Some EPs require years of research and development, careful refinement and revision. Respectful analysis and improvement.
This EP is not one of them.
Banged out quickly over a weekend, after Tiwanaku Tekno had spent a couple of days blagging samples of pre-hispanic instruments off of random YouTube videos for another project, Gate of the Sun is not an authentic piece of ethnomusicological research.
In fact it is nothing but good old-fashioned TECHNO. Minimalist and raw. Just a jam with a drum machine. Searchin’ for a groove with a handful of samples.
Nevertheless, there is respect here. And admiration for, and love of the sonority of these instruments. Tiwanaku Tekno cheerfully mixes samples of Aztec Jaguar whistles with Peruvian water-jugs with rattles and shakers and rain-sticks and a bunch of off-the-shelf samples from the “ethnic” category. But resists temptation to treat them as mere decoration to a more conventional electronic music. These drums, even in their crappy lo-fi sample format, rule in this world. As do the flutes and whistles whose tonalities and harmonics dominate once they take over, with no concession to more conventional (or European) harmonic or melodic structure.
The result is compellingly trashy. The kitsch exotica of new-agey “native” music, structured by the austere mechanical simplicity of techno. It’s everything you fear it might be, but also something you could potentially love.
This album uses samples, without permission, but with the utmost respect and gratitude, from the following videos :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYvjyNGbqn8 ,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYOcJDxASag ,
