John Tejada ~ Logic Memory Center
Sometimes hearing
music for the first time can be as refreshing as diving into a cool, clear
lake on a blazing summer’s day. So it is with Logic Memory Center’s
clinical beats, each curt pulse honed to a scalpel-like sharpness, matched
to a sonic palette that’s as vivid as a coral reef’s marine life.
Throughout there’s a faint thrill of menace that serves as flipside
to the funk that measures every angle. Fifth track, This Fake Place, adds
off-kilter skronk, as though a sliver of something organic had been caught
in the music’s smoothly-lubricated synchromesh. Whether the vocals (by
Kimi Recor, James Figurine and Carl Finlow) that are added to three of the
ten tracks are an unnecessary encumbrance or provide welcome flavour will
be up to the individual listener. Certainly, in contrast to the vivacious
punch and bounce of the beats, the singers sound for the most part weary and
paranoid like a species in its twilight years. The press release bandies names
like Luke Vibert and Richie Hawtin about, but this music sounds much closer
to Akufen, Jan Jelinek in Farben form or the funkier moments of Mille Plateaux’s
Clicks and Cuts compilations. John Tejada’s Tech-House, the not-so-awkward
offspring of Detroit and Chicago, knows the exact voltage - microns wide -
that will shiver servos, gears and solenoids into syncretic life. Logic Memory
Center is die-cut, precision welded, state-of-the-art stuff.
Colin Buttimer
January 2005