adam johnson - chigliak cd review from www.themilkfactory.co.uk Adam Johnson first got noticed on the MAS Confusion compilation released last year. Yet, this first album is set to propel the man into the light, despite only a thousand copies being made available worldwide. Hailing from Mineapolis, more famous for being the home of Prince than for its electronic scene, Johnson puts with this release his multi-faceted talent to the test. Released on the excellent Merck label, Chigliak follows Johnson’s Pressure Point EP, released earlier this year. Kicking off in rather chilled fashion with the beautiful Changer Demain, and Trinity, which introduces guitar elements slightly reminiscent of early Cocteau Twins, spread over infectious waves of sounds and laidback beats. If Version02 seems to accelerate the pace slightly, it is with Autopop that things really heat up. From this moment on, the album takes a different turn. As the dark electro beat infused with hip-hop flavours progresses, Johnson unashamedly steps on early Plaid territory. Yet, if the melody and soundscape recalls the melodic approach of the duo, the atmosphere seems murkier and more palpable. This pretty much sets the tone for the next few tracks. Cleverly avoiding to stick to a too polished formula, Johnson brings interesting touches of abstraction into the mix, as on the laidback Anex which opens with metallic percussions fighting to establish a defined beat pattern before the melodic body of the track finally appears to bring some kind of order. As Chigliak look as if he has found its pace, Johnson injects some elements of dub into Malk, reaching yet another level. Leaving ethereal grounds for a more upbeat section, this album dives into classic techno territory, with elements of Detroit and Berlin grooves colliding to bring a more radical dance floor feel to the earlier soundscapes, culminating with the dreamy Four Square, arguably one of the most fascinating moment here as Johnson finely bring his many sonic incarnations together before returning to the starting point of this record with the closing track. This album might not be the most original piece of recording heard this year, but the uncanny combination of melodic electronica, evocative ambient and atmospheric dance floor stompers proves to be strangely haunting. Set as a journey through various genres, and meticulously assembled to seamlessly progress from one point to the next, Chigliak traces an interesting path through dance music and proves to be one of the surprises of the year. adam johnson - chigliak cd review from the good people at www.boomkat.com Latest outing for the ever on point Merck, Florida in effect. On this evidence they may be inching up still further in people's estimation, as there's lush pastures to explore here. Adam Johnson may be familiar to some of the observant subscribers to this list, having dropped a decent ep on Parotic before now and having made a show-stealing appearance on the excellent MAS Confusion compilation. 'Changer Demain' begins with comfortable ambient washes, and the first three tracks subscribe to the same pillow-soft philosophy. 'Autopop' injects some much needed darkness, and the album continues to bust it in the one note jam department. 'Anex' touches a familiar, glorious span of melody, 'Malk' hits a confident, padding dubby stride. Arcs of melody over tough beats is always a winning formula, and Adam has produced a balanced and persuasive reason to check out the Merck sound some more. Excellent. adam johnson - chigliak cd review from a co-worker While Adam Johnson's first minor label release (not to be confused with the minor releases often found in his pants, which he is most known for) is ambitious, it unfortunately falls short of this reviewers expectation. Adam's early work, using the name Cisco, tried and failed to develop his transition from catholic asexual skateboarding pervert to the desired state of "DJ + shitty hair = sexual success and legitimacy in todays world". The result from that effort has been Adam's becoming an asexual pervert, boring coworkers with tales of potential sexual exploits (usually with women) that lack any real hope of coming to fruition due to said persons neurotic Freudian mother envy. While toiling at a local print house, Adam was ostracized by co workers who believed him to be a slacker, momma's boy who dresses shitty, plays with himself while using his inhaler, and may or may not be gay. His most recent effort, Chigliak, while having 3 tracks that are semi tolerable (3,8,11) is mostly filled with unimaginative regurgitated monkey poo. Word is out of a U.S. tour coming in June showcasing Adam's new work. While this reviewer encourages Adam to follow his dream (not the dream Justin Timberlake), I also pose one question to Adam....Will this finally put some money in your pocket??? Let's hope so, for Adam's mothers sake. adam johnson - chigliak cd review from jim mccann @ illypses DJ/producer Adam Johnson has been part of the Minneapolis electronic scene for a long time, spinning different genres such as gabber at First Ave's Depth Probes, epic trance at Intermedia Arts, and electro at the top of