The Field – From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt)

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One word. Trance. Year? 1992.

What is interesting about From Here We Go Sublime is its muted euphoria. You’d be hard pressed to imagine this pumping out of the back of a hotted up, tinted windows hatchback on a Saturday night. Instead there is a kind of post-Ecstasy 8am hollowness, the sound of walking around between euphoria and comedown. The flecks of psychedelia from the previous night remain – the filtered synths lines, the chopped and slurred vocal samples taken from AM radio ‘hits’ – but the overall feeling is of listlessness. Opening with ‘Over The Ice’, a lush extended filtered trance workout reminiscent of the best moments of Orbital then on to ‘Good Themes End’ which is ghostly, morose and wonderfully glum like the best moments of fellow-Kompakt duo Superpitcher, or, perhaps the submarine techno of Loscil transported to a 5am warehouse, and pumped full of amphetamine. Of the rest, ‘Everyday’ and ‘Silent’s are almost classic 1992 trance, whilst the choral effect on ‘The Deal’ and the sweeps of ‘Sun and Ice’ are equally nostalgic.

There is plenty of fuss being made about this album at the moment so does it warrant the attention? For me the attraction lies in its simplicity – those filter sweeps that still raise the hairs on the back of your neck if, like me, you have fond memories of the very early 90s; the heart-string tugging melodic progressions; the comedown sadness. But in placing in that nostalgic frame it has to stand up to the bona fide classics of that era like Kinetic’s ‘Golden Girls’, Orbital, hell, even Jam & Spoon’s Stella – and that is a tough call.

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About Author

Seb Chan founded Cyclic Defrost Magazine in 1998 with Dale Harrison. He handed over the reins at the end of 2010 but still contributes the occasional article and review.

3 Comments

  1. There’s an obsessive-compulsive feel to the tracks I’ve heard. Naggin’ rather than bangin’.

    Is this to euphoric trance as dubstep is to jungle? The memories, the echoes of the ecstatic? Only a lot of trance always had this melancholic feel – esp. the cuts on albums to balance out the floor fillers.

    I am really not sure how this would work in a club. Maybe at 10am on a Sunday.

  2. I’ve been a fan of these guys ever since I heard their first ep’s on Kompakt. Subtle shifts and phases based on repetitive loops – love it! The sound that sprang to mind when I first heard them was that of Seefeel’s classic “Plainsong”.