A GUY CALLED GERALD - Proto Acid

 

A Guy Called Gerald
Proto Acid: The Berlin Sessions

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(taken from this webpage)

Briefly, let's talk pioneers. On reflection, 808 State only escape their era when Gerald supplied their clockwork stomp. Then we have the outer space Braille gamelan of 'Voodoo Ray', the peaks of 'Automanikk' when it reached a take-off point of hyper-kinetic skitter, and the time-stretched rhythm commandment that was 'Black Secret Technology', arguably the ONLY truly coherent cohesive junglist long player as statement in a morass of Mercury prize winners and soft-jazz genre borers.

Ten years down the line, the jungle is a barren parody of its former luscious glory, Gerald departing as quickly as he arrived. Two albums of vocal infused Detroit electro followed, more than fine to be sure, but nothing, compared to THIS.

This was recorded live in one session at Gerald's Die hold studio using two laptops and a DJ mixer to create 23 new tracks, alongside the brutally edited re-recorded title track from the aforementioned 'Automanikk'. The concept is, according to the man himself, "...the culmination of a dream I've had since I started making music, and that's to take the studio into the club..."

Naming your opening salvo 'Marching Powder' is a statement of intent in itself and boy, does he deliver on that promise. 'Proto Acid: The Berlin Sessions' is a maniacal mechanical latticework of beat and texture. Gerald insists that everything he does is acid (and far be it from us to disagree) but everything herein is rhythm. Every nuance is geared towards body movement and everything is beat- a mechanoid onslaught of machine rhythm that sounds like the purest album he has ever made. And, in its way, this is possibly closer in spirit to jungle than our fave skanking powder of the moment, dubstep. The hook, the melody, the mnemonic and the chorus are all shot from the drum like Brian Wilson as Robocop. You do get the odd vocal snatch, a low-end drone here and there but no, the machine chimes with a million heartbeats, and all at the same time.

But also, this feels like the start of something. Gerald calls it a "snapshot" of possibilities. For someone who was present at the birth of dance music in this country, who has ceaselessly innovated and who likes to vanish from time to time, could this be the dawn of something new? Well, whatever happens, this is a mighty fine brew. Steel yourself to Gerald's mechanoid voodoo soul.

Jon Fletcher

reviewed on 18 Aug 2006