adam freeland… and taco stands.
preface..
I was concerned that my music selection on my iphone was not adequate for my travels and since my Macbook Pro was staying at home, I did some digging and remembered Adam Freeland’s releases. After a thorough excavation of my record crates, I realized just how much this man has done for my definition of organized sound….
And therefore:
I have tons of his releases, I have bought entire CD’s for single bits and bobs from this one, amazing producer. His mixes and DJ sets are my favorite, period. These are not hokey “journeys into trance,” these are hard, fast and really gritty urban presentations of music. The man has done a fucking mix outside of an LA taco stand, Who else can do that and still be cool?
He just plays rockin records, as he’s said. It’s as if you could take a CBGB’s punk rocker in the late 70’s and tell him to make electronic music… and pick up a british accent while he was at it. This is Adam Freeland. It seems almost sheer chance that he’s not playing bass for a british punk band but instead working behind the mighty steel wheels and the producer’s desk.
Annnnnd… the list:
Cope is brilliant, fast and shamelessly noisy, but incredibly well produced. A hook laden, beautiful record. Q from Uberzone apparently had a hand in the post production of the record, and my hat is off to him. The record feels as if it’s on the brink of destroying your headphones, yet the production contains it and adds a sheen and glow to Freeland’s sound.
GU 032’s Mexico City. Adam Freeland’s mix that is singular in the GU catalogue. It just feels live, even tactile; the mixes are audible, grand master flash cuts. It is a party record, in the same way License to Ill is. There’s texture, whimsy in the preoccupation with the word fuck, which really, is always a seal of quality for me. We need another one Mr. Freeland, please tell the Boxed Boys I said so.
His remix of “Fever” for the Verve/Remixed by the lovely Sarah Vaughn. Just truly sexy. Where most artists fail to modernize a verve release, or make it unrecognizable in their remix, here, Freeland takes a soulful song that is subtly sexy and amplifies it to wonderful ends. btw, Felix Da Housecat did “Sinnerman” for Verve. He took a loose, jazzy rhythm and made it danceable and rigidly timed. It’s shouldn’t work, it should feel soulless and wrong, but Felix makes it work. Unfortunately though, the rest of the verve/remixed releases just leave me cold.
The Hate EP is extremely techy, distorted and very angry, almost devoid of melody, just beat and near atonal vintage synths. Warm and heavy, in fact the heavy metal of EDM. This to me is a theoretical exercise, a “lens on the future” of Adam’s later releases rather than a true, standalone disc. Also, it has a certain air of political frustration, but that may just be me and or it’s release date, January of the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency.
The “Mixed Live” mix CD. Freeland’s last work revolving around Nu Skool Breaks and a swan song to the genre. Easily a shake yo ass record. Dirty snares to be had by all.
Tectonics, though not my favorite release by Mr. Freeland, it is a worthwhile cross section and telling preview of where he was going as a DJ and a producer. It’s dark and sparse, almost barren music. Really heady stuff.
What Adam’s core talent is, is that he doesn’t appear to be, or behave like a typical DJ slash EDM producer. He wants his tracks to have rock n roll qualities, punk distortion and very live sounding break beats. He brought us Nu Skool, then he destroyed it, then he just wrote whatever he wanted. Adam Freeland has stepped past styles of sound and has formed his own, which has really been quite fun to watch.
Anyway, that’s what I got. Do enjoy. See you at Amoeba.
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