Data Breaker

Gel-Sol (Seattle producer Andrew Reichel) is this town’s reigning
Orb fanatic. Dr. Alex Paterson‘s long-running
ambient-dub-house collective has spawned several disciples worldwide,
but Gel-Sol can stake a claim to being one of the finest in the
tradition, balancing serious musical chops (he’s a staunch prog-rock
fan) with witty spoken-word samples over four albums.

My introduction to Gel-Sol came with Music Made for You… and
by You I Mean Me (recorded in 2003, but reissued by the
esteemed and now-defunct UK label em:t in 2004). The disc lays out a
luxurious banquet of rich synth swirls, languorous bass lines, and
slackly funky beats. This is music for long-attention-span owners and
those fond of subtly unhinging the doors of perception. It’s
deep and plush, poised between the chill-out room and the opium
den—except for “Numby Numbs,” which is an uncharacteristically
revved-up cut animated by jagged rhythms and sprightly yet stabbing
keyboard riffs. But Music Made for You is mostly geared for
lounging in style, stratospherically. Ladies and gentlemen, we are
floating (and giggling) in space.

As for Gel-Sol’s dub credentials, they could receive a boost
depending on the outcome of his entry into Choice Cuts’ Horace
Andy remix contest; Gel-Sol interestingly reworked “Watch We” from
Andy and Ashley Beedle‘s Inspiration Information album.
(The winner will be announced on the Choice Cuts website.)

Recent live gigs at the Church of Bass and Re-bar have found Gel-Sol
delving into ambience that’s aswirl in glittery vapor and redolent of
beneficent herbal vibes at the former, while the latter finds him
creating a churning, dubadelic soundscape. Both sets represent some of
the region’s most supremely heady head music.

On Gel-Sol’s “Skub,” a 2009 single on the local Innerflight label,
however, his production shows a more up-tempo tendency, though it still
doesn’t move at techno/house’s brisk clip. Rather, it’s a chunkily
percussive, dubwise funk track with a mutedly beautiful melody and
chilly synth tones forming a halo around the rhythmic bustle. This
looks like an interesting new direction for Reichel.

As for his current endeavors, Reichel says, “Most of my recent live
material is music for a future release, a double-length concept album called Terramecha, that’s about a planet
inhabited by robots. I’m also working on a follow-up to [2008’s] IZ (written for my niece), because I got another niece on the
way.”

On top of all of this, Reichel is nearing completion of
Gel-Sol’s Adventures Beyond the Plunderworld, which
parodies the Orb’s debut album in the form of a collage of
movie/TV/radio dialog snippets that touch on scatological, sexual,
pharmaceutical, and musical matters. You’ll eventually be able to hear
it online for free. Speaking of which, you can hear some of Gel-Sol’s
music at www.myspace.com/gelsol and www.soundcloud.com/gel-sol.
It’s all very absORBing.