There are many great things that are part of being a Dan Guidance fan.
There is the sheer quality of his music that has led me to declare many times that he is, in my opinion, the greatest living artist making music today. Classic cut follows classic cut in a seemingly never-ending purple patch. I can’t think of another artist who so consistently sets the bar so high and never once fails to meet it.
There is the different shades that colour his work. He may be largely planted in the liquid drum & bass field, but within that his work has so many differing hues and textures, from straight ahead dancefloor fillers to awkward, angular stompers to subtle and beautiful music that enters the soul and never leaves. He is also not afraid to venture out in to electro or dubstep should the mood take him.
And then there is his hyper prolific nature that sees him release a staggering amount of singles, EPs and albums. We are yet to enter Autumn and we have been graced with six EPs and an album totalling 37 tracks to my certain knowledge, with probably a few others I haven’t counted, and this isn’t counting remixes.
So yet again I find myself listening to his latest work, attempting to capture some of the thrills and sheer joy of listening to more new music from this fecund DnB virtuoso.
The first of two new releases in our latest review is a single, This Reflection, he has released with vocalist Sodie. This is Dan Guidance at perhaps his most faithful, a smooth DnB groove with a haunting vocal laid over the top of his hyperactive beats.
The result is beautiful, at once busy and calm. When I tell people that drum & bass chills me out, I am often met with puzzled looks, as if such a thing could not be true, but here is proof positive of that. Sodie’s vocal is almost breathy but still high in the mix and is as catchy as it is possible to be, while in the background the music kicks up a storm without ever becoming frantic or disrupting.
One thing that can be defined as part of the Dan Guidance signature sound, if there is such a thing, is that the drums are usually crisp and sharp and seldom distorted or abrasive. As a result, no matter how busy they get, the overall sound is clear and calm, while still being very much aimed at a dancefloor.
This Reflection comes in two versions, a radio edit and the full seven minute epic.
To add to this single song release, the latest EP to be released, Abstract Shapes, is a five tracker and is a collaboration with long time compatriot Fishy.
Abstract Shapes is a different beast altogether. Starting off with the EP’s title track, Abstract Shapes comes at you from many different angles all at once. The rhythms are off beat and are more jungle than liquid drum & bass but still with the same calm clarity mentioned above. There is a lot going on in the song, with a disembodied voice floating to the surface occasionally and keyboard squiggles adding further disorientation, but again the whole gels together beautifully.
When I Find You starts with a simple keyboard hum and builds up by layering percussion and heavily treated vocal snippets until the beats kick in and lift us and the song. A deep rolling bass line bubbles along and thrums ominously. It is perhaps this balancing act of disparate elements that sets Dan Guidance apart, as it is easy top feel that the different parts of this song should not go together so well, but somehow they do and the songs on the EP become more than the sum of their parts.
Kudos also go to the ever excellent Fishy for his part in all this. His is another back catalogue worth spending some time on and it is good to see the two back together again.
Sea of Dreams again hits that sweet spot of being tranquil dance music. While the beats may be more straightforward, keyboard trills provide a dizzying melody. Never people to let a tune stand still though, the song goes through phases over its seven minutes and ebbs and flows as it goes. Window to the Stars features washes of ambient synth noise and a keyboard riff that seems to work against it, but all becomes one when the beats kick in. It is a song that is in no rush to peak, reaching almost a third of its running time before its rhythms crest the waves.
Last Transmission Home brings the EP to a suitably atmospheric close. Another epic and uplifting track, it features sounds that could be seen as gratingly repetitive in lesser hands but here add a sense of urgency, harnessing the cyclic nature of a lot of the best club sounds.
Abstract Shapes provides us with over half an hour of exceptional new music for the price of £5 from Bandcamp. If there’s a better bargain out there I want it brought to my attention immediately.
I don’t know what is next for Dan Guidance, but I imagine that:
a) It won’t be long in coming and
b) It will be another slice of calmly superior dance music.
Bring it on.
Abstract Shapes is out now. Purchase this and other Dan Guidance releases here.