Tag: VLSI Records

BUNKR – Signs

On By 429harrowroadIn EP reviewsLeave a comment

I owe BUNKR’s James Dean an apology.

He sent me a promo download of Signals, his most recent album, and I never quite managed to get around to writing about it. In my defence, there’s been a lot of Life Stuff, Work Stuff and Other Stuff going on at my end and it consequently didn’t make it to the top of the to do list. Then I put the list in our recycling bin without realising. It was only when Dean sent me this companion EP that I twigged that I’d forgotten to review Signals. I can only apologise. I’ll try harder. Hopefully this piece makes up for it.

The sad fact is that I’m a huge fan of BUNKR’s work, and have been since I was introduced to it by my pal David Best from Fujiya & Miyagi (actually, I think I’ve overlooked writing about their brilliant new album also! I really need to get more organised).

What I missed with Signals was a collection inspired by the Surrey Hills. Its EP sequel is about the city laid out just beyond that geographical boundary. Signs, then, is a sort of romantic ode to the sprawling majesty of London and its unique personality. What did Samuel Johnson say? “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” This one’s for you, Sammy.

These four tracks have a journeying quality that is unique to BUNKR and one of the things I like most about Dean’s music. It is an implied vibrancy laced with total wonder at the sights unfolding in front of him. ‘Cruisen’ feels like a photograph taken with a slow shutter speed where the capital’s buses and black cabs become a blur of headlights. It carries a suggestion of energy suffused with nice little Kraftwerk-y flourishes and resolute, searching rhythms.

‘Eternal Cities’ reaches deeper into a kind of latency that eventually yields to post-hardcore beats and sweet melodic repetitions, neatly stacked like that Escher-esque illustration of all the Tube lines clustered below Piccadilly Circus. ‘The Distance Ate Itself’ is majestic and poignant, a tender instrumental electronic love song that has a stately, church organ grandeur to its framing.

Signs is an EP so sharply executed and decisive in its vision that they should play it as trains arrive into Waterloo, just to remind its weary commuters of why they drag themselves into London every day.

Released September 18 2026 by VLSI.

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2026 Further.

Infinite Scale – The Value of Accessibility

On By miyagi42In Album reviewsLeave a comment

Following on from their excellent BUNKR and Echaskech releases, VLSI Records continue to cultivate that rare ability in a label of creating a cohesive identity while simultaneously showcasing acts who have their own personalities.

Such is the case with Harmi Paldi, who has been creating music under the alias of Infinite Scale since 2005. Opening track ‘Caught On Tape’ gives the feeling of leaning forward without falling over, like a glitchy, fragmented Jack Dawson holding Rose Dewitt Bukater at a 45-degree angle on the bow of the Titanic.

‘The Chauffeur’ is fuelled by a laconic bass-line that tethers all the other moving parts to its roots. ‘Ordinary Familiar’ splutters wonderfully to a halt like ‘French Kiss’ deprived of its morning caffeine. Album closer ‘Steppa Side’s wooziness suggests a more playful side which strikes a nice balance with the more muted tones of the track that precedes it, ‘Pay For This’.

The album concerns itself with the ease we have of accessing information and the sheer volume of data available to us. It also suggests a longing for the pre-internet days of anticipation and manual discovery. The use of the word ‘tape’ in one of the titles reveals a fondness for the tactile joy of physical objects. In a digital world items such as audio and video cassettes look and feel antiquated, and it’s easy to see why they might become fetishised by generations who were deprived of the pleasure of possessing them first time around.

Does accessibility trump first-hand experience? Can second-hand experiences ever match seeing and feeling things unfold in the flesh? Does it matter? Are we guilty of setting our personal filters too far to the point where we only interact with our own doppelgängers?

Perhaps the reality is if we solely embrace this constant source of never-ending information we will end up isolated and our opinions homogenised.

