Reviews

Boomkat

Named in reference to a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Matt Sweeney song, Blood Embrace is the latest full-length from Brighton electronica artist Calika. As is true to form the album is full of organically spliced together beats and samples but with plenty of fresh, high-end production elements keeping the compositions fresh and melodically switched-on. A slightly darker, more subdued feel permeates this album, and Calika sounds all the better for it, fashioning a string of powerful soundscapes through the early stages, peaking with the off-kilter, junkyard folk-hop of 'Melcher', before entering into sinister jazz club mutations on 'Headset' and the haunting 'In The Dark', which sounds rather like an eroded away reinterpretation of John Carpenter's Halloween soundtrack. Good stuff.

Thrill Jockey

Simon Kealoha has been releasing his own brand of electro-acoustic music for the past five years. He has released two previous albums for Audiobulb records, one for Scottish Label Benebecula, as well as various EP's and compilation appearances.

Through each release he has continued to explore his love of jazz, hip hop and post rock, found sounds, degraded loops and twisted beats, incorporating them into loose musical structures that grow organically from start to finish, taking unexpected twists and turns along the way.

Blood Embrace strips back his sounds to its simpler, rawer elements, giving a more urgent and immediate feel to the music. This is the result of a conscious attempt to alter the working process, jamming out ideas and giving them the chance to grow within their own space with as little editing as possible.

Vital Weekly

The third album by Simon Kealoha, also known as Calika comes as a CDR, unlike its two predecessors. What hasn't changed is his love of "jazz, hip hop, post rock, found sounds,degraded loops and twisted beats", which he seems to be using all to create his music. What's different, I suppose, is the fact that things sound a bit more raw, unfinished than before. Calika creates some great IDM music, but isn't too shy to move into more ambient textures, and have a piece with some guitar sounds, modest computer processing and simply watch what is happening. Calika makes a pretty varied disc of bouncing rhythm pieces,melodic ambient pieces and lovely sunny pieces. This release, along with a cold soft drink, reading a book in a sunny garden, is just the perfect way to spend afternoon (if only I had a garden!).

The Milk Factory

Brighton-based Simon Kealoha is back on Audiobulb with his fourth full length slice of refined electro-acoustic in five year, his first album since Seedling Mother (Audiobulb, 2007), following the two EPs released last year, Crooked, once again on Audiobulb, and Slack Jaw on Highpoint Lowlife. Ever since he first appeared, in 2005, with his debut album, Small Talk Kills Me, Kealoha has been refining his sound, bringing together acoustic and electronic elements into complex and fragile formations. Beside working on his own project, Kealoha has also collaborated with Seefeel mastermind Mark Clifford on the excellent Running Taper, an album published on Clifford’s Polyfusia Records in 2005, and on a second opus which came close to be released two years later but appears to have been victim of the demise of the label.

Announced as a more stripped down and bare record, Blood Embrace remains a pretty intricate and organic collection, at times surprisingly light and airy, at others radical and dense. Predominant in his work, the guitar, acoustic in most cases, takes here a variety of roles, from simple textural counterpoint to main focal feature, placed as a discreet melodic filigree amidst strong electronic currents or used as a substantial component in the structure of a piece. While this is not the only acoustic instrument to find its way in this record, it is found in abundance throughout, from the gentle broken pop of Kodachrome or the shimmering Headset and Poor Low Lencher to the sombre undertones of Lug or Fuckin Cretinous. This changes on the piano-led In The Dark, a piece in two half, the first showing a resolutely autumnal, at times almost funeral, tone, while the second reveals a brighter mood as the course of the melody is greatly altered by the introduction of a drum beat, but  things become much darker again as layers of mournful organ build up on the emotional aspect of If Ever There Was A Time.

While this confrontation of the organic and artificial is a pretty permanent fixture, Kealoha occasionally switches to more purely electronic or highly processed sounds. This is the case with the rather superb Melcher, with its heady groove and rich sonic backdrop, and later on with the title track, which resonates with seismic percussive noises placed over lightly abrasive sound waves, or on the lighter hip-hop flavoured Palace Pier. These are in no way exempt of acoustic elements, but they are either buried under layers of grainy electronic sounds, only to emerge occasionally, at times for just a brief moment, at others in the dying section of a track, or processed beyond recognition.

While not a major departure from previous Calika releases, Blood Embrace denotes a move toward slightly darker territories for Simon Kealoha, but far from rendering his music heavier, it seems to inject a new lease of energy in his approach. He manipulates his sound sources and integrates the various strands of his sound with great dexterity throughout to create his most consistent and confident work yet.