Labels: Runningonair Music
Review by: Captain Fidanza
The greatest thing about the fact that every couple of weeks Andy Mal sends me some CDs, is that I would never otherwise learn about people like Joe Evans.
Joe Evans is Runningonair and his music sounds as though it has been inspired by a variety of interesting sources. First and foremost it brings to mind a little known album from As One, released on the Mo’ Wax label in 1997 called “Planetary Folklore.” It is an extraordinary record, full of densely interwoven drum patterns and rolling synthesised rhythms at times reminiscent of Herbie Hancock’s work with The Headhunters on the groundbreaking trilogy of albums they released in the early seventies.
The second source sounds as though it may have been John Carpenter’s incredible soundtrack work from the late-seventies and early/mid-eighties on films such as Assault on Precinct 13, Escape from New York and Prince of Darkness. Carpenter built his films from the ground up, always aware of the incredible impact a well-placed piece of music could have to either lift, drop or sustain the mood of a particular scene. Like John Carpenter, Joe Evans is nothing if not protean and the nine tracks here showcase an ability to shift between differing emotional states whilst maintaining the structural validity of the original sound. His use of vocal samples on a few songs introduces a cryptic humanity to the music which might otherwise have drifted away into the avant-garde. It’s like an organic version of Endtroducing.
The third and final source of inspiration seems to have been the sound of a chandelier made of diamonds repeatedly falling down a large flight of stairs in a golden castle made with the discarded dreams of a deeply sleeping child rendered exhausted following a tartrazine fuelled marathon dancing session in a brightly coloured woollen leotard. In outer space.