electrocd

Review

DS, Phosphor, 1 décembre 2003

Oeuf Korreckt’s CD Podweek is released by the label No Type as one of four upon the label’s launch. On this album Oeuf Korreckt (aka Quebec based Frédérick Blouin) has produced a variation of techno tracks from hardcore oriented to more melodic and ambient, but always with a strong rhythmical base and melodic content. For the creation of his music Oeuf Korreckt uses the currently quite obsolete pre-windows Tracker assemble software like Impulse Tracker or Scream Tracker. By using the Tracker software the tracks on this CD very much get a 1980’s techno pioneer vintage sound. Most of the instrument sounds have this particular 8 bit quality.

But by cleverly arranging various sounds it is possible, even with the cheap sounds from the Tracker software to produce full sounding and complex arrangements. Obviously in many compositions he uses an extra drumcomputer for the drumtrack. That way he has a broader palette of drum beats and control over percussion sound and mix. And many songs feature the typical computer-game sequences to complement the limited sound palette.

The way the tracks are mixed and the quality of the recordings varies. On some tracks he manages hardly to escape sounding like the background music of an early computer game. The Podweek Theme features could probably be transferred to a soundtrack with little effort.

Tracks, like Pochacco, Alright Well Okay or Four Channels sound as if they’re recorded straight from the Tracker software with a little added reverb for ambience. On other tracks like King of the Elephants and A Ride in Elephant City recording is more worked at. Percussive and sequenced sounds are mixed in the stereo field. The voice of a young boy makes Alright Well Okay more interesting to listen to.

The works on this CD date from 1995 to 2001, making it a kind of retrospective and they give a good impression of what Oeuf Korreckt is capable of. The Podweek CD also gives a good impression of the musical development in the period in which the recordings were made and the roots of this particular kind of electronic music. His early work tends to be more digital hardcore oriented with strong straightforward hardcore beats. King of the Elephants and A Ride in Elephant City both feature the well known Rotterdam hardcore beat also known as Gabber. His more recent work gets more melodic and rhythmically complex and resembles the work of Orbital, Black Dog Productions and even Kraftwerk.

With the Podweek CD Oeuf Korreckt has released his musical heritage of a little less than a decade. Because of using a limited set of musical tools the variation in sound is a bit small and the compositional limitations of the tracker software make that the whole record sounds a bit the same. And doing so the variation in emotional content of his songs is also limited. The limitations of his musical tools also are his strength. One has to listen more closely to his music to discover how his music was made. He succeeds in creating interesting and entertaining music by exploring the sonic and compositional boundaries of the quite obsolete Tracker PC software. Oeuf Korreckt is a master in his field.

Oeuf Korreckt is a master in his field.