29 July 2010

Perfect Stranger's album Free Cloud already had my name written all over it, when I saw it in a little Camden music and clothing store I love to pop into whenever I get the chance. I have a track called Mountain High which is the result of Perfect Stranger's collaboration with Morax, a track which I've always been very fond of. I consider it a warm-up tune to get things moving without being too in-your-face; like a caring parent providing words of encouragement to a meek child as opposed to a maniacal teacher bellowing at a pathetically slow learner. So when I walked into this shop in Camden market and saw Free Cloud I was fairly certain I was going to take a flyer on it. While perusing the rest of the CDs I found myself particularly enjoying Words: Nick Amisswhat they were playing and when I asked the pretty, friendly lady behind the counter what it was she simply pointed to the CD in my hand. Sold!

And boy, am I glad I bought it. It's not exactly what I expected and each track has the same crafty build as Mountain High. But where Mountain High is more like gentle psytrance, Free Cloud is more minimal glitch-trance. Is that a genre? Well, it is now.

Frankly I was convinced when I heard the opener Clear Vision 07' which makes you wait a whole three minutes before it really gets going. And it really does go. I am a fan of longer pieces of music of all kinds and at almost ten minutes this is an epic by most people's standards. It just doesn't feel that long to me, as there is sufficient melodic invention throughout to maintain interest. The same is true for the next three tracks: Stardust (quite beautiful), Simple Cells and Sweet Water Dolphin (reminiscent of some of Sasha's work). Although these four tracks are quite stark, they are all rather uplifting and play out in major keys more than you might expect.

Easy marks a little departure (in my mind anyway). It sounds a bit like a Daft Punk synth line that's been fleshed out by a minimal techno producer with slightly dodgy equipment. Free Cloud, in a similar vein, sounds like a P.O.B. track that's been given a glitchedelic workover. But in the process, emotion has not been sacrificed. One of my friends commented that this album is reminiscent of minimal techno and it does indeed tread the boundary of that genre. But it is Perfect Stranger's refusal to sacrifice the organic emotional element that prevents him from crossing over wholesale into the clinical wasteland of minimal techno.

No 1 and W both step up the funk factor and are more toe-tappers than the any of the other tracks on offer here. They are mildly happy and uplifting, and moreover you feel relaxed as well as cheerful - this is a line not often trod. If I were going to invent another genre to suit this I'd call it minimal euphoric trance but I'm not, so I won't.

I am extremely pleased I came across this album. I don't have much similar music, which I put down to the fact that it's quite difficult to do well. Even though Perfect Stranger struggles here and there to live up to his own lofty standards, I have nothing but admiration for him. When he gets it right (and he does most of the time) it is just sublime. I own precious little music of this calibre Perfect Stranger - Free Cloud
Psyshop Europe (2008)so I'd happily check out similar work (if you feel it's up to my unapologetically unpredictable standards). Suggestions please on a postcard to the usual address.

In the interim I shall be exploring the five earlier Perfect Stranger albums, which will tide me over 'til the post arrives.