It is a time for slowing down, or is it? For Rubén A. Tamayo, graphic designer by day and the electronic music producer by night known as FAX, living in Mexicali (a border city in Northern Mexico), the answer is a yes/no. Since his first release, a 12 inch on Germany’s Traum Schallplatten in 2001, FAX has produced a radiant work full of striking variants in minimal dance electronic music, leading up to last year’s “Bilateral EP” on Level Records in Düsseldorf and the “Collaborations and Remixes” album on Static Discos, in which FAX was joined by such luminaries as Ultra Red, Jonas Bering, Portable and dreampop legend Alex Ayuli.
PRIMARIO, the third full length by FAX for Static Discos, is a collection of songs that signal an alternate sound path in the FAX template. Whereas FAX’s previous albums were inspired by discrete techno and microhouse, PRIMARIO focuses on a slow rocking, almost ambient, low end invisible soundtrack full of lights and shades. The stance on the new album is a meditative construction of tracks which feature and array of contributions by Alex Ayuli (A.R. Kane), Fernando Corona (Murcof), Ignacio Chavez (Kobol) and Kate Simko (Detalles), producing a beautiful collection of music that slides in between the sound works of later Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis and the collaborations of Burnt Friedman with Jaki Liebezeit. FAX’s electronic signature sound is still intact on PRIMARIO, but slowed down for maximum effect, creating a rich and lush album full of dubby atmospheric tones, whispered rhythms and melodic oceanic songs.
PRIMARIO’s birth, according to FAX, was conceived when he participated in the 2004 edition of the Mutek Festival in Montreal, as he