the IDS Tower. He has also been part of the Affect crew and their Hello Music nights which were a showcase for experimental music. So, it was interesting to see how he would meld all those genres and experiences into his first album as a producer, released by Merck. Chigliak is not for those with a short attention span, as most of the tracks take a long time to build, but it is definitely rewarding for those with patience. The album's first couple of tracks have a very ethereal sound, reminiscent of the records from his trance days. "Trinity" begins with lush synths, then some surprising guitar pop kicks in, and then they're finally joined by skittering, light breakbeats. Johnson takes things in a more electro direction with "Autopop", before veering again towards some more ambient tracks, ending with the beatless "Shade". After this break, Johnson puts the low end theory to work on "Kriegspiel", which would definitely rock any boomin' system with its slow, driving bass. Then, the party really gets going with a quartet of 4/4 tracks such as "Malk" and "Traber", before the album closes with the short ambient track "Croupier". Although almost all of the tracks can stand alone, Chigliak definitely works well as an album if you listen to it build in the same way as a DJ set, rather than skipping through tracks at random. So pick up this album and make an evening of it or take it on a road trip. Look for much more to come from Johnson as he is constantly evolving as an artist, and this is just the latest step in a long journey. (By the way, in case you think Chigliak is some made-up word, the album is named after Ed Chigliak, a character from the eclectic tv show Northern Exposure.) adam johnson - chigliak cd review from thaddi@de:bug Es gibt ja diese Menschen, die die AUX-Wege prinzipiell komplett aufdrehenund somit den guten, alten Quadraverb-Hall über einfach alles drüberlegen, was den rasukommt, aus dem Pult. Ein bisschen macht Adam Johnson das auch so. Bei seinen sehr ambienten Tracks funktioniert das nicht wirklich und geht eher nach hinten los. Ein bisschen diffus eben. Undurchsichtig. Aber dann. Und wie. Einfach so. Mutation. Express nach Detroit. Adam Johnson ist eigentlich ein flirrender Oldschooler, der mit dem britischen Wissen um Sampling und Soundarchitektur wieder zurückkehrt nach 2030 Grand River um dort auf den Bus zu warten. Dabei geht die Sonne unter und die Schokokekse schmecken super. Sehr behutsam schält Johnson die Tracks aus ihren Hüllen, strahlt sie freundlich an und denkt an '92, als es noch egal war ob Detroit oder Warp in das Vinyl eingeritzt war. Manchmalist Stillstand genau das, was alle brauchen. adam johnson - chigliak cd review from andrew jones My initial response to Adam Johnson's Chiglaik album was yet another pleasantly laid back album from m3rck. The opening Eno/ Orb like statements of, "Changer demain," really make this evident. However repeated listenings make the finer aspects of Adam's music more apparent. A prolific tech-house DJ he's taken the complexity of beamed cuts ripped from minimal sonorities in Berlin or Cologne's metropolitan sound and given them the good times feel of stoned washes of reverb-ed chill-room era rave-lore. It's a combination that's at odds, at once a throw back to the pre-aphex days before acid crews were throwing breaks so jumbled your feet didn't have a chance to catch up with your neurons, and a pitch into the present world of techy clean cuts instilled with a fine sense of groove although Adam's boom and drums aren't products of minute micro-tonal clusters, but only carry the feel of Berlin's finest. While at times this could be a broadcast of NPR's Echoes the production values exceed the lazier remains of those days and Adam's time spent focusing on all that reverb gives the whole package solidity. Ambient music has come to mean self-indulgent and frequently boring music to me, but albums like Chigliak let ya know room can be made for infrequent equals to the Mixmaster Morris crown. adam johnson - chigliak cd review from clint - merck fan man this cd is really amazing. every now and then i get a cd that it really hurts to stop listening to even for a bit, at least during those first few days, and this is one of em. this is some of the most well produced stuff i have heard in a long time, the recording seems to have a really large dynamic range, for whatever reason it dosen't sound very compressed, yet everything is still very tight and sharp, like what you think of when you heard speedy-j gspot (or really any speedy j i guess). beyond that tho, musically the cd covers alot of ground, everything from detroit synths, glitches and dub sounds over a house beat and bassline, to pop melodies with glitchop sensibilities. i think it's really a cross section of what styles make up idm today. every track is masturfully executed, it's so genius you'd think some different person did each track but the more you listen the more you can hear this jedi techno masters personality shaping each track. i'm really blown away with the cd, damn, that's all i can say, i bet warp steals this one off merck.

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