track of it all. My favorite game to play on there (and I encourage you all to do this) is to select genre to search for (refine it any way you want) and work through the “recently added” selections. I listen to almost each one for at least a minute. Sometimes I don’t make it that far but other times, I end up committing to an 8-hour album that presents a horrific journey into Alzheimer’s and dementia. Through samples of 1920’s and 30s music, record static and sound manipulation, The Caretaker expertly and lovingly provides us a window into what the minds of those we lose to this terrible disease must suffer though “Everywhere At the End of Time”. If you’ve been touched by dementia or just simply know of someone who has, I encourage you to take a deep breath and work on giving this one a listen. Don’t attempt it in one sitting though as it definitely has the power to undo your head for a while. Tracks deeper on the album contain less musicality and become more focused on creating tension through sound manipulation. A main theme of the songs on the album is isolation. How loss of memory drives us into ourselves trying to save the most special moments, but they slip away faster and faster. As everyone is exceedingly aware, we’ve all been feeling a little (or extremely a LOT) isolated from the people and things we love this year.  The Caretaker has the ability to take static, broken up melodies and warping time signatures and perfectly recreate the sense of anxiety frying all your nerves, leaving you stressed and unable to think clearly. This piece is an incredible production achievement but also a mental health achievement if you can make it through the whole thing without feeling a bit like you’ve fallen into a sort of “upside down” that has you thinking you’re in this all alone. Despair not, because you are definitely not, we’re all desperately trying to keep it together one day at a time. If you’re not crazy about the commitment or detriment to your mental stability, I recommend at least giving “It’s Just a Burning Memory” and “What does it matter how my heart breaks” a listen for examples of the more musical side of things. I promise it’s well worth the experience.

I bring this record up because it acts as almost a sister record to Wardown. What Pete created with Wardown is a trip down memory lane he wants to take us along on. His introspection about the small town he grew up in and the longing to know what might have been are feelings I think we all can relate to, especially in these times. EATEOT is walking down memory lane, but the lane has become broken and disoriented., changed by time and distance. We are allowed to openly feel fear, panic, dread and absolute isolation though that record. Wardown takes us by the hand and acts as a comfort, showing us what remembering with honest reflection looks, and in this case, sounds like. Not mourning reflection, though it’s there, but embracing the loss of those times. Imagining what might have been had things been different. Who would you be? That’s Wardown in the simplest terms I can give you. His layering of field recordings, documentaries, personal recording and jazz records creates a sense of almost being able to live inside this album. That there is a real world, and these songs are glimpses into it.

But his is not your standard drum and bass album, oh no. In fact, one struggles to even call it that. Is there dnb? Well yeah, of course. But are there also beautiful sonic landscapes that transport you to an idealistic world far away? Well yeah, there is SUPER that too! And it’s SO good. Since this technically IS a dnb website I suppose I should tell you about how incredibly good that part is too, huh? Alright den. Since this is a record to reminisce to, Wardown brings in some of that retro flavor with most vibey, lush, and heady atmospheric 90s jungle. All the old head get ready, because this one is gonna make you miss those 5 am sets when you can barely shuffle anymore but it’s too good to go home. Opening things up with Rupture, an instant classic type that sends shivers through your ear holes and throughout your whole body. It is the perfect set up for the following track of The Flower Gardens. Rolling piano lines and tight vocals highlight this otherworldly liquid dream. Cushy drums that invite you to sit and stay awhile, pondering the glory years. Ferric feels like a familiar Technimatic tune with big fat bass lines and rich, sultry vocals and horns. BIG vibes inside. When it finally breaks away, it melts into what is, in my opinion, the best tune on the album, Selective Memory. Razor sharp drums tear through the swelling strings while a sweetly sad voice recalls “Melodies bring memories, that linger in my heart and, makes me think of home and such”. This one hits different during these terrible times. Immediately start thinking of all the people I haven’t seen in 9 months and may not see till……who knows when. I’ve listened to this one probably half a dozen times now and it chokes me up each time. Water works the first time (election week. I was feeling extra, don’t’ @ me). I cannot stress enough how beautiful this album is from top to bottom. Every song is crafted like it’s scoring a movie scene within it’s measures. If you’ve ever been homesick, and I mean REALLY homesick, haven’t seen your family and hometown in more than 6 months sorta homesick, you will absolutely relate to everything these tunes are about. Bringing it home for a strong af ending, Thanks For Coming feels like the final tune of the final DJ at the best party you’ve ever been too. That perfect night full of your FAVORITE friends, where the best, longest running inside jokes were born, where you fell in love for the first time, where you let go of every care or anxiety you had walking through that door, where you begged/bribed security not to turn on the lights. Brilliant glittering synths travel along a rolling bass line meant to send you home into the sunrise. Leaving you floating on the hum of the night, it vanishes like a whisper so that a Today Goodbye can come tuck you into bed. Gently washing over you with harmonic waves as a soulful voice builds and captures you. Breath deep and let her carry away whatever junk from the past is weighing you down. Wardown completes his masterpiece not with the sort of romantic liquid drum and bass you might expect but with an almost Fat Boy Slim-esque melody that rests on that simple sample and pushing strings right to the point where they almost burst from joy. Leaving you feeling hopeful, assured and confident in a future where things are getting better.

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