You’re in for a real beat treat. Today we’re digging into Red Pine which is John Stuckey based in Leeds, UK. ‘City Limits’ is his debut release and it’s an EP packed with a wide range of styles within the electronic genre. It opens with ‘I Am Someone’, an intriguing intro which keeps on building intense soundspheres from start to finish. In a way he seems to move towards a climax never to arise, and by this he creates anticipation, sets the mood and grabs my attention from the very beginning.
It overlaps into ‘Order’, where the pace settles down and a voice enters. I have had an issue with non-sampled vocals within electronic music for as long as I can remember. I’m sensing that many artists believes vocals will help their music appear more accessible to the crowds – or help to renew their sound – which is so sad in cases where everything but the vocals works perfectly fine. Of course this is not always the case, but nonetheless; this song with over-the-top distorted effects has nothing to do among the other brilliantly executed tracks here. The melody grows annoying and the lyrics comes out as rather vain and meaningless compared to his intricate, deep moods and his tasteful style throughout ‘City Limits’.
Moving on, it strikes me he always overlap elegantly between ends and beginnings, and the third ambient track is like a slow, dwelling three minute long overlap entirely. During his two last tracks Red Pine manages to put me right back into the excitement I found myself in when starting out with the promising opening. With ‘Folding’ and ‘Tunnels and Caves’ he goes deeper (as ‘promo-promised’), more intense and touches into restless dubstep beats and samples. Stuckey proves that he masters an impressive range of different styles, in a fashion not unlike the Norwegian electro duo Röyksopp are known for. This is the main thing I truly want to remember from Red Pine‘s debut release until my next encounter with this promising UK talent.
Released on November 5th through the Leeds based audio / film collective Starmap Studios.
Posted by Bjarte Edvardsen.
