Jega - Variance [Album]

Planet Mu

July 1, 2009, 01:48 PM

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I reckon Planet Mu have the pressing plant on a continuous loop. I also reckon they have a factory in China full of music production uber-nerds churning out song after song until they have something that resembles an album, then the head honchos make up a name and release it. What a great way to make your money. Bet the owner won Dragons Den.

Seriously though, Planet Mu has been releasing a huge amount of music this last 6 months. Some of it confusing, some of it sublime, but pretty much all of it good. Next up is the third Planet Mu album for Jega, otherwise known as Dylan Nathan. The press release states that it has been nine years since Jega’s last album. Quite a gap really when you think about it. Supposedly in 2003, Jega’s material was leaked onto the internet and this forced him “to return to the drawing board and rewrite vast chunks of his material”.

The long shot of it being that “Varience” is a 2 CD album jammed with 18 tracks that show off Dylan Nathan’s impressive production skills, if nothing more. Sadly it seems that with a two CD album, Jega has favoured quantity over quality. I am not going to say that this is a gross mistake. It is just the way it is. CD 1 is supposedly a lighter side to Jega. A more pleasant, airy side, while CD 2 contains the darker elements that make up Jega’s personality. OK, all good so far. What about the music I hear you say?

CD 1 is, in fact, the lighter side of electronica, featuring percussion heavily laden with live drums, pad-synth sounds and even the odd vocal snippet. What becomes obvious on listening is that Dylan Nathan is a highly skilled electronic music producer. Jega’s abililty to mesh some lovely reverb automation with fine glitch drum programming, big distorted bass and warm pads leaves the listener admiring his talents. The songs do lack a bit of the emotion and heartfeltness of let’s say a FaltyDL, or even the drive of Few Nolder but they do have their own “something”. Stand out tracks on CD 1 are “Eva”, that combines intense glitch percussion with a big modulated synth line to fine effect and track 8 “Aguemine” which is a highly complex work of intricate drum programming combined with subtle synth melodies that convey more than a nod to early the Aphex Twin ambient works.

CD 2 is quite a different affair altogether. It is darker, edgier, grittier and rougher. All in a good way. With the second CD, Jega has decided to make music of a more vengeful nature. Tracks 3 and 4, “Chromodynamic” and “Cascade Decoherence” show an upbeat side to Jega, punctuated with a more electro feel, big synth rhythms and 8 bit computer programming. Track 5 “Aerodynamic” is where we see the true Jega come to the fore. On listening, you could easily believe that nine years went into the production of this song alone.

It is a highly complex piece, full of rises and falls and highly, highly intricate programming. I can only hazard a guess as to how many hours were spent on this, and I would say the hour count was on the verge of unhealthy. In fairness though the song stands out for its quality, and is well worth a listen.

All in all Jega has produced quite an album. The only thing being that it didn’t have to be a double album. As is stands it is quite a body of work, far reaching and very well produced. Stripped down, it may have been seminal.

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