david kristian - ectopic beat EP
Drop Beat
"Canadian based Kristian wins programmer of the month
award for his exquisite, tightrope-running beats. Drum & Bass elitists dismiss this
kind of stuff, along with Plug, Squarepusher and the rest, as mere twiddling around with
breakbeats like its some kind of joke, but for my money this
(Ectopic Beat EP)
contains far more of the elements that made Jungle's first appearance so brain-scrambling:
unhinged tempos, total disregard for musicality and melody, sex and mystery, encoded with
a sense of displacement that's alarmingly alien."
- Rob Young
(The Wire)
"His Strange Mountaineers was one of
my favorite tracks on the last Lo Recordings compilation, United Mutations,
and this goes even further in constructing edgy, austere atmospherics. Instead of looping
tired breaks, he seems to have programmed in every beat of a set-your-teeth-on-edge
progression that twists and turns throughout the length of the track, over stand-up bass
and droney treble tones. In the background there are whacked-out, hysterical strings like
Fantasiac teapots about to blow (possibly sampled off of damaged magnetic tape?). The most
important thing is that it keeps moving, not so much evolving as subtly mutating. There
are those that postulate the imminent implosion of drum'n'bass, but this is one of the
records that proves that theory wrong. For us Stateside-dwellers, it's pretty nice to
spend 6 bucks on a record this good."
- Philip Sherburne
"David Kristian continues the quality control with 4
new cuts on the Ectopic Beat EP from the ep-and-coming Oakland (CA)
label, drop beat. smoother than the "cubensis" material, this is silky and quite
SLY drum and bass with up-FRONT basslines that really oooze around and just about envelop
the rat tattering of the drum tracks. Nonetheless, there are some quite peculiar themes
and mood structures to these cloudy tracks. "cloudy" in the sense that they're
not really disturbingly dark (in the POSSIBLE sense - although after listening to this and PFM's
Year Zero and this 12" - one might draw similarities) per se,
but they certainly do NOT fall on the jazzier,
happy-go-lucky-bass-heavy-yet-quite-simplistic tendencies of today's
"coffee-table" fodder (i.e. Alex Reece). regardless of interpretation, this is
CLEARLY the standout of these three AMERICAN drum and bass offerings. Ultimately though, I
have to say that I am OVERJOYED to see the evolution of the American experimental scene.
Get shouting!" -(NME)
"The title track opens up with a deep voice "your
blood pressure is normal..." When listening to this record, my blood is anything but
normal. It feels like it's pumping slowly to my brain and then oozing out as the beats
push their way in. At last a drum n' bass release that's just as much "bass" as
it is "drums". Kristian pushes the bass to it's maximum, ringing through your
ears as he turns up the breaks just as you begin to relax. This 12" is both angry and
smooth. David Kristian manages to do what 90% of other dn'b artists can't and that is
create noise and beautiful music all the while keeping it in perfect harmony of the 160
BPM rhythms crashing above. If there is one record worth buying in this whole "drill
n' bass/intelligent drum n' bass" scene this is It."
- Mult Santa
"While the beats do get hectic at times, this is
mostly a minimalist/ dark dub take on drum and bass. There's a subtle complexity to each
of these tracks, but on Hopeless Kristian creates a tense hall of mirrors
atmosphere that's completely enveloping. From what I've since about Kristian, he regards
this EP as something of a side project. Hopefully he'll return to this style
again."
- (Sine Wave Reviews)
"Bought this one on a whim the other day (Drop Beat
had been talking some smack on their web page about it) and haven't been the same since. I
generally don't like the light drum sounds found on many of the current crop of anaemic
sounding drum & bass records (a la Alex Reece, etc). What I prefer are those huge,
distorted beats in the Squarepusher vein. This record, I would have to say, lacks the hard
as hell drum sounds that I've come to enjoy, but more than makes up for it in the general
mayhem arena. Although the overall sounds can be rather light, Kristian places his beats
(or snippets of beats as it were) firmly in the musical equivalent of some nagging memory
in the subconscious. The bass is definitely down there, but aggressive enough for you to
notice it. Essentially, this is one hell of an original stab at drum & bass, one that
will maintain a prominent place on my lists for some time." 8/10
-Brian Rachielles (Sine Wave Reviews)
" David Kristian's skittering schizoid stick beating
minimalist breakbeats aren't really my thing, but they're something that Squarepusher
seems to be trying to emulate at the moment. Kristian does it better. Are you nervous
Squarepusher? ...Phenomenally good."
- MFr
