HOME-GROWN BEATS AND HYPNOTIC RHYTHMS!
December 2003
KEMIC-AL - TWISTED PARAMETERS
His may be a relatively new name on the Maltese dance scene, and yet
Kemic-Al, under his Zaldonite alter ego or as part of the Los Bandidos
Psikadelicos DJ posse, has been etching out quite a following for
himself, particularly in the trance scene. His musical roots actually
hail back to ska and rock, but have always been broad enough to embrace
any music that is exciting and stimulating. His first ventures into the
dance scene came via various percussion performances at numerous events
and parties, following which he progressed to DJ-ing and organizing his
own parties.
The response of the discreet but sizeable trance following in Malta
encouraged Kemic-Al to branch out and work on original productions, the
first batch of which quickly picked up a steady following via his
MP3.com website. Some of the tunes also made their way into the
playlists of several internet radio stations, and this positive vibe was
certainly crucial in motivating Kemic-Al’s output and the eventual
completion of this debut album.
Contrary to what many may be expecting of a trance artist, Twisted
Parameters actually presents an alternate perspective of this global
genre, largely revolving around the artist’s particular taste for sounds
and rhythms as opposed to the formulaic synthesized (and swirling)
prototype that gave trance its initial appeal. As such, Kemic-Al’s
approach on this album has been to construct and develop all the sounds
from scratch, straying from this ‘homegrown’ philosophy only where vocal
samples are involved. The basis of the album was in fact constructed
from mutated and manipulated percussive sounds, as most of the nine
tracks here will attest.
Aural accessorizing was in fact kept to a minimum, with the result that
the music often dwells inside a gray area that owes as much to trance as
it does to techno, with the common (and only connecting) factor being
the hypnotic psychedelia-laced rhythms that Kemic-Al is clearly attached
to.
Of particular note here are the tracks Wake Up Call, whose nifty samples
are a clear example of Kemic-Al’s favoured quote that ‘Sound is the art
of seeing invisible things’; Klassic-Al, where musical interludes are
meshed and fused together to great effect (and possibly the album’s most
mainstream moment); and Batidas Por Minuto, whose warped sonic groove
(subtly tinged, I thought, with a Liam Howlett electronic accent!) was a
valuable stepping stone for Kemic-Al’s prominence on internet radio. Psy-trance
and psy-tech, apparently are the coined phrases for this brand of dance
music, and indeed, there are elements here of both. Adding a third
dimension to the album is closing track Z-Zora, which opts for a chilled
approach to bring the feast of beats and rhythm mesh to a cinematic end!
The parameters of the music may be twisted, but Kemic-Al nevertheless
retains the spirit that gives this album its vitality!
Recommended weblink: www.kemic-al.com
