Clean, Axe-in-a-Box, New Music Releases: Tops and Flops
And a new Martin Gore Signature from Gretsch!
3,2 / 5,0 | 
What a week this was! Chase Bliss once again released a shiny head scratcher. Fractal Audio caught up with an axe-in-a-box to the big shrinking that is happening in the pedal world – kind of. And lots of music was released.
Tops and Flops this week
Coming Clean with Compressors
When Chase Bliss releases a new pedal, it’s always preceded by a couple of teasers that get pedal fans almost as excited as synth heads are when Teenage Engineering or Moog release a new overpriced product. Which is what happened on October 10. So, technically, we’re a bit off with the weekly review span, but I wanted to include Clean.
And I must admit, I’m very impartial to compression pedals. I get why they exist for bassists, but outside of that, it seems like the right amount of overdrive will get you there and further without it sounding like a squeezed squirrel. Of course, Chase Bliss, being Chase Bliss, went above and beyond with Clean. And I’m sure there will be many guitarists and Geartubers alike who will celebrate its uniqueness.
But I’m just hella confused about it, much more than the axe-in-a-box. Very torn between not caring at all and kind of curious. All of these random tremolo and swell modes would have made perfect sense in their own dedicated pedal. But cramming them into a compressor? Maybe I’m not seeing the ‘big picture’ here. Or my signals are clean enough already. So, since I can’t call this both a flop and a top, I’m naming Clean my ‘Tlop’ of the week.
Axe-in-a-box, Photosynthesis, Gretsch Martin Gore: Gear Releases of the Week
In other gear news, Fractal Audio finally caught up to the big shrinking trend happening in the pedal world with the release of their long-rumored Axe-in-a-box VP4. The number of different effects (and their famous emulation quality, of course) and the sophisticated routing options make this one a multi-effect I will definitely be keeping it on my radar. To all naysayers, I say, how many more all-in-one-amp-cab-pedal-units do you need?
Few things in all areas of gear, both software and hardware, get me as excited as when a company tries something new, odd, something that few (or no one) have thought of. So combining a wavetable synth with a generative sequencer and a solar panel like Olydian Photosynthesis Solar-Powered Generative Wavetable Synth did, piqued my interest. While I’m not the biggest fan of generative music, as it can often sound a little too unfocused and jammy, it’s been an excellent starting point for many productions. And with the Photosynthesisis, you can even do that fully DAW-less!
Gretsch’s Martin Gore signature guitar was a definite highlight for me this week. While it’s a bit out of my budget, Gore’s gnarly ‘Personal Jesus’ riff, his brilliant work all over Exciter, or the piercing lead in ‘Barrel of a gun’ are all close to my heart. It’s easy to forget that besides his undisputed brilliance as Depeche Mode’s main songwriter, his sense for melodies you can never, ever get out of your head, and his technical finesse when programming synth sounds, Gore is also a highly inventive guitarist.
- Gretsch Martin Gore at Thomann*
New music releases: Bon Iver, The Smile, various German Artists
As I do for the German iteration of Tops and Flops, I try to include not just gear but also recent album releases I’ve been loving. Because we can buy every axe-in-a-box, every plugin, and every synth, but (collectors excluded), isn’t it all about making music? About recreating sounds and replaying songs that inspire us? Or writing and producing ourselves?
To start with, Bon Iver’s Sable, (yes, that comma is part of the EP’s name) had me tearing up a bit, in a good way. Songwriters and singers like Justin Vernon are a rare breed. Highly inventive but not hiding behind too many effects and layers that you can grasp what they are trying to convey. Thom York is like that – sometimes. But it’s been a while since In Rainbows. So, The Smile’s new album was a pleasant surprise. I mean, how funky is ZeroSum!
And given that I’m writing this column from Berlin, I figured I’d include a release of a German artist as well. My highlight of all the releases this Friday is 100Angst from Bazzazian. He is one of the biggest and most creative hip-hop producers in Germany, and some of his beats in recent years are among the meanest, badass-sounding pieces of music I’ve ever heard – like RADW from German rapper Haftbefehl. He even made an expansion pack and a play series instrument with Native Instruments!
I’ll round this up with another recent-ish favorite of mine, Imaginal Disk from Magdalena Bay. This year has been full of highlights already, from Brat to My Method Actor to Hyperdrama to All Born Screaming. But in terms of creative sampling, songs taking left turns every few bars and sonic inventiveness, this record takes the cake.
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