Bleep

Following on from his Amen Andrews LP, the second release in Luke Vibert’s new trilogy of albums for Hypercolour finds the artist also known as Wagon Christ/Plug/Kerrier District shining a light on something he knows all about - rave music.

Whereas Amen Andrews focussed on fast breakbeats, Modern Rave finds Vibert bringing the tempo down. While some of the tunes here do approach jungle, the bulk of Modern Rave operates between 120 and 140 beats-per-minute. However, these slower speeds do not indicate a drop in energy - Vibert’s never been one for taking his foot off the gas, after all.

Modern Rave acts a sort of crash-course in early rave sounds. Vibert manages to synthesise influences from techno, acid house and deep house with the jungle, hardcore and drum ‘n’ bass tones he locked into on Amen Andrews. While the task of keeping so many stylistic balls in the air is a challenge that would best lesser producers, Vibert pulls it off in style here. The fact that he approaches his task with a madcap sense of fun certainly helps - you can almost picture the grin on Vibert’s face when he was putting together tunes like ‘The Music’ and ‘Dream’, their colourful sounds mixed up like bright chemicals in a mad scientist’s laboratory.

Luke Vibert’s Modern Rave LP is a hugely enjoyable romp through golden-age rave styles.