Cubenx - On Your Own Again

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  • You may not have heard of Cubenx, but you probably have heard some of his productions already. The project of Mexican producer César Urbina, Cubenx was first showcased on Agoria's groundbreaking and genre-defying At the Controls mix way back in 2007: on there, Urbana's own "Repeat" stood comfortably next to Burial's remix of Jamie Woon and Stefan Goldmann's spooky "Lunatic Fringe." Inspired by Scott Walker's song of the same name, On Your Own Again is the sound of Urbina setting personal, emotional turmoil (its recording followed a few heartbreaks, apparently) to elegiac, even funereal at times, electronic music. The term "shoegaze" seems applied to anything remotely downcast these days, but in this specific case, it aptly describes the mood you'll find of "Adrift at Sea" which recalls Apparat at his most dismal yet hopeful, or on the drowned-in-light-distortion album opening of "Locked." "Sierra Madre," the album's eight minute closing track, further develops the ambient mood with added delicate acoustic guitar strumming taking center stage in its second half while offering twirling displays of intertwining synthetic hisses. Alfredo Nogueira, known for his work with the likes of Telefon Tel Aviv and Apparat, shows up on "These Days," whose insistent drumming softly clashes with the track's floating background arrangements. And while you can clearly hear neat post-punk influences on "Sun Dried''s almost Wire-like bassline, it'd be a stretch to call this indie-dance… even though you get the feeling Urbina's type of discothèque includes more than a few Mute and 4AD releases from the 1980s. The album also exhibits a penchant for proper dance floor-oriented material. For example, "Lovebirds" is a Holden-esque piece of hypnotic tech house with pompous yet enervated drops of dark pads. "Noir" is even more entrancing, led by a washing, droning intro. Only "Wait & See," a more predictable schaffel-lite house cut àla Wolfgang Voigt, deviates from the album's mood: It isn't necessarily second-rate or badly done, but it sits more awkwardly next to the encircling numbers. This is an inconsequential mishap, however: more than five years in the making, On Your Own Again is the sound of a producer skillfully channeling his dearest mentors and formatting influences into a highly personal whole.
  • Tracklist
      01. Locked 02. These Days 03. Adrift at Sea 04. Lovebirds 05. Grass 06. Noir 07. Sun Dried 08. Sierra Madre 09. Wait & See 10. Mist Over the Lake 11. Sueña con Venados
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