The Value Of Accessibility‘s strength lies in its ability to process and present ideas without losing its humanity or identity. To have information at one’s fingertips suits those of us who can no longer can be free in their movements, whether due to geographical responsibilities, mobility issues, or the end of free movement in Europe post-Brexit. Luckily, records such as these transcend physical borders.

The Value Of Accessibility by Infinite Scale is released January 31 2020 by VLSI Records.

Words: David Best. David is a founding member of Fujiya & Miyagi and Ex-Display Model.

(c) 2020 David Best for Further.

BUNKR – The Initiation Well Remixed

On By 429harrowroadIn Album reviewsLeave a comment

The counterpart to BUNKR’s debut album The Initiation Well from earlier this year, this collection sees a diverse collection of electronic artists tackling Brighton-based James Dean’s exquisitely-executed pieces. The Initiation Well was a brilliant, if relatively understated gem of an album; an album that didn’t come with glossy promotion or a massive PR budget and yet which exuded a confidence, panache and depth very often absent from a lot of solo electronic efforts that cross this writer’s (virtual) desk. The happy news is that each of the mixes here simply shine a light on how good the original material was in the first place, even if they take Dean’s vision off down interesting, and sometimes unexpected pathways.

Fujiya & Miyagi return the favour offered through BUNKR’s mix of their ‘Personal Space’ with a fresh take on ‘Solitary Drift’, here recast as a mournful vocal pop track thanks to the addition of uncharacteristically muted vocals from F&M’s David Best. The result is a towering synth pop epic moving along on a waltz rhythm and dystopian path. ‘The Initiation Well’ is given a reverential acid techno retread by Jonathan Krisp that immediately transports you back to a mid-90s Richie Hawtin night, beautifully augmented by ambient washes and blurry vocal snippets.

Elsewhere, Echaskech’s mix of ‘Left For Dust’ flips the original into deep minimal techno shapes, its fluttering, filtered melody and unswerving rhythm given a firmness and urgency as the mix progresses, while Luxtron’s remix of ‘East Of Eden’ sounds like an updated version of Aphex Twin’s ‘Xtal’ from Selected Ambient Works 85-92, all woozy texture and shimmering, obfuscated melodies over a restrained progressive house beat.

Perhaps the most surprising moment in this set comes with Infinite Scale’s mix of ‘Docking Procedure’, which pushes the track squarely into deep dub territory, replete with springy percussion, haunting echo and stuttering rhythms offset by squelchy and vibrant 303 flourishes.

The Initiation Well Remixed by BUNKR was released November 29 2019 by VLSI Records.

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2019 Further.

BUNKR – The Initiation Well

On By 429harrowroadIn Album reviewsLeave a comment

It’s no coincidence that the first track on the debut album by Brighton’s BUNKR is titled ‘East Of Eden’, for its creator is named James Dean. Drifting forward on a serene topography of heat-haze, gauzy pads and gently-accelerating synth sprinkles, ‘East Of Eden’ is a delicate, purposeful move that ushers in a brilliantly diverse collection of nine finely-crafted electronic opuses.

From the processed vocal melodies of the spacey ‘Docking Procedure’ onwards, this is a record that neatly fuses together Dean’s interest in vintage kit with the gridded framework of techno. 4/4 beats are omnipresent throughout the album, but the resourceful Dean finds ample space within those rhythmic strictures to play with convention. The standout ‘Solar Wings’ is case in point, offering a beatific melodic poignancy over shuddering percussion that nods to the epochal ‘Spastik’ before emotive bass patterns carry the piece off into evocative, widescreen territory. Dean does something similar with the haunting closing track, ‘Rheasilvian Lakes’, delivering an atmospheric, many-layered piece that concludes with the eerie sound of distant rainfall.

Perhaps the biggest surprise here is the beatless ‘Solar Drift’, whose shimmering, tentative astral melodic counterpoints evoke sepia-tinged recollections of early electronic classical LPs, while the gently-evolving, evocative title track is nothing short of a mesmeric, understated wonder to behold.

The Initiation Well by BUNKR was released September 6 2019 by VLSI Records.

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2019 Further.