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Cultured Dutch label Shipwrec is to team up with Frustrated Funk to release "North Bend", a new album by 214 aka Chris Roman. The 2x12" album lands on Shipwrec in late June, after an EP on Frustrated Funk earlier in the month, and is an absorbing nine track affair.
Chris Roman hails from Seattle in the US and releases under this name on labels like Frustrated Funk, Harbour City Sorrow and Touchin' Bass. He also released as J. Alvarez on the labels Hypercolour and La Beaute Du Negatif and is a prolific producer with an abstract sounds that touches on electro, techno and plenty in between.
The album itself features atmospheric techno ambient with scattered beats, lush electro that is filled with true electronic soul and cosmic soundscapes that come from another world. The art that comes with the LP is drawn from the artist's local area, where he takes great inspiration and influence, as he does from his Frustrated Funk label peers ERP, Versalife and Plant43 to just name a few. Together with these artists, this album is furthering Roman's own signature sound as well as a new and subtly evolved brand of electro that builds on a rich history of electronica.
Kenneth Roman features on one excellent track, which whips and snaps with a real sense of futurism. Elsewhere, "North Bend" sounds slick, emotive and is produced with a crisp excellence, so this album is another fine statement that reminds us just why Roman, the Frustrated Funk and Shipwrec families, are such puristic minds that push music from the heart. Barcode: 8718723000062

• 1 At 10 Knots
• 2 Dew Drops
• 3 Machine Language
• 4 Pickles and Mints
• 5 Binaural Affirmations
• 6 Snow Lake
• 7 Mind Racer featuring Kenneth Roman
• 8 Windom Earle
• 9 La Proxima Manana