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Runtime: 38'42'

«Here's a treat from our good friends and returning artists from Canada Daniel Maze and Dave Zeal. 'Blueprints for insect architecture' is a step forward from their previous work here at test tube (tube083) and perhaps both are lifting the veil and showing new directions in their future solo works.

'Blueprints for insect architecture', unlike 'Small Airports' or any of their individual solo efforts, is a very experimental based work. Granted, it may not seem like it at first, but with repeating listens it reveals new layers of complexity and a different approach regarding synthesis grown and sampled sounds. 'Small Airports' reminded me a lot some of the more experimental Boards of Canada tracks, but it sounded very 'popish' nonetheless. 'Blueprints' goes a step further and offers us new perspectives towards where electronic-pop ambient may go next. I think that Daniel and Dave have really fresh and new perspectives on experimental pop ambient and they're both artists that you should definitely follow in the future regarding collaborative and solo work.»
- test tube

Downloads:

01 Parasite Rex
  [2'36'' • 5,24Mb • VBR]
02 Glimmer for third eye
  [9'49'' • 17,6Mb • VBR]
03 Infant speech
  [2'02'' • 3,77Mb • VBR]
04 Landscape with beast
[9'00'' • 15,5Mb • VBR]
05 Computer self aware
  [11'42'' • 22,7Mb • VBR]
06 Impossible magic in 4D
  [3'33'' • 6,74Mb • VBR]
  artwork
  [PDF-Zip • 3,29Mb]
  all tracks + artwork
  [Zip • 74,8Mb]

Reviews:

«It is quite hard to have a clear-cut definition pertaining of these 6 tracks, which are merely essential parts of Maze-Zeal`s second issue created in liaison with each other on Test Tube (a continuation to 'Small Airports EP'). More profoundly, it is full of trash and hisses, delicate noiseful swerves, dubstep-like ghostly urban undulation, haunting jazz samples, penetrating electronic signals, all of that replaced sometimes with very floaty atmospheric layers to get the whole to be more variegated within its borders. In fact, all of that could be called as experimental ambient in corpore. Masterful! (9.2/10)»
- Borealiscape [Recent Music Heroes] / September 08, 2011

«Back in 2006 Vancouverites Dave Zeal and Daniel Maze produced their first work together on Zeal’s Landsdowne (veerwaves) which was released in January 2007. Both had been very busy with releases on Top-40, Test Tube, 12 rec, Sinewaves and other labels during 2006. But 2007 marks Zeal and Maze’s first full-length collaboration with Small Airports on test tube. Pedro Leitão, the curator of test tube, wrote at the time that Small Airports was “a marvelous journey into pop-ambient.”  Labels truly confuse me and I understand why we use them, though all evidence points to the contrary, but pop-ambient sounds like something I wouldn’t want to listen to. And Small Airports is something I want to listen to.

Five years later and not much was heard from the Zeal and Maze compared to their earlier productivity. But 2011 brings the pair back, this time as Maze and Zeal, with Blueprints for Insect Architecture, an album that strips any vestiges of a pop veneer and explores the experimental depths that haunted the periphery of Small Airports. Before I go on about the music, please take notice of another superb album cover from aeriola::behaviour who has done a most amazing job  at test tube. The covers are always, always exquisite and this one of a termite nest for Blueprints is of no exception.

The first track, “Parasite Rex”, sets the tone that the Blueprints for Insect Architecture is going to be filled with delicious noises and feedback instead of smooth synths and melodies. Small Airports smothered the earlier experimentation, but with a track like “Glimmer from the third eye” one hears Blueprints triumphing over Airports. The track I keep on coming back to is the indescribable ”Computer self aware”. And now that I’ve called it indescribable, like any good reviewer, I shall try to describe it. “Computer self aware” is part minimal techno, part noise, part ambient, part melody, but pure glitchy. It is a collage of all the musical tools that Zeal and Maze have at their disposable. If I had to choose between Airports and Blueprints, I’d definitely go for the latter as I groove to its experimental goodness. But, if you leaned towards Airports, I really do understand.»
- David Nemeth [Acts of Silence] / August 01, 2011

«Los artistas canadienses Daniel Maze y Dave Zeal vuelven a Test Tube con este nuevo trabajo. En estos “planos para arquitectura de insectos” hay un paso mas allá, un ligero cambio de enfoque, distinto a aquel “Small Airports”. Quizá un cambio de escala o más bien de enfoque. Mas que una vista desde el aire, este trabajo tiene una visión desde más cerca, menos abstracta; mas microscópica. Sonido experimental y complejo, rico en detalles que se iran revelando y descubriendo en cada nueva escucha. En este trabajo los dos artistas pueden estar mostrando las líneas por las que seguirán en el futuro aunque a la vez conserva rasgos caracteristicos de este duo. Muy interesante.»
- [Netlabels & News] / June 22, 2011

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Copyleft:

cover:
©2011 internet find
©2011 aeriola::behaviour
music:
©2009 Daniel Maze/Dave Zeal
©2011 test tube


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.

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