david kristian - sweet bits
CD
Monochrome
David Kristian and Monochrome are proud to present the
follow-up to the the highly acclaimed and now very rare
Sawdust Sinedust Squaredust CD.
The 13 tracks on the album (selected by David Kristian and
DJ Mini) contain just the right blend
of skittering rhythms, subsonic basses, and heartwarming melodies to make
you forget all your troubles.
The launch and start of the mini promo
tour for the CD took place on
Thursday January
27th, 2005 at
Casa Del Popolo, and it was also David's first performance of new
material with percussionist Denis Albert on electronic drums.
Le Monochrome and Montag (DJ set) were also on the bill.
Sweet Bits has reached #1 on
CBC - Brave New Waves RPM chart (Weeks of Feb 8-12 2005)
Sweet Bits has reached #7 on
the CHART (weekly) Top Ten Chart For January 28, 2005, based on
Electronic airplay on Canadian campus/community radio.
Filled with thirteen lovely bits and
pieces created over the past five years, David Kristian's latest release
really lives up to its title. Compositions that are rich with subtle
rhythms, gentle melodies and an engaging calm embrace you like the
comforting warmth of a soft wool sweater. At times deeply minimalist
à la Plastikman, Kristian's compositions also remind me of Susumu Yokota
in their attention to evocative detail, sophisticated compositions and
quality of expansive space. However, Sweet Bits is distinctly
Kristian in character, even if he shares the aforementioned artists' dual
interests in dance and ambient music and explores some similar territory.
Kristian's experience creating soundtracks adds another dimension to his
work; ultimately, it's the interior landscapes of emotion that Kristian
explores and describes so eloquently. This beautiful album is a
distinctly rich, complex, listening experience - a lullaby for grownups
- Lucinda Catchlove
(Nightlife
Magazine)
...D'une ponction de basse sourde à
l'autre, une intrigante mélodie
indique la direction que prennent ces constructions ou un souci est apporté
autant au choix du matériau qu'au
résultat final.
- Phillippe Renaud
(La Presse)
"Subtle Bits" would be a better title
for this disc by Montreal's David Kristian, one of the best Canadian
electronic music producers with many indie discs and film soundtracks.
This new one by a small label from Quebec is a sequel of sorts to his
Sawdust Sinedust Squaredust reelase in 1999, which was comparable to Aphex
Twin's Selected Ambient albums, confirming Kristian's place in that
special electronic music continuum starting with German pioneers Cluster &
Harmonia. You won't find Kristian's kickin' electro or sweet melodic
techno tracks here, but his expert use of analogue textures and quiet,
minimal drum machine rhythms make for an excellent, private music
experience, ideal for headphone listening. On the other hand, the warm sub
bass tones beg for loud play through speakers!
- Chris Twomey
(Tandem)
Sweet Bits is the newest full-length release by David Kristian, one of
Montreal’s most prolific electronic music producers. This endeavour has
the perfect juxtaposition of cinematic darkness and suspense coupled with
endearingly innocent melodies reminiscent of a nostalgic childhood.
Somewhere between Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Boards of Canada’s
Music Has the Right to Children, and Lowfish-esque electro lies 13 tracks
of ambient electronics tinged with warmth that envelops the listener
throughout. "Kippering School"
is like a humble and pensive narrative that unfolds with each subsequent
layer of sound. Piano-like melodies and bleeps of a heart rate monitor are
the backbone to a foray of complex structures. Warm and fuzzy, yet
skittish and crunchy, tracks such as "Newgarden"
contains a soothing element left much to the imagination of what a foetus
might hear in a mother’s womb. Said to be just the right thing to follow
up Kristian’s critically acclaimed Sawdust Sinedust Squaredust, and the
material included on Suction’s Snow Robots compilations, Sweet Bits is
meant to be broken down and savoured piece by textured piece.
-
Heidi Chapson
(Exclaim!)
Picking up a David Kristian release is always a roll of the 20-sided die.
You might get sheer, droning ambiance, blistering and intricate drum &
bass, robotic electro or Italo disco - but you can be sure it'll be great.
Delicate, rhythmically challenging moods permeate his latest disc Sweet
Bits. Certainly one of Kristian's best releases to date, more digital and
complex in structure than the recent Wikkid unreleased retrospectives and
underlined by a darkly filmic ambience, Sweet Bits comprises some of his
latest and perhaps best material, showing once again why Kristian is one
of Montreal's top electronic artists and performers. 8.5/10
-
Raf Katigbak
(Montreal Mirror)
Without being a really big fan of David Kristian, I have always followed
his work with interest. If I was fan I would have sought out all those
releases on labels as Ninja Tune, Lo Recordings, Wikkid Records or those
others who never make their way to Vital Weekly. But those labels that do,
such as Alien8, Piehead and of course Suction, maybe not give the complete
Kristian picture, but what I heard made me always keen enough. On this new
CD, Kristian leaves any ambient aside and returns to the purest robot
sound possible, the sound that Suction Records is known for, even when
this CD is on a label called Monochrome. Thirteen pieces of electro
rhythms, warm analogue synths that either produce spacey sci-fi sounds or
a cozy little melody. Each of the pieces are nicely minimal, taking
the right amount of time to develop. That may be then the only problem I
have with this CD: with thirteen of these lengthy tracks it's altogether a
lengthy affair. With this kind of music I think I 'd like it to be shorter
as a total (even when the individual tracks need the length to develop).
Right after the seventh track 'Eleven Forty Four' (which sounds heavily
like Pan Sonic bytheway) it would have been a good ending. On the other
hand: you could think that you get two albums on one CD! Once again, for
lovers of real robotic electro music, this is the place to be. - FdW
(Vital
Weekly)
Prompted by the album title, I came to
Sweet Bits, Kristian's follow-up to his 1999 Sawdust Sinedust
Squaredust, suspecting it might be similar in spirit to the lush
melodic songcraft popularized by Morr Music and City Centre Offices. But
then, momentarily holding in check whatever stylistic intimations might be
suggested by its title, I realized that the album might also perpetuate
the energized 'robot music' style associated with Suction Records'
Snow Robot compilations... -
Textura
Enjoying the view
from music's vanguard during the late '90s, experimental electronica has
recently faded from the cultural consciousness, as forgotten as the Y2K
bug or actual NHL hockey games. Montreal's David Kristian, one of the
genre's most brilliant and underrated practitioners, only occasionally
resembles his previous self on Sweet Bits as, aside from a few inspired
moments (the divine melodic grace of "Clothespin," the layered lasers
throughout "Manatee's Last Gasp," the haunting strings augmenting "Acton
Sparrow"), a lack of invention sinks this series of one-note productions,
a critique that could hardly be pinned on his past masterful works like
1999's Sawdust Sinedust Squaredust and 1998's Beneath the Valley of the
Modulars. Perhaps Kristian has absorbed some of the general disinterest in
the genre from the rest of us.
- Ryan Watson (eye)
De Canadees David
Kristian is al jarenlang één van de beste technogasten die er op aarde
rondloopt, zeker als het gaat om het gebruik van de analoge synthesizer
daarbij. Hij kan zich storten op intrigerende experimenten, zoals met Sam
Shalabi en Alexandre St-Onge (beide onder meer uit Shalabi Effect, Set
Fire To Flames, Molasses), maar kan ook dansbaar uit de hoek komen of met
drum’n’bass. Hij produceert aan de lopende band klasse cd’s. Zo is Wikkid
Records bezig 9 cd’s (10 als je de compilatie meerekent) vol dansbaar
“restmateriaal” uit te brengen (de eerste 3 zijn er al). Sweet Bits is
zijn nieuwe cd, waarop hij weer meer de experimentele kant opgaat. En daar
is hij op z’n best. Overigens experimenteert hij zonder ondoordringbare
muren om zich heen te bouwen. Zijn geluid is eerder open en warm, bijna
ouderwets gezellig. Nee, de experimenten zitten meestal tussen de
aangename (subtiele) beats verstopt; ten minste als hij die gebruikt.
Diverse technoritmes stapelen zich op elkaar, terwijl de zwoele
elektronica de sfeer bepalen. Daar mengt hij allerlei bijzondere geluiden
door, maar ook noise, samples en organische klanken. Het eindproduct hier
kan je dan eigenlijk geen techno meer noemen, daarvoor moet je je wenden
tot het werk op Wikkid. Zelf hou ik het meest van deze experimenten, die
zo menselijk overkomen en zo typisch David Kristian zijn. Vreemd genoeg is
hij toch een relatief onbekende, terwijl hij een imponerende staat van
dienst heeft en voor velen interessant kan zijn. Ik kan referenties gaan
roepen als Fennesz of Locust (Mark van Hoen), maar die raken het nooit
helemaal. Hij leunt overal dicht tegenaan en maakt in feite glitch zonder
noise/kraken, postrock zonder gitaren, industrial zonder het obscure,
techno zonder het dansbare en idm zonder het Warp-effect. David Kristian
zwaait met de scepter in zijn unieke gebied.
-
Jan Willem Broek
(subjectivisten.org)
