Space System - Sorrow Show

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  • Indonesian electro? Trust JD Twitch. Prince Eclecto of Eclectica (or Keith McIvor from Glasgow) has used the label arm of his now defunct but no less notorious club nights to push a predictably unpredictable range of underground music. Punk, post-punk, psychedelia, prog, blues, Italo, electro—the discography of Optimo Music reads much like a tracklist for one of Twitch's famously multifarious DJ sets with partner in crime Jonnie Wilkes. But the wide-reaching aspect isn't limited to genre; it stretches geographically too—new to the roster, Space System, are from Jakarta. It's not only thanks to the internet that we know this: Their take on electro is also distinctly indigenous. "Petik" makes particular use of the gamelan, as vibraphones and harps are chimed and plucked with all the prettiness of their native setting. The downplayed percussion and reverberating synth interjections are the signals of Western and modern influence, but rather than a poignant juxtaposition, they nestle quietly into the arrangement. Although glimpses of origin are still apparent in the short Rhodes part, the title track "Sorrow Show" is discernibly less representative in feel. It's a flamboyantly wonky number in which pitch-bends and oscillations consume the analogue lines like bouts of epilepsy. Shimmying chords take the edge off things and the prog-style drums make it all seem like part of a Tommy-esque opera for the space generation. A remix by South African, King Of Town, doesn't spend too much time reworking, rather rearranging its grandiose melody to fit a straight beat. Alongside Twitch's own kick-free, DJ-tool version of an older track, "Nocturnal," the flip of this record shows the more club-friendly side of Space System's alien quirks.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Sorrow Show A2 Petik B1 Sorrow Show (King Of Town Remix) B2 Nocturnal (JD Twitch Remix)
RA