3/19/2017

Various Artists — Covert II


Label Touched is known to the public because of its intention to support people diagnosed with cancer and for maintaining a campaign called Macmillan Cancer Support. It’s keeping up the good work by releasing the second part of the mysterious compilation Covert on CD, a month later after the namesake EP was released on vinyl. The essence of Covert is a neutral and fair evaluation of music. 

The names of the authors of the tracks are omitted and the audience can only see the tracks’ titles. You can pretty much listen to the compilation and guess the names all by yourself. 

It all begins with the track Song in Song that is very reminiscent of the early Richard D. James. Powerful electric sounds and general atmosphere let us immediately know that the name Covert II wasn’t chosen at random. 

After that, comes something not a single bit less mysterious in the form of the track Everything Connected, a classic example of IDM from the late 90s – early 00s (which creates an affinity between it and the atmospheric and pensive We Are Not Alone). And right after it ends, the big picture begins coming together thanks to Sol Ar Skies. It is exactly this track that harbors the main secret of this compilation. 

Everyone who played Civilization III and remembers its OST will be pleasantly surprised by the percussion and Ancient Egyptian motives of 9a9a Ran. We can only guess who the author of this track was, but my intuition tells me that it could very well be the British duo Autechre. 

One can easily recognize the new style of Plaid in the seventh track, Filmed Lipear. The melancholic patterns have a very deep melodic base in spite of its apparent simplicity and make this track a real hit. 

The style of Covert II is overall based on Electro, IDM and Acid, very well known to us from the age of popularity of the raves. It’s a very educational excursion for those who missed or didn’t have enough of those times. One could easily fill this void with this release. Nevertheless even the most experiences fans of Electro will love this wonderful trip.


Author: Ilya Kudrin