BassDress Blog

I don’t know very much about this Mark Fell guy, and even his alter-ego ‘SND’ doesn’t ring too many bells. I vaguely recall some SND tracks being present on some of the “Clicks & Cuts” CDs I’ve got, but they’ve clearly left no real lasting impression. They’re neither good enough to recall nor terrible enough to irk me still.

Post Clicks & Cuts digitalism era (and while my back was turned), it seems Mark Fell has somewhat reinvented himself; new name, new label, new agenda. In fact, I’m not sure if the SND thing still happens and to be frank, I’m not even interested enough to check. So in short sighted opinion, Sensate Focus/Mark Fell is just one of a million IDM producers trying to survive the post Mille Plateaux world.

You can imagine my forehead-slapping disappointment then, when I read on Vladislav Delay’s website that the two were teaming up together. Would this end up being another ‘Luomo vs. Dominico Ferrari’ record? Technically proficient but altogether a little too soulless?

In order to find out I paid my €15 ticket price for the 12”. A record and a free pencil for €15? How could I refuse? (No, I don’t know why it ships with a free pencil, nor do I know what I’ll do with it – but apparently I’m just that easily swayed into parting with my money).

I waited with bated breath for the release date. Then it was pushed back almost two months, so I said ‘fuck it’ and downloaded it instead. (It should be added that during writing this I received an email with my ‘official’ download code and confirmation that my record and pencil were on the way!).

So what you get for your money, excluding the pencil, is two tracks ‘X’ and ‘Y’. Not a lot of thought gone into that one, but apparently it’s what Mr. Fell likes to title his music nowadays. Fair enough, fair enough.

Sasu Ripatti & Mark Fell “Sensate Focus 1.666666666”

It’s at this point in the article where I should cleverly change tone with the use of a rhetorical and self referential statement and tell you that the music is actually very good – but I’m not smart enough to do that. I’ll just have to tell you in plain old English that both sides of this disc are just magic! 🙂

Sasu Ripatti & Mark Fell “Sensate Focus 1.666666666” is post moderne house – I hate myself for typing that, but there’s no other way to describe it. It reminds me of the wonderful AGF/Dlay production “Return Of Us” – chopped and minimalistic, but quite uniquely styled nonsense.

There’s focused clarity in it’s execution and is one of the best written electronic pieces in recent memory. There’s no ‘fluff’, it simply a perfect and modern twist on laser accurate two-step, stripped to the core. And as can now be expected from a VD production, it’s perfectly mixed and edited.

Both tracks are hyper repetitive, and clock in at over ten minutes each. Y is probably the most interesting of the two, stuttering and wonky vocal snippets falling over an oddly timed, modern beat. Both track rely on micro improvisation and solid structure to keep the listener’s interests, and neither track fails to impress. The level of confidence and competence on display is remarkable. Every strike is deliberate and taught, and its all handled with a deft hand and serious tone… It just sounds so timeless yet contemporary. What a great record!

Impressed as I was with this production, I decided to investigate a little further into the Sensate Focus thing. There’s six or seven releases in total and they’re all fairly interesting a nice. 1.66666666 by far the greatest release so far, but if you enjoy the idea of Main Street Records reincarnated for the twenty first century, or a glimpse into what modern house should be using as a template, Sensate Focus is well worth listening too.
🙂