Piehead's third offering this year comes from the melodic electronicsolo act, Portland. Those familiar with the pioneering n5md label willprobably recognize the name, if not the sound of Portland, and that'slikely because Portland offers little to call his own on Uprox Detox. While the album charts a path through melancholic, beat-oriented IDM (a label used specifically to illicit memories of Artifical Intelligencecompilations and those who love them) with minor key synth tones andclicky, punchy drums, it ultimately plays as a tribute to those whohave gone before. Every moment of Uprox Detox is predictable,just as every sound coaxed out of the computer has been coaxed outbefore. Portland's pedigree lies firmly in the Warp/Skam family tree,and while this album is a worthwhile addition to a catalog of musicthat follows a certain set of rules, it never strays from those rules.These may not be preset drum and synth patches, but they might as wellbe, as most songs sound as though Portland has called up the "EarlyAutechre Kit" on some softsynth in order to compose. The songs arelikeable, genuinely nice in fact, but they aren't poised to startle orupset anyone, and that seems to be my biggest complaint. When thisstrain of IDM's progenitors took a staid techno formula and fucked withit to build something new, it was a little bit shocking, daring, andweird. Now, those same production tricks are nothing more than ashorthand for the kind of music that is characterized by blocky,condensed Helvetica typography and technologically-minded alternatespelling. Portland has rendered a polite and polished album here, butone that never quite cuts loose the way I wish it would. Uprox Detoxis a fine addition to a collection of otherwise ambiguous records, butI hope that next time he colors more outside of the lines.samples:
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