- Allegra Bin 1, the first substantial release from LA producer Colin Field (AKA Angel 1), presents ann aggregate of ambient, club and experimental music, often moving through all three zones at once. Maximal as they are, these seven tracks maintain a streamlined elegance that never allows stylistic irreverence to get in the way of good songwriting.
"Shrubb," the EP's standout, juggles trap beats, software synths and spastic interruptions without losing sight of its central melody. Similarly, "One Wish - Shah" can't make up its mind whether to be aggressive jungle or narcotic vaporwave, but the song actually uses that tension as part of its structure. What could be a mish-mash of unrelated concepts in another producer's hands are all pieces of the same puzzle in Angel 1's world.
Artists like Oneohtrix Point Never and James Ferraro come to mind during Allegra Bin 1, and not just because Angel 1 favors a retro-digital sound palette. Chillout zones, trance synths, mainstream rap references and vocal abstractions frequently appear (hell, you'll hear all that in the EP's last four minutes alone), but Field never sounds like an imitator. Most of what he does here involves dismantling his influences and using them in ways he hasn't heard before. That process provides Allegra Bin 1 with a bird's eye view of electronic music as it is today. Any record with that perspective should not be ignored.
Tracklist01. One Wish - Shah
02. Allegra
03. Docu
04. Shrubb
05. Be OK 1
06. Max
07. 2008