January 12th, 2009 by niwa | posted in albums, download, electronic, free music, release, triphop |

The December month has passed, the new year has started so it’s the perfect time to reflect on the time that has gone by and the days that the future holds. With the recent Mishoo and Armyfatique releases we could check out what other people had to say, and now the time has come to sit back and let our own thoughts flow. And what could be better for such an activity than some warm melancholic downtempo?

A couple of months ago General Fuzz informed me of his release called ‘Soulful Filling’. Next to supplying the download link he also kindly offered to send me a hardcopy, a fact which clearly states he’s serious about making music and not about making profit. When I received the album a couple of days later (which is pretty quick seeing it had to come from US), the liner notes on the sleeve made this fact even more evident:

“It has been a fairly reflective year, what with the introduction of Yoga and the getting of older. A byproduct of this contemplative peroide is a batch of songs which are both increasingly introspective and complex. I hope this album finds you well, or helps you find the well full of “aww yeah”. Drink deeply from the well if you find it.“

Because ‘Soulful Filling’ is downtempo in a more clean, musical and ambient’esque way than the stuff I usually write about (which becomes apparent after listening to the first couple of seconds of the disc) I was pleasantly surprised that there are still some breaks involved in most of the tracks to compliment the anticipated computer-generated drums.

The release is built on spacious pads, intricate melodic structures (played by either synths and real instruments like violin, guitar and cello) and reverb-slapped drumsequences. Where most chillout ambient downtempo can be quite boring and repetitive, Fuzz builds heavily on changes while keeping the overall vibe of the tracks and the release as a whole pretty steady. Some tracks even are (to me) reminiscent of early IDM music.

Let’s all ditch the expression ‘food for thought’ and replace it with ‘music for thought’ when you play this album.

You can get the album (160kbps MP3) and more of General Fuzz’s productions here, as well as a list of collaborating artists.