SUPERSPRITE
Color Mixing
by Dave Heaton
PopMatters Music Critic
"I Don't Spend Time Reflecting on Pins Dropping", Supersprite
declares in the title to his debut album Color Mixing. Perhaps that's
true, but it's clear that what he does spend time on is sampling intriguing
sounds and using them to create an electronic universe of his own. And
that's time well spent, as Color Mixing is an audio delight, music with
real presence. The first track brings us into Supersprite's world by
introducing the cast of characters: vibrating, turning, shimmering electronic
sounds. Yet this track also immediately demonstrates that Supersprite's
music doesn't just present blips and buzzes, but use such sounds to
craft intricate creations that have mood and atmosphere but also melody.
"I Don't Spend Time . . ."
presents churning electronic rhythms but then on top of that adds several
layers of electronic tones that offer both a melody and complementary
harmonies. What happens, then, is you're paying attention to the overall
ambience and to the unique sounds without realizing that melodies are
slowly sinking into your brain, melodies that'll arise a few hours later
when you find yourself humming and can't figure out where you picked
up the tune. That combination of atmosphere and melody is not only what
sets Supersprite apart from much electronic music but a mark of his
label, Audio Dregs Recordings, and the Portland, Oregon scene from which
both Supersprite and Audio Dregs come. Supersprite is Howard Gillam,
and he's been performing live in Portland for years. That Audio Dregs
is his label is fitting, as Supersprite's sound fits snugly next to
that of E*Vax and E*Rock, the label's founders, and many of the other
artists as well. E*Vax himself, whose music is similar in nature if
slightly different in style, shows up here to collaborate with Supersprite
on "Farewell Cosmo", an elegiac dream that features both squeaky
noises and booming bass. It's one of the album's two collaborations,
the other featuring the group Nudge on a track called "Pleasure
Model".
Color Mixing is only slightly longer than 50 minutes, yet feels rich
and textured, like you've sunk yourself into a new home. Though the
overall sound of the album remains the same from start to finish, within
that sound there's a breadth of differing styles and feelings. "Spraycopter"
starts with an electronic-popcorn-type noise and a slightly hip-hop
groove before succumbing to moody waves of synth. "Ghosts at the
Fireworks Factory" has a glowing effervescence that evokes the
otherworldliness of its title.
Each track starts one way and goes several others, offering that same
satisfying feeling you get when a meal you're eating reveals different
subtleties with each bite, or when a film or novel unwraps itself in
surprising ways. The songs on Color Mixing are given imaginative titles
-- "Let's Form a Puddle" or "Theme from 'Prism Pies'",
for example -- but the songs themselves top that by taking you on head-twirling
trips of their own. Color Mixing is a mysterious, colorful dream brought
to life through music.
Supersprite
Color Mixing
[Boston Weekly Dig]
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Like labelmate E*vax, Supersprite seems fond of including found-sound
percussion such as door creaks, thumps, and clanks of cutlery as well
as resonant beats and repetitious melodies. He fits well into the DIY
electronica niche of the Audio Dregs label in this respect, yet there
is something clearly different in Howard Gillam’s methodology
that helps to set him apart. The elements he uses in his music reference
the lush, synthesized feel of early Warp releases, such as Black Dog
or Aphex Twin. But possibly partially due to its high production value,
the resulting cacophony is more often sporadic instead of characteristically
soothing. Gillam seems resolved to produce dense compositions with a
deeper, more varied palette, and in doing so, stays away from electronica
clichés, i.e. extensive processing of raw synthesizers and an
up-tempo BPM. Color Mixing doesn’t have quite the charming economy
of notes found in comparable albums from Inkblot, but still, it is an
impressive effort from this Portland underground favorite.
-Andrew Schrock
Supersprite "color mixing" CD
(Audio Dregs, adr 043)
[hand
stitched heart]
Firstly, the dig pack’s artwork is really nice. I really like
the color combinations he chose to make this. Maybe it has something
to do with the title, maybe not.
The first song you get from Supersprite is a short introduction to the
different sounds you are about to encounter. This CD should have been
the soundtrack to any Metroid game, especially "stop celebrating".
I love it. High energetic, synth action that’s filtered with bubbled
sounds ranging from thick tones to high up bubble popped liquids. But
don’t get too hyped on the upbeat ness of this song because it
soon enough drops off the cliff to a soft gentle break down ending.
Supersprite uses ambient sounds to weave his melody’s with in-timed
clicks and blips that enhance the melody‘s mood. Lush songs that
make you want to kick back on a soft couch with pillows to enhance the
softness. The selections on the CD are with a touch of spaciness to
it all.
A few moments in the CD it get’s a little outside my own personal
taste as far as electronic goes, but I don’t want to say this
is a bad thing, because it still sounds well put together. Over all
I liked most of this CD and there’s 13 songs, so you’re
getting enough to listen to. The songs change styles (sounds like a
touch of hip hop influenced stuff then to video game music, and etc)
from song to song so there’s a lot of different moods with each
song. That makes it more enjoyable. - John Kale
SUPERSPRITE: Color Mixing
INKBLOT: Love Your Mother
XLR8R #62
From Portland, Oregon's
lovely Audio Dregs imprint comes two excellent examples of melodic,
subtly textured, lightly experimental electronic instrumental pop. Superesprite
is Howard Gillam, and Color Mixing is his first full-length. It's a
dreamy, drifting, melancholic affair full of lush synth-lines, gently
percolating rhythms, and crispy, crunchy beats. Love Your Mother, Jeremy
Ballard's second record as Inkblot, is somewhat more ambitious, in part
because it's so stylistically heterogeneous. The music is very much
collage-based, combining guitar, bass, piano and a multiplicity of electronic
sounds and field recordings. The tracks gurgle, burble and coo in a
manner that would make any mother proud, especially if you were nursed
on krautrock and Mouse on Mars.
