cassini pieces
written and produced by mikkel meldgaard
mikkel metal aka mikkel meldgaard was born in 1973 in horsens, denmark and currently lives in the capital, copenhagen. mikkel completed a degree in philosophy at the university of copenhagen in 2001, and today works with web programming and multimedia, besides making music. music has ever played a big role in mikkel′s life, as he′s been a guitarist in one of the earliest noise-rock bands in aarhus, jutland. equally interested in the introspective sound of the british shoe gazer-scene (e.g. ride, my bloody valentine) and the looser low-fi aesthetic of some american bands (e.g. pavement, swirlies) mikkel was fairly active and tried out
several band-constellations over a period of years. however, after developing interest in electronic music, mikkel quickly changed his musical direction. a sampler was bought and soon he started experimenting.
the first result was a charming 7′′ on the danish label hal9000 in 2000 , which was at the very top of the de:bugÆ magazines chart (#42). this one got followed up by further releases on the danish label echocord, which were very well received within the electronic scene. parallel to this, and taking a slightly different path, mikkel has issued work to german label kompakt.
so far this has thrown off two 12′′. still continuing click-aesthetic and dub-influence, the beat on these works is more 4/4-based, and the production is not quite as dark and lo-fi. mikkels release on thinner - ôcassini piecesö - assembles music that was produced between 2001-2003. it is a nice showcase of earlier works and his production aesthetics. it′s obvious how homogenous these works are, as they all move within the same approach to electronic dub.
especially "solko" is not a track, it′s a song that perfectly reflects mikkels skills as songwriter. other tracks, such as "third" and "abank" slowly move ahead with crisp effects and glittering delays. the off the sky remix of "solko" carefully decrumbs the original song, to give it an enlightening touch with the warm pads and sonar beeps. lufth remixes "third" in a very melting way, where the clean original song liquidly floats by. the euphoric minimal "pheno" is slowed down by krill.minima, who applies the wah-wah on a rather downbeaty construction. finally, theodor zox warms up for his upcoming thinner ep, by transforming the gentle "abank" into an advanced cracking minimalhouse burner.
text written by sebastian redenz
reviews
falk | germany | 07/2004
früher hielt es mikkel eher mit gitarren (und schon allein diese tatsache macht ihn mir symphatisch), jahrelang war er im dänischen indierock - untergrund aktiv und spielte gitarre in einer noise-rock band. zunehmend fand er dann auch gefallen an der elektronischen musik, legte sich einen sampler zu und begann zu experimentieren. nach einiger zeit folgten dann releases auf den oben genannten labels. "cassini pieces" enthält material von mikkel aus den jahren 2001 bis 2003, sowie 4 remixarbeiten anderer künstler. seine leichten, beinahe schwebenden, fein ausbalancierten dub-kompositionen beruhen auf transparenten, fliessenden sounds und entspannten, klickenden beats. "solko" erinnert mit seiner songähnlichen struktur und weiträumigen gitarrenakkorden dann doch ein klein wenig an mikkels indie-roots. "abank", ursprünglich ein sehr ruhiger auf knirschelig-granularen sounds basierender track, wird im remix von theodor zox mit straighter bassdrum zum flottesten der 10 stücke transformiert. reife leistung. auch die anderen remixe sind durchweg als gelungen zu bezeichnen und stellen jeder für sich eine interessante variation bzw. neuinterpretation des originals dar. ein release das uns mit der unendlichen weite und leichtigkeit seiner sounds unweigerlich in seinen bann zieht.
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