Powdered I Ching EP

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Powdered I Ching EP

Stewart Walker [Persona]

25 April, 2008 | 11.56AM

Section: Music Recommendations
Written by: Richard Brophy 2

This is Stewart Walker’s first release since last year’s ‘Concentricity’ album.

It’s clear that in the interim, he’s been busy in the studio and taking influence from a broader range of sources than in the past.

The EP starts off with ‘The Stiff Materialist’, which juxtaposes chiming, hypnotic chords with heavy bass undercurrents and intricately reduced pitter-patter beats that keep the arrangement pulsing along nicely.

It sets an unpredictable tone, and there are more unexpected treats on ‘Free Association’.

Essentially a pleasant, stripped back groove with echoes of “intelligent techno” melody, it suddenly breaks down to reveal a vocal sample.

Quite why Stewart Walker did this is open to interpretation, but there’s clearly a more imaginative mind at work here than the bog standard minimalist producer.

Walker leaves the best till last though — and ‘Mint Tea With Honey’ is just as reassuring and comforting as its title suggests.

Over a robust yet warm bass and tight, stacatto drums, Walker conjures up a seductive jazzy techno sequence that sits somewhere between vintage Detroit house and the deep UK variety.

The end result has the same kind of relaxing effect as the hot beverage alluded to.

In fact, it’s just the tonic.