Dave Aju, Crazy Place

[Circus Company]


Buy Vinyl
Buy MP3s

Step number three of Dave Aju’s recent manifesto for dance music is to “personalize all sounds… whenever possible.” With his upcoming album and lead-off single, “Crazy Place,” he’s taken that maxim at its most literal -– making music entirely from sounds made by his mouth. Like his former San Francisco neighbors, Matmos, Aju doesn’t seem remotely worried about creating a novelty record. Unlike Matmos, Aju doesn’t appear interested in all the cerebral implications of turning novelty into an art. Aju keeps his fixations strictly aural. Thankfully. In all practical senses, “Crazy Place” is already an LWE-recommended track, found on a majority of our writer’s “best of 2008 (the first half)” lists. And as much as we don’t want to give in, “Crazy Place” still asks for a victory lap.

Set a couple notches below the standard 128-bpm, “Crazy Place” is built around a kick and snare that sound, for lack of better word, uncanny. They snap right, but the splash is definitely not just reverb. Dirty connotations aside, the drums sound unnaturally moist. Set against a rubbery melody, “Crazy Place” almost sounds like a long-lost track from Mouse on Mars -– playful, nimble and more than a little demented. The beat-boxed woodblocks and slow-mo air-sirens only seal the deal. Aju takes a step past his last single, “Love Always,” by taking his mantras and interlocking them throughout. It sums up to a pretty clear-eyed logic, but “Crazy Place” is built for accumulative effect. Even though each sound is finely manicured, the hardest part to ignore is how calmly “Crazy Place” coalesces. Luciano’s remix of “Crazy Place” only reinforces that fact. Sounding like a Tasmanian Devil rework, Luciano spins no small vortex of percussive effects. Equal parts dizzying and overwhelming, Luciano slowly plunges into the heart of his own tornado and remakes “Crazy Place” as his own.

aju  on September 22, 2008 at 12:24 PM

hello sir
i am so curious about this artiste you call dave aju
could you please give me his actual picure
coz the one i see on the net is faceless
does he really smoke weed as i see it!!
i need answers and if i am the one you seem
to be mucking,then you owe me…

Trackbacks

Little White Earbuds » Dave Aju, Open Wide  on October 15, 2008 at 9:00 PM

[…] sound merchant Dave Aju has had the world waiting for Open Wide since his summertime smash “Crazy Place” was issued as a taster a few months back. Aju has always blended his house/techno with a smattering […]

Popular posts in review

  • None found