(Trip Hop, Dubstep, Breakbeat) Aucan - Black Rainbow (La Tempesta Int. [LTI-002]) - 2011, MP3 (tracks), 320 kbps

http://www.myspace.com/aucan
http://www.discogs.com/Aucan-Black-Rainbow/release/2721639
http://africantapegroup.bigcartel.com/product/aucan-black-rainbow
http://tannenrecords.bigcartel.com/product/fir-y03
http://www.rocktarget.org/news/%E2%80%9Cblack-rainbow%E2%80%9D-e-il-nuovo-disco-d...-colton-a-londra

Mastered by Matt Colton at Air Studios, London, Dec 8-9 2010
Review from Echoes And Dust:
The opening couple of tracks on Aucan’s debut album are deceptive, I wonder if deliberately so, as they give very little hint as to the sheer raw wondrous brutality of what is to come. ‘Blurred’ is a lovely Portishead-esque lilting number full of beauty and peace and while ‘Heartless’ that comes next is more upbeat the two combined give the impression that ‘Black Rainbow’ is going to be an easy listen of cheerful electro-pop. Wrong!
As ‘Heartless’ fades its way out suddenly the bass drops, and oh my, what bass it is, and from ‘Red Minoga’ onwards this album takes a significant turn left and descends in to the heart of darkness; a sometimes terrifying yet ultimately magnificent journey.
The kids tell me that this is dubstep, and I’ll take their word for it, yet it sounds to my elderly and less discerning ears very much like what we used to call Nu Skool Breaks back in the days (mid 90s) when I used to spin a few tunes in the 'chill out' rooms of techno clubs. I can easily imagine dropping tracks like ‘Sound Pressure Level’ and ‘Storm’ alongside the likes of The Freestylers and Freeland back then and ‘Underwater Music’ would not have been out of place on a Marine Parade compilation. Still, never mind the labels, feel the bass and these guys have some positively bowels shifting frequencies.
In amongst the devastating subsonics there are some genuine moments of beauty and wonder; the aforementioned ‘Underwater Music’, ‘Embarque’ and ‘Red Minoga’ all feature some lovely melodics and vocal samples, but frankly what this album is really about is the pounding beats and the earth shattering basslines.
And that brings us to ‘Away’. It is hard to find words to describe how massive, how ferocious, how utterly monstrous this tune is. Seriously, it is just gargantuan! I really want to play this tune out in a club but I genuinely fear if I do it may trigger a seismic event in North London. If the shouted, nay screamed, refrain of ‘since you left me nothing’s changed’ was not enough to set you on edge, the huge, thumping, distorted juggernaut of a bassline will ruin you. Magnificently disturbing.
Almost a relief after that assault, in fact a comparative oasis of respite and closing out the album is the title track, a phenomenal slab of what I can only describe as industrial dub. Another massive bassline but this time coming at you at a far more sedate pace, it is still deeply intense but like an assailant that picks you up and buys you a cup of tea after kicking you in the teeth it is the perfect way to close an absolutely epic album.