If I’m not wrong, quite a number of you have heard of and maybe used the Soulseek file sharing client before. What many of you probably aren’t aware of is that Soulseek actually has a netlabel called Soulseek Records. The label started around 2003, released a few records and then fizzled out.

Although there were not that many releases, the label did have some great releases. One of them was the Various Artist Compilation for a restaurant called Cen’art in Barcelona, Spain. The album starts with a track called DayDream. When I listened to it on my Ipod, I found the track really repetitive and that kind of put me off a bit. Little did I realize that headphones coupled with environmental noise isn’t the best setting to listen to this track. Only when I listened to it on my home speakers did I realise how the subtle elements providing variation were obscured when I listened through my headphones. It is definitely a wonderful track and a great starter to the VA compilation.

The overall atmosphere of this album is much more relaxed than other offerings on the label and provide the perfect background music when one is working. Although there are some harder hitting tracks, the number of easy-listening tracks littered all across the album are numerous and this makes the whole album feel more chillout. This is definitely an album where the more you listen to it, the better it gets.

Favourite tracks:
01 Essell - Daydream
Catchy guitars, subtle noises. Overall, a nice opening track

02 Kilowatts - Close the Door
Kilowatts was featured in an earlier blog entry. A great showing here again. Very nice sounding instrumentation.

03 6eko - Valentine
Interesting voice samples that makes this track stand out from the rest of the album.

13 kernel32 - blistera
This track reminds me of one of my earliest experimentations in composition. The pad + house style kick drum have a similar sound to mine but the song is of course totally different. A personal favourite just because I can relate to it!

P.S. Soulseek Records did have another VA album. It came after Cen’art and was for a lounge called Trabant Chai. However, I’m of the opinion that the Trabant Chai compilation isn’t as good as this one. Although some tracks like Straight Lines, Stares and Chrysalis on that album are definitely on my favourites list, it just didn’t have that cohesive sound. You may still want to check it out though if only for those few great tracks. Here’s the link

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Posted on June 22nd, 2006 by adrian · 2 comments