Bass Mekanik: Kontrol (Album & 80 Tone Tracks)

Recording Details
Label:  Bass Mekanik Records
Distributor: Bandcamp, iTunes, Tesco Entertainment
Website: link
Typical Selling price: $9.99 on Bandcamp or £7.49/89p per track on iTunes, Tesco Entertainment
In A Nutshell
Another full fat, rich in Carnauba Wax, high current, solid voltage slice of the Mekanik for the 21st Century.
Classic vox sample references in the back of the mix (and on Bring it Back some screams, too!) with a tune that’ll have you nodding and FX moments that’ll give you goosebumps. All this and a test tone section that WILL have your peak frequency in it as it goes from 20Hz to 99Hz with a track each from track 20.
TOP TIP Buy from Bandcamp via the link and download in high resolution then convert at will. But DO buy it, it’s essential food for woofers and better produced than all your other bass shizzle!
Happily RECOMMENDED by Talk Audio – but BE CAREFUL or you will eat your woofers!

Overall 8.8
Tune! 7
How Low?. 9
System Stretcher?  9
Production  10
‘Like’ Rating.  9
Editor Review : Kontrol
The Bass Mekanik record label covers stuff by the master as well as illustrious bass artists such as DJ Billy E (who has been at it for EVER!) and the Urbane Urbanite known as Bassotronics from NY, NY. This album, KONTROL was sent for us to check out and review for you good people here in the U of K and is by Neil ‘Bass Mekanik’ Case himself.
As is my wonted sport with these thangs, I lined up a ‘known good’ bass head, complete with potent sound system, to review the music at an evening’s jollity at the famous Ace Café, next to London’s North Circular Road. A venue of legends since the Sixties, they have automotive and especially biker meets of one sort or another pretty much every night and cover every car and bike club flavour known. I appealed for help from the Talk Audio forum and was answered by Damian ‘Yega’ Fibuch and Dan Brill-Edwards. Yega is a drummer and a systems analyst and knows his audio. He runs some very clear and expensive CDT component speakers up front and an Ascendant Audio 12 incher in a phat box in his boot. The system’s bass amp is a 1,400 watt JBL GTO job and the whole system is clean, tight, well into the one-forties in decibels and drops bloody low and richly.
Yega left, Brill-Edwards on the right:

 

First, here’s the promo line from the website where you can download this stuff..
KONTROL is a return to the classic techno bass sound that BASS MEKANIK is best known for. The sound is loud, clean and aggressive with an overall Techno edge featuring Dubstep flavors on several tracks.

We spun up the tunes and here’s what was thought&;
We needed to rate the stuff more like the way they rate Blu Rays over at Home Cinema Choice. They like to refer to the material’s technical ability to show off systems as well as its entertainment value. In keeping with the number of headings and methodology of other reviews on Talk Audio, we came up with a bunch of parameters:
Tune! Is about just that, is it is as catchy as Bass All Day?
This one is so subjective. But nevertheless crucial. It was deliciously bonkers at the start and classic Mekanik with an intro that Ridley Scott might approve and that classic background sample of someone saying ‘BASS!’ in Space Age Bass Master. Low Roller another we liked especiallya lovely slow bounce with slightly ragga feel. The Lyric ‘Don’t you worry, don’t you panic, ‘cos DJ Billy E and the Bass Mekanik&;’ brilliant. All the lyrics are wicked On Chillin It you get massive rich low bass line as melody but with an overlay of a Vinyl sample, complete with surface hiss and crackle for your tweeter. The lower jams are more a grower, I reckon for getting into in later days of ownership but Deepa Sweepa with its real piano and slightly mournful feel is lovely. A track for playing at dawn as you join the motorway to a show Bounce IPD is a real seat-wriggler. You cannot help but nod and groove to this one. ‘Bounce to the Beat, bounce bounce to the Bass Beat&;.’ Possibly my fave track. Or it would be but for the last one before the tones: Rok The Planet with the 12V Crew lyrics.
All in all, this proves that Bass Mekanik has more than still got it, He stays fresh and vital and has his own flavour as strong as the genre itself. ‘Ahh YEAH!’
How Low? Refers to the recording’s ultimate extension, even if for a moment.
This is simple. A product of the best, purest bass recording technologist on Earth. Along with a fabulous selection of twinkly highs to show off the whole spread on your toys, there is deep, hard and wobbling bass in here. Long low amplifier-emptiers and some throbs with sharper peaks. Dirrty bass and ripplingit has it all.
System Stretcher? is about how good the recording is for showing off all sorts of systems and tunings.
No matter what kit you have, there will be tones on this album that will challenge your equipment.
Production? is about clarity and craftsmanship in the studio.
Sensei-Case the producer and artist seems to have sold his soul to the Demon God Of Low Frequencies in exchange for an inhuman ability to put fatter lows onto a recording than anyone else is able. Bass Mekanik understands the details of digital and the finer your playback ordnance is, the more you will hear of his genius.
And lastly, the reviewers’ overall affection for the item, before adding it all up, like other stuff, to get a TA Rating.
Simple, we all loved this album and Yega and Brill-Edwards were mightily impressed with the quality of the breadth of tones in the test burst section.
The album art matters for iPoddery and more but we have just given our opinion, without adding it in to the overall score as this can disproportionately affect the amalgam score but is moot to the emotional and technical experience of the music. It was thought a cool design and definitely up there with the current world, having the TOOLS cogs we all know as a thematic emblem.
Here’s the video. From the Ace café again, this time we are in the car park.


Track Listing
1. Space Age Bass 03:46
2 Can U Feel the Bass 04:13
3 Feel the Muzik 03:48
4 From the Deep 04:56
5 Low Roller 03:36
6 Tranquillity Bass 04:02
7 Bass Kontrol 03:51
8 Operator 03:48
9 Sector 9 04:06
10 Bring It Back 04:33
11 Chillin’ It 04:06
12 Bass Bad Bwoy 03:44
13 Droptek 03:07
14 Deepa Sweepa 04:00
15 Bounce 03:44
16 Rok The Planet 03:06
17 Test Intro 00:18
18 150-10 Hz Sweep 02:2
19 Sweep 40-0Hz 00:40
20 20 Hz 00:10
21 21Hz 00:10
to track&;.
98 98Hz 00:10
99 99Hz 00:10