Bomb The Bass
Back To Light
My first experience with the music of Bomb the Bass (also known as Tim Simenon) was through Kruder & Dorfmeister’s masterful compilation, The K&D Sessions (1998), on a dub version of the track “Bug Powder Dust” with Justin Warfield (originally released on the magnificent and genre-defining 1995 album Clear). The work on Clear has a quality reminiscent of the musique concrète stylings of Pierre Schaeffer, which made it a remarkable and highly noteworthy album. His subsequent albums have always represented an evolution and departure from the preceding work, as if done by a completely different artists, and this explains how Simenon’s work has always found a superb depth through his varied musical interests–it’s probably because he spends a lot of time actually thinking through the music. Currently we find ourselves with the new Bomb the Bass project, Back to Light, a quick follow-up installment to his 2008 release Future Chaos. From the get-go the album announces itself through insidious emotive aural effects, which through a blistering barrage of time-travel sounds, encompass the listener in a feeling that although intense, evaporates rather instantly.
Referencing Röyksopp at times, Bomb the Bass’ variation in electronic style brings in diverse influences such as Depeche Mode as well as contemporaries such as Bonobo and Lali Puna as illustrated in the closing track “Milakia.” This album, however upbeat, proves largely uninspired—although the sounds are pleasant and the compositions standard, something crucial is lacking at its very core. Hard to approximate, Bomb the Bass has released an album crippled from the very start—check out “The Infinites,” it’s an aptly executed (technically good) but awfully envisioned track that only offers an incessant repetition of the album’s rather generic title name. Bomb the Bass, at least for me, have not come Back to Light. I’ll stick to listening to Clear until his next album drops—which hopefully he spends some time developing (maybe 14 years?). The standout tracks on this album are “Boy Girl” (featuring Paul Conboy) and “Up The Mountain” featuring the folksy sounds of The Battle of Land and Sea. Although many of you will be fascinated with this effort—for me, without the tracks abovementioned, Back to Light would be completely passable.
[...] Urb [...]