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Album Review: Bassnectar ‘Vava Voom’

Bassnectar has been around for a while, and in the decade-plus that Lorin Ashton has been producing music he has been able to thoroughly explore many different schools and styles of not only EDM, but popular music in general.

Vava Voom is mostly a dubstep album, but there are clear influences from other genres in each song, showcasing a very broad musical vocabulary. The record very heavily features hiphop, but even gets into punk, and if you can count the mishmash of ideas in the album’s bonus track, a bit of death metal. An impressive range to say the least.

The titular opening track is a great intro to Vava Voom’s blend of hiphop and dubstep, and shows some of what makes Bassnectar unique, featuring a chiptune melody which carries the song through the deep murk of heavy bass, and almost grants it a kind of levity. At around 2:45 the track shifts into its battle stance, and it ends having presented Bassnectar’s complete arsenal for this album.

It could be a problem that Vava Voom gives you the money shot up front, and though it is clearly the strongest track, there are shapes left to twist these components into.

‘Empathy’ glistens with a crisp soundscape of ice and stone, evoking a cold and ethereal feeling very much unexpected after the weight of ‘Vava Voom’. I wouldn’t call it ambient music, but it certainly creates an image for the listener, without loosening up so much that it lets go of its club appeal.

Frenetic drumming builds the backbone for ‘Ugly’ before a quick translation into the language of overcharged bass. It ends up being one of the most typical dubstep indulgences on the record, but the vibe set by the drums off the top helps reveal a direction, which keeps with the listener and makes the second act more interesting. Especially for anyone interested in the craft itself.

From here on, the album seems to become increasingly blatant in its themes and influences. ‘Ping Pong’ is a rather frank experiment around the sounds of bouncing ping pong balls, and it sounds great, but that gets somewhat lost or drowned out by chugging bass, with no real connection to the clattering provenance.

I think it’s right to see some of these songs as experiments, as if Bassnectar is really just playing around with random ideas and having a little fun with it. At times it seems to be musically immature, but this is a seasoned and experienced artist with a real mastery and understanding of what he is doing. Perhaps he’s just not overly precious about his songs, and is playing to his audience, but some of these ideas do end up feeling a little unfinished.

The album seems to frontload all of its heavy hitters, with a couple of exceptions. The westcoast, Minimoog gangsta whine of ‘Do It Like This’ is a standout, and feels perfectly at home in dubstep. However, ‘What’ could be considered interchangeable with ‘Ugly’, and Vava Voom really never attempts to reach a climax.

One of the more interesting tracks on the record is ‘Pennywise Tribute’, at least in the context of an EDM record, but on its own it’s just a straight cover of Pennywise’s classic ‘Bro Hymn’. It doesn’t really change shapes until three minutes in, after which it is one hell of a remix, but up to that point Bassnectar does almost nothing with the song.

The final three songs are soft and crystalline, whetting your appetite for a finish which never comes. ‘Laughter Crescendo’ is the longest track, and it feels like it. While ‘Butterfly’ is a better song, the fact that it immediately follows a tune which goes on a bit too long and has the same kind of vibe, really compounds the problem. ‘Nothing Has Been Broken’ fits into the same mold, and while it is a gorgeous dreamscape, it’s also an anticlimax. You want something big to smack you around here, but the album is over.

The bonus track, ‘Chronological Outtakes’, is just a highlight reel of discarded ideas, and it doesn’t remedy the lackluster ending. Some of the concepts are interesting, some really aren’t, and none of them are complete. It’s a little self-indulgent.

I should say that I really do like the three closing tracks, just not all together and at the end of an album which seems to promise heavy hitters with its opener. Bassnectar has an almost synaesthetic approach in those simpler, softer songs, and they work very well on their own. It’s just a weirdly structured album.

Bassnectar is a great DJ and producer, with an extensive bag of tricks and a very firm grasp on what makes different types of songs great. I think his prowess with chiptunes and the other playful aspects he brings to dubstep are his strong points, but the record as a whole feels rushed and incomplete. Most of these songs would be a great addition to any mix, but as an album, it kind of leaves you hanging.

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