In 2014, Ulises Valadez Contreras sat down and created a project filled with sharp sonic turns and hard hitting drums. It wasn’t until late 2019 when the album was fully remastered and tweaked to be released to the public. On January 15 2020, The album known now as Noir 2020 Remastered was finally released in all its glory through the Apollo’s Harp label. 6 years of work went into this roller coaster of a project and Ulises Valadez Contreras is not holding anything back.
This album plays much like a movie, listening to it in little pieces takes away from the experience. You wouldn’t watch a film with the scenes shuffled out of order would you? Noir is structured in a similar manner, each song playing off of each other and creating a dark world around drum loops and vocal samples. “And now, for our feature presentation” is how you’re greatted when you hit play on this album, and the movie themes continue throughout this project, although the songs are telling a story themselves instead of soundtracking a different adventure. Contreras is able to tell a cohesive story through their instrumentals, a dark yet humorous story where the plot line is unpredictable.
Contreras achieves this on Noir through chaotic song structure and obscure effects added to his instrumentation. A beat on this project can go in several different directions, although it is never the one you expect. Through this technique Contreras is able to fit what feels like a full symphony into bite size songs. Tracks like “St. South Street” or ''Chains” are less than a minute in length but within that short time the listener experiences different decades of music and beat-switches that transition into each other seamlessly.
Contreras creates collages with his beats. Pasting different synths sounds and drums together, creating an industrial sounding orchestra. Noir is filled with all sorts of ambient and electronic sounds that gives it a unique personality compared to everything else queued up in your library. Songs like “Just Odd” are reminiscent of classic hip-hop sample-chopping while a track like “Pop Gruppe” reminds me of a bad trip on psychedelic drugs, strange happenings coming from all over the place but still beautiful in a special way.
The creativity throughout Ulises Valadez Contreras’s Noir 2020 Remastered is undeniable, it’s a strange journey through time and space, all through the kaleidoscope lens of its creator. A trip to the movies to see the newest horror film. Within just over half an hour, Contreras is able to put you into a different dimension with their sonics and keep you guessing just how they do it.
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