𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 – this week: Karate DLC – SovRin

Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙆𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝘿𝙇𝘾 – 𝙎𝙤𝙫𝙍𝙞𝙣

Charles sees sensei…

The internet has achieved many things over the decades. Some of them even positive! But for me, there is one longstanding feat that is very much still ongoing. In showing me the lives of seemingly the entire world’s population, I watch, I stare, I observe. I am stunned. It is staggering to see the things that people will do. The lengths people will go to in order to show how brave, daring or stupid they can be. It’s just fascinating – but also often rather off-putting. The vanity, the smug dumbness, the relentlessness. Oh, and the TRENDS!! Once one idiot does something, another 50,000 will follow suit. It’s all a bit absurd, and it shows off the worst of society – the dumb and the sheep who aspire to be dumb. It makes me think back to what used to be on TV… Interviews with great minds being intelligent, interesting and witty. Documentaries that uncovered a world we never knew. Dramas that took their time with narration that most these days would barely be able to comprehend, yet alone be able to concentrate for more than 3 minutes. Oh, and game shows – tacky game shows that were I suppose the equivalent of what most of the internet is nowadays…

But the internet also shows us something that we didn’t quite realise before we were online. You see, TV was pretty much everything back then. That was all we had to go on. Stars were leagues above others. The great intellectuals were admired for their extreme rare brilliance. Experts were a coveted species. Artists were barely of this planet in being entirely unique. And famous comedians were the only people who could make us laugh (admittedly largely debatable). Then the internet was born… Of course, we had a decade or two of dross and gimmicks, but eventually we started to see something; started to notice and realise. The world is absolutely chock full of talent! And it is this that constantly astounds me. Just how many people are quietly being brilliant in their neck of the woods. Well, maybe not so quietly now, but they’re not in a television studio, explaining in a bad suit. They are able to remain wherever they wish, while showing the world what they can do. It’s enlightening and genuinely uplifting!

What REALLY fascinates me, though, is when someone so quickly and effortlessly achieves something that not only would I not be able to do, but something that I don’t understand. Something that is just so far from my brain as to be alien. Talent excites me – this is no secret. But it’s not just arty talent; it’s ANY talent. For example, when a craftsman who dabbles in electronics, casually invents and creates something so fresh and unique before our very eyes. It could be something incredibly useful and brilliant (a house with an automatically detachable roof), or it could be something completely and utterly pointless and stupid (a house with an automatically detachable roof). But I watch these “nobodies” in awe. Or what about the recent breed of Chinese musical prodigies…? At just 5 years old, they are already better than some fully-grown stars of 50 years ago! Of course, HAL (A.I.) is spoiling this recent influx of talent by making us believe that what we are seeing is real, when in fact it never took place. But I see no reason for these HAL videos; we have the genuine talent surrounding us already! We just have to find it. And thankfully, finding it has never been so easy. We can’t avoid such great talent these days. In fact, there’s almost too much incredible talent that we need to take a step back and isolate each little morsel we happen upon. Too much of anything is over-saturation. And over-saturation of a good thing can lead to a certain numbness and inability to be excited or even moved. Around a decade ago I coined the phrase “church fatigue”. It was when my lady-person and I were in Rome… “Oh, another breathtakingly beautiful church. Oh look, another Caravaggio. Shall we have lunch now?” – after a while, all this perfect brilliance just ceases to have any impact.

And so, I would like to refresh and restore said impact. I think, in a way, my little reviews attempt to do this by really trying to make you appreciate the layers and depth of the music. The raw talent and effort that goes into making these little gems. Gems that might easily have passed you by. True gems are hard to come by these days (and I can’t afford them), so here’s a sovereign. Well, almost. Please welcome an artist who has not passed through these gates since CC Episode 15, six years ago: SovRin. His real name is rather less impressive: Ralph Aldridge – which doesn’t sound very German… The main reason he has not appeared in recent years is not because his output his dipped or waned in quantity or quality, but simply because I usually try to pick pieces of music that will appeal to most. Not all, but most – without picking generic releases. This does sometimes mean that I am bound to miss out some crackingly unusual pieces from time to time. I thought it best to allow one of those pieces to slide in for a change. The work of SovRin has always been (and I hope will always be) different, and unlike anyone else. He has his own style. A style which dots between dubstep and chiptune. Those not familiar with those terms will probably not enjoy either. Many will classify this music as “gamer music” (the kind of music that appears in retro-style video games). I personally would not specifically classify it as this, simply because I have never been a “gamer”, unless you include the odd round of Scrabble – which I don’t think counts.

I have heard quite a bit of this style of music over the years, and I always immediately want to switch it off. I usually find it intensely irritating and very dull. SovRin, on the other hand, sounds to me like the Bach of the genre. Leagues ahead, on another level and in a different realm. Bach was German, and despite the very British name, SovRin is also in fact German. Germans are known for their precision and their just-so attitude. His work has always been very precise and just so, like Bach’s. But SovRin’s Germanic tendencies can lead him to be a bit of a Germaniac in music. You will hear the maniac in all his music, but what sets him apart from all the other crazy gamer music out there, is his genuinely Bach-like compositions. Admittedly SovRin’s latest release, ‘Karate DLC’, is not quite as classically themed as previous releases of his, but it does still have strong links to that oeuvre. So, this piece is more “Bach with perhaps some influence from Madeon and Pendulum”. Let us look at the tune’s title… ‘Karate”, could – like the cover artwork suggests – simply be a literal reference to karate video games in general. But then again, it could be a reference to Mr. Karate from various Japanese SNK games (look, I didn’t know about any of this either, and – in case you’re wondering – it stands for ‘Shin Nihon Kikaku’); Mr. Karate, being the alter ego of Takuma Sakazaki (obviously). And he looks absolutely ridiculous, like he’s just stepped out of a Studio Ghibli film. As to ‘DLC’, it stands for “downloaded content” – but of course.

This stuff is so far from anything I know, that I feel entirely immersed in another’s culture, and at their mercy. I am helpless without their guidance, and am therefore forced to trust them, with no other choices available. But trust SovRin I DO! Which leads me to my third and (who’s counting??) final point: I am in awe. I like to think I know quite a bit about music and what goes into making it. I would say I know music like a car mechanic knows the underneath of the bonnet – that’s not a pretty hat, but what Americans call the hood, not to be confused with what everyone habitually wears everywhere except their head. But don’t get the bonnet mixed up with the boot, which Americans call the trunk (which is an elephant nose, because an elephant knows). Frankly, I don’t know how car mechanics do it! Having never driven a car, I stick with music. And yet, listening to SovRin’s music makes me feel like I don’t know an A flat from a G apartment. Just HOW on EARTH does he DO IT??! They do call him “the wizard” for a reason. It’s pure magic! And like all the best magic, I don’t wish to know how it’s done. Otherwise it’s just a talented trick. The way young Sov packs in a million and one correct notes in the only way they know how. Sometimes with extreme staccato attack, sometimes with a portamento bend. Sometimes with a gnarly distorted synth that will blow your head off, sometimes with a softer heartfelt piano, but usually with mega fat beatz in order to give you something to understand. And all the while, everything is impeccably mixed. It must surely take him months to make a 3-minute instrumental piece. Man’s got skillz, yeh? Yeh.

SovRin puts in all this effort, and all you have to do is press play.

I’ve got to continue with my damned detachable roof project. Lord knows why I chose a building with a spire… Now I REALLY understand church fatigue.

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