violent silence

1. Silent Violence (Original Mix)
2. Silent Violence (Kan Shinomura Remix)
3. Violent Silence (Original Mix)
4. Violent Silence (AFK ‘Passive Agressive’ Mix)

C79, otherwise known as Charles Paul is quite an underground hero in Vancouver. Producing also under the aliases of Chompers and Obakeh, his style is really quite hard to pin down. Ranging from subtle and mellow soundscapes, to quite heavy sounding techno. the “Shy Terrorism EP” highlights both of these sounds, and even more. Quite an unusual release on Pacific Front, who in the past have kept to quite a similar sound. Perhaps they are embracing a more forward thinking outlook on their releases, which is always a positive.
“Silent Violence” is a track which would sound very at home on a label such as Border Community. The mellow path it takes is a blissful introduction to the EP, and perhaps one of the strongest of the four tracks. The percussion is light, and the melodies are soft. You really need to close your eyes, sit back, and just take it all in for maximum enjoyment. I was quite surprised – but in a very pleasant way – to see such a track featured on a Pacific Front release.
Canada’s Kan Shinomura is quite well renowned amongst techno fans, and his mix of “Silent Violence” is highly contrasting to the original. While the percussion may have a very strong techno element to it, this is contrasted by the warm melodies found in the original, but sliced up a little. It is quite interesting, as I personally do not have much to do with techno; I tend to stereotype the music. But it was very refreshing to see techno which possessed this element of depth and emotion. If you are forward thinking in your taste, you really do need to check this one out.
We then get to “Violent Silence”, and after hearing “Silent Violence” it was amazing to hear how C79 had so quickly gone from a minimal sound to a much more upbeat techno tune. Many subtle complexities make up the track, and are supported by a fast moving techno pace set up by the percussion. The track really made me think twice about my pre-conceptions on techno music, and if more like this surfaced I would in fact be very interested in digging a bit deeper into the genre.
Finally, to keep long time PFR fans happy, Davin steps up under his AFK guise to provide an absolute stormer of a progressive breaks remix for “Violent Silence”. Twisting up the aforementioned subtleties into a powerful mood setter, he slowly brings in some own melodies of his own to add to it. The result is perhaps one of AFK’s most solid remixes to surface in recent times, and keeps up the strong tradition which PFR is renowned for.
The high score I’ve given this release is truly deserving, as it has shown me another side to a genre which I (and many others) have a tarnished perception of. This release is sure to turn many heads, and hopefully push them into delving deeper into the depths of what for many will be uncharted territory. It will also be very interesting to see where PFR head with their future releases, and if this is any indication then they shall have a very exciting journey ahead of them!