Released 25th May 2018
Mechatok // All My Time (Presto!? Records)
coldsholda
#1
Listening to this on the train in Sydney, Australia right this very moment. Nice vibes, could listen to the first track on a loop for quite a long time haha…
pmodel
#3
Love Mechatok, his combination of midi-harps and DJ Mustard worship is exactly what i want to hear tbh
Only heard the title track (absolute trance banger) and the newer one 12 Years so far, pumped to hear the whole EP!
Not sure how i feĺl about the newest ‘single’ 12 Years, it is a pretty interesting evolution to me, just not 100% sold. It kinda reminds me of what Life Sim does on PC Music with pop/ trance/ melodies and repetition, think its a really cool development though, can imagine with repeat listens I’ll be into it.
I listen to See Thru a lot and have so much love for those FM Harp sounds and (dunno the correct musical term tbh -counterpoint?/baroque) melodies combined with that DJ Mustard snap. Kind don’t want him to change lol. Anyway, what a talent!
coldsholda
#4
Have no idea re musical terminology or even instruments so thanks for enlightening me on them. Didn’t know of DJ Mustard either so thanks for that one too!
See thru is great - love everything that is even remotely connected to Staycore tbh
If you haven’t come across them before, here are a few Mechatok tracks/blends with vocals on. Ciara blend by Emigre is sick imo…
cesar
#5
Kinda boring EP to me. It’s just not anything to write home about, listened once won’t listen again. There are Trance tunes with better melodies
Caesar can def seeing where you’re coming from here. And the songs don’t sound particularly realised (i think that just means FINISHED really doesn’t it, ha…) but god damn that first tune makes me smile!
coldsholda
#7
I get that - but I think its because he’s attempt to use the language of trance to say something that’s almost antithetical to its conventional message which is a hyper-compressive build up to a big ‘messianic’ drop. The video reflects this I think, with Mechatok jamming in his banal suburban ends - donning Nasir Mazhar!? - doing pretty much sweet fuck all, which then flips to a scene comprised of glossy hell-raising demon-looking motherfuckers. Donny-dark0 on fleek. All the while you’re waiting for the peripeteia but it never happens. The Todd Terje - Inspector Norse video is a good example of the opposite - where the protagonist recognises he’s trapped in the peripheries but eventually - when the tune drops - has that sudden moment of realisation/nihilism and starts dancing like a nutter with glowing fairy lights wrapped around his whole body.
Mechatok’s might be a bit chin strokey perhaps, but I think we’ll probably see a lot more rejection of that ‘American suburb’ narrative that a lot of us grew up in (which maybe Arcade Fire started in the format of music videos with ‘The Suburbs’). And hopefully lots more experimenting with sounds we all grew up with - if you were born in the 90’s - like trance in ways that don’t conform to our normal expectations. That said, what would be sick is if he made a 10 minute plus long track in this style… (and Nasir Mazhar started selling his clobber at affordable prices)
pmodel
#9
Ha, these are pretty fun! i don’t think I’d heard them before but it is kinda difficult to keep track of the whole soundcloud edit scene, thanks for sharing.
Still not got round to listening to this EP yet need to fix that
cesar
#11
If you need to write two esoteric paragraphs to explain to me why a track is good I’m sorry to say this but it’s not.
Also I don’t care what the artist is trying to say I care if a song is good, which this EP is not it’s boring.
chalravens
#12
all four tracks on this are fucking brilliant, that’s my take. he has a really striking and recognisable sound, esp for someone who’s so young still.
i interviewed him last week and he was talking about how his classical training helps and hinders his songwriting… i think his stuff is much more carefully crafted, melodically/harmonically, than a lot of current ~club music
here’s the interview should u be interested: https://www.redbullradio.com/shows/top-flight-with-chal-ravens/episodes/mechatok-and-air-max-97
crat
#13
I wonder though what it means that one of the bigger underground genres of our time (I group
this in the deconstructed/post/whatever/…-club genre) has this nick for cheap trance melodies.
Why isn’t alternative culture offering an alternative anymore? Is there no alternative after all?
thirdform
#15
yeah his is rly boring. lorenzi senni did all he could with the style ime. if 96 era happy hardcore got the critical reappraisal that shit trance is in post-club circles I’d die a happy man. but maybe thats its strength, it will never be co-opted. will listen to bonkers 1 sharkey mix for my euphoric melody kicks, still sounds out there and experimental today, with the detuned synth stabs, gabba kickdrums, chipmunk vocals and fairground rides on acid. year 8 vibes.
pmodel
#16
i mean nothing compares to the joy of hixxy & sharkey, that’s a bit unfair 
still not got round to listening , still love mechatok tho