Ian Boddy - Axiom (2020)

DiN label boss Ian Boddy has been composing and releasing music since 1980 and in the intervening 40 years has seen Electronic Music grow and evolve almost beyond recognition. One aspect of this constant change which elicits a wry smile from Boddy is how in the 1990’s analogue and modular synths almost went extinct whereas in recent years there has been a huge resurgence in these analogue technologies. Furthermore whole sub-genres, such as Synthwave, have grown up which reference the electronic music of the 1980’s.

At the start of 2020 Boddy was asked by the artist Bluetech to contribute a track for an upcoming compilation album (Portals) lovingly curated to reflect the Kosmische music heritage of many of the musicians involved in this project. Boddy’s track “Omicron” with its cascading arpeggios, soaring synth choirs and deep Moog bass proved a heady mixture that was used in the promo video for this release. This got Boddy to thinking that perhaps a full solo studio album in this style would be a creative goal worth pursuing and thus we have the release of “Axiom” (DiN64) as the result of that exercise.

The six tracks on “Axiom” certainly reference Boddy’s musical roots with its pulsating sequencer passages that hark back to the Berlin School sequencing of Tangerine Dream, most especially on the powerhouse track “Nitro”. The self referential track “Boddy Love” is an in joke with a nod to a classic 70’s Klaus Schulze album and features a gorgeous melodic sequence line that steadily grows to a beautiful climax before gently fading into the distance.

Elsewhere “Icon” with its subsonic bass throb and veil of orchestral strings climbs to a sonic summit before crashing down to the sublime and emotional piece “The Fallen”. Closing out the album the title track bookends the albums opener “Omicron” with a slice of Synthwave that has it all from analogue sequences, vintage drum machines and soaring chords for an emotional, joyous journey.