Marvin Wilson Reviews Page
Marvin Wilson- Synchronisn
In the digital age, is there room for such a thing as analog electronic music? Marvin Wilson certainly thinks so, and shows us how it is done with his latest release, Synchronism. The nine tracks on the album were proudly created "with hardware and tape," as he puts it, and the results are some of the warmest, and most "human" electronic music I have heard in ages.Synchronism has been released by the Scottish Alex Tronic Records label, and they are something of a brand name for me. I have been impressed by everything I have heard from them, but that still did not prepare me for this.In 2013, Daft Punk's Random Access Memories or Authechre's Exai represent the state of the art. But when the retro-futurism of Synchronism flowed out of my speakers, it felt like I had been in the desert for days, and was just handed pitcher of ice-cold water.Everything that made me such a fan of this music in the first place came rushing back to me with the opening notes of "Coming to Life." My baptism into the genre was nearly 40 years ago, when I heard the three-minute single edit of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" on my little AM transistor radio. I followed the music on and off until I discovered something called "ambient techno" came along. Bands such as The Orb, early Aphex Twin, and System 7 took over my life for a spell. But as so often happens, they eventually moved in other directions, which I did not necessarily follow.With the nine tracks on Synchronism, Marvin Wilson has made the first new album in what I consider to be the "classic" style that I have heard in nearly 20 years. It has been a long wait, but worth it
The album opens with "Coming to Life." Besides the glorious analog soundbeds, the song has a drum beat reminiscent of Kraftwerk's "The Robots." The aptly titled "Sonic Adventurers" is next, and begins very quietly, in near-ambient territory. There is a very fine line between getting the mix right, and straying too far in either direction. An example of this can be found in System 7's music, who sometimes lean too heavily on the beats for me. Wilson hits it perfectly, with just the right amounts of atmosphere, and subtle beats.
"A Degree of Automation" made me wonder if Wilson had read Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and had written his own score for it. With "Pavilion 58" I thought to call it "retro-techno," but that would be too cute, and inaccurate. This music really has nothing to do with what we have come to know as techno. There is a beat, and I suppose you could dance to it, but I consider this head music"One Lost City," and "Consideration for the Future" close the set in an outstanding fashion. I hear a musical line running from Kraftwerk to the Orb and beyond, and Marvin Wilson upholds the tradition brilliantly. There are marvelous atmospheres, beats that move the songs along in just the right places, but most importantly there are the melodies. For some reason, nobody seems to mention that aspect, but I believe it is incredibly significant.The balance of beats, atmospheres, and melodies is a tricky thing, and Wilson gets it right on every track. To do this "the old-fashioned way" is even more impressive. I know that he is not doing this to impress people, but rather because this is the only way to get the sound he wants. It makes a difference, believe me.I think Synchronism is a brave record, because it goes against all of the prevailing trends. The type of marketing departments behind the Lady Gagas of the world would surely argue against releasing this album. I am very happy that the people at Alex Tronic Records do not think that way, and have given Wilson a platform.Sychronism is a disc I will be listening for a long time to come. I still play such favorites as The Orb's U.F.Orb and Aphex Twin's Analogue Bubblebath regularly. Marvin Wilson's Synchronism joins them as an instant classic.
. Greg Barbrick – Blinded by Sound Magazine
Marvin Wilson Our Time Will Come ATRCD116- Release Date Friday September 11th /09
The third album released by Marvin and again released on Edinburgh`s electronica label Alex Tronic Records
Marvin Wilson - Our Time Will Come
THE third album released by Marvin and once again released on the great Edinburgh-based electronica label Alex Tronic Records.
Our Time Will Come is an instrumental mix of the blissed out heavenly and pounding rage. While album opener Majestic Sleep would be perfect for the sun lounger on a morning after, second song The Brink slams the senses like guitar-less The Prodigy. Drum n bass drums, plastic tear synths sounds drive the song on and on into seven minutes of trance heaven. You can almost see the Kraftwerk train wheels on the stripped down Good To See You. Just Before Midnight is a slow mind filler with noises pulling you this way and that. Unlike many electronica albums the end doesn't drift off into the ether. Connecting Stars is a pumping house track that slaps your face with a laser fish. Top stuff.
Our Time Will Come will be released on Friday, September 11.
www.myspace.com/alextronicrecords
Our Time Will Come is out on Friday September 11th/ 09
Rick Fulton -The Daily Record
Marvin Wilson Our Time will Come-ATRCD116
The press release starts off “Alex Tronic Records are proud to be releasing the third Marvin Wilson album.” As well they should be. This record is a real head-trip, the kind we have come to expect from Monsieur Tronic – beats, electronica and bass. Wilson has also spoken of “watching some of my favourite films and remembering how they can make you feel,” This would account for why this album has such a cinematic quality.
One can imagine car chases and slo-mo gunfights being played out to this album. Tracks such as ‘Majestic Sleep’ and ‘Good To See You’ draw you in and suck you right down to the blackhearted core of this album, fuelled by frustration and pure anger.
Each of the album’s nine tracks has something special about it – a synth part or a riff, maybe – that allows it its’ own little moment in the sun. But what’s remarkable is how beautifully the album, as a whole, flows. This is an album that has obviously been made out of anger and frustration at the way the world is heading. But it’s also a great fun record and that’s what will keep people playing it, time and again
Jonathan Muirhead /Is this Music Magazine.
- Being Here ATRCD050
-By Rick Fulton The Daily Record 4/4/08
A DEBUT album from the home of Edinburgh electronica label Alex Tronic Records. Marvin Wilson starts his 10 track album with Imagine Instead. It’s a bit dodgy to begin with, some old synths sounds of a voice that could be from a dentist’s chill out tape. But stick with it as the drums and bass kick it a tune develops getting better and better with a guitar riff breaking through the walls of sound. After that the instrumental tunes just get better and better. Before Flying is hard house trance, A New Day is Kraftwerk back on the Autobahn, At The Beginning is gritty metal synth, Boomerang has the alarm noise of classic Underworld. Two blissed out tracks Being Here is Not Being Alone and Living Spaces close the album calming everything down. Being Here is an album for those afternoons after the night before.
www.alextronicrecords.co.uk
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A beautiful mix of downbeat ambience and soaring euphoria, this is one of Alex Tronic's finest releases to date, a wonderfully decadent flight through clouds of summery instrumentation driven by powerful beats. Wilson could be criticised for his lack of subtlety, with a predilection for a fairly simplistic mixture of clean ambient sounds and basic four-bar structures, but the epic emotional drive of tracks like Boomerang and Before Flying is irresistibly catchy. It doesn't always work perfectly, and the mellow ambience of Living Spaces lacks the necessary drive and potency, and Imagine Instead uses a delirious techno kickdrum pattern that becomes a little predictable. For the most part, however, Wilson has crafted a piece of astonishingly positive electronic music. While most obviously suited to the aftermath of a heavy night, the sunny vibes and Balearic sounds can lift the listener above the gloom of Glasgow's iron-grey skies and perpetual drizzle
. [Liam Arnold] Skinny Magazine April /08
EMAIL : info@alextronicrecords.co.uk
ALEX TRONIC RECORDS
Mob : 07904713833
www.alextronicrecords.co.uk