[Susanna Bolle]
SUPERSPRITE
Color Mixing
(ADR043) Audio Dregs 2002
13 Tracks. 52mins19secs.
[the milk factory] UK
Is electronica on the verge of loosing its soul? The question could
sound rather misplaced in today’s effervescent context, but seems
nevertheless perfectly legitimate. In the early days, the movement was
split between dance floor and lounge influences, but, unlike the more
hardcore club scene, the pioneers of the genres kept in touch with their
musical roots by injecting their sonic assemblages with melodies. The
likes of Black Dog, B12, LFO and others offered an attractive and accessible
interpretation of abstraction. During the nineties, some artists started
experimenting with more complex structures, leading them to sometimes
forget about what makes their art in the first place: music.
While Autechre and consort continue to push the boundaries, at the risk
of alienating part of their audience, the last five years have seen
a new breed of artists, led by Boards Of Canada, Múm, Isan and
To Rococo Rot, returning to the more emotional and human side of electronic
music. Based in Portland, Oregon, Supersprite front man Howard Gillam
is definitely one of them. Having spent most of his life playing live
set with his battery of drum machines, samplers and keyboards, before
finally now releasing his first album, Color Mixing, on the highly excellent
Audio Dregs label. Produced by label boss E*ROCK with a little hand
from the second Audio Dregs head E*VAX, the album is a fascinating collection
of vintage electronica, reminiscent of Warp’s seminal Artificial
Intelligence series. Using his sampler as his instrument of predilection,
Gillam refrains from using pre-recorded elements to focus on sourcing
his basic sounds from his arsenal of electronic devices, adding a handful
of carefully selected found sounds to reinforce the cohesion of his
work. Although the sonic constructions on offer here are in essence
abstract, the clever use of simple and effective melodies reinforces
the human touch of Gillam’s music. Often adopting a playful approach,
he develops poetic little vignettes based around dense atmospheric,
emphasising on the evocative power of his soft soundscapes. Dressing
his songs in inviting titles (Don’t Spend Time Reflecting On Pins
Dropping, Farewell Cosmo, Let’s Form A Puddle), his music is full
of anecdotic elements brought together to entice the listener to open
up and enjoy the dream-like scenery. Far from being devoid of content,
his compositions are rich and ingenious, from the light-hearted Stop
Celebrating or Recent Developments to the somber I’ll Get Back
To You About That and Theme From “Prism Pies”.
With this first album, Howard Gilliam rediscovers the essence of modern
electronica by dusting the early inspirations of the genre and putting
some interesting sonic constructions together. A very good debut.
Color Mixing by Supersprite
[autres directions]
Supersprite is the project assembled in 1997 by Howard Gillam in Salem,
its town of origin. After a first appearance at Dregs Audio via compilation
For Friends (realized jointly with the Tomlab label), Supersprite delivers
Color Mixing, together the sound paintings composed by its care and
produced by Eric Mast (alias E*Rock, half of Dregs Audio). I Don' T
Spend Time Reflecting, first title of the disc, is essential a such
declaration of intent: the musical universe of Supersprite is indeed
instinctive, fact of accomplished moods and acknowledged desires. Generally
between pop electronics and the ambient one, each composition is a table
where the monochromic one of departure remains seldom identical, disturbed
directly or periodically attacked. Certain titles, raised by low undulating
(like Farewell Cosmo or Recent Developments), are remarkable. Gillam
is trotted regularly, armed with its Minidisc, records noises of its
environment (with a preference, certainly, for the mewings and the chirps)
and makes use of it as of a base to work out its organic materials,
than it stretches then in time and space. Not far from Fleischmann or
David Mooney, Supersprite thus succeeds in transgressing the daily newspaper
to make oneiric and colourful textures of them.
[par stéphane]
Color Mixing by Supersprite
Howard Gillam continues in the now well established Audio Dregs artist
tradition of fantastic track titles for otherwise hard to characterise
electronic music, with "I Don't Spend Time Reflecting On Pins Dropping
and Let's Form a Puddle both something of a worrying insight into the
introspective mind of a techno producer. Titles aside, Gillam's debut
full-length release fits right into the glistening product that sparkles
from the Portland labels consistently interesting back catalogue cupboard.
As opposed to the fashionable fusion of folk-electronica, Color Mixing
sees a return to Warp's golden age of Artificial Intelligence, blending
stuttering vintage synths with crunching percussion and warm bass tones
with the resultant body of work as timeless as it is memorable.
[kingsley marshall]
Supersprite, "Mixing Color"
[loop.cl]
This is the project of Howard Gillam of the city of Portland, Oregon,
that its debut in Audio Dregs with an album produced by and * the Vax
does, - that goes the seal, next to its E*Rock brother - and a certain
Nudge [ invited and responsible Omco ] as from the production. Each
one of the subjects has necessary and perfect the ingredient in which
melódicas notes, rates of half analogical time and sound are
combined, which prints the sound characteristic of this seal. In this
sense which is underlying is the characteristic of a music done for
fables, something ingenuous but nonsuperficial, rather positivista,
form that take for example, "Stop celebrating", in exchange
for another one of intimist character as cosmo is "Farewell".
They also emphasize by its sonorous intensity "Theme from Prism
Pies ", that start off little by little until reaching high levels
of manipulations of moog, as also "Sparkling Dynamo" by its
timbres and colorful ambientación. I invite them to know Audio
Dregs, seal that opens to passage with a proposal between the experimentation
and pop of vanguard audiodregs
[ Guillermo Escudero]
