Showing posts with label FIDELITY ASTRO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FIDELITY ASTRO. Show all posts

FIDELITY ASTRO
“Flying In Place” C40
(Shadow Trash Tape Group)



Fidelity Astro is a cut-chemist extraordinaire, magically transitioning beatscape after beatscape after beatscape at as breakneck a speed as anyone could Possibly string together disparate grooves and STILL maintain a CHILL vibe. It’s truly magical. 

To be honest, I’m not generally big on “beat tapes”, but Fidelity Astro has consistently reminded me that repetition and conformity are tools only defaulted to by the inexperienced; Fidelity Astro is wise beyond all years, and “Flying In Place” hovers above all past accomplishments in an ever-evolving serenity achievable only by true mastery.

You want layers within layers that only reference each other at key intervals? FA’s got it. You want jazzy, soulful cuts and polyrhythmic/West African percussives? Check that one off, too…Mix/master wizardry on the Hi-Fi tip? Uh-huh. Bangers that can be napped along with AND yet still also blearily act as relaxants that elicit metronomic, mantric nods once awakened? Done and Done!

Fidelity Astro is downright S-L-I-C-K, and you don’t have to love the groove to fall in love with them. Headphones up & onward!

and/or

— Jacob An Kittenplan

FIDELITY ASTRO
"Genushenka" C55
(Shadowtrash Tape Group)




If someone on the street hands you a brand new Fidelity Astro tape, you keep it. You put it in your breast pocket and walk carefully but immediately towards your most trusted tape deck back home and you wonder what the themes on the tape will be. You know they’ll have a hip-hop beat behind them, and some kind of easy listening vibe, sure, but will there be ambient soundscapes on this one, or will it have remixed devotional singing soundbites? Or both? Will it be jazzy, romantic, or new agey? Will there be field recordings of local birds or city noise? That there will be loops upon loops of relative chillness is for certain, but what qualities will they possess? What instrumentation? What pilfered pre-existences will get new life breathed into them? Through each release, quality has been the only consistency, and that’s one hell of a trick to pull off in a world of “I farted into a microphone and dubbed thirty copies!” May we all aspire to be so concerted in our craft.

This particular artifact contains (per Shadowtrash Tape Group’s website):
“a tribute to '70s lounges, scratching, breakups,
new love, gospel wisdom, and actress gena rowlands.
sad beats and victory anthems for late nights.”

I couldn’t agree more.

http://www.shadowtrashtapegroup.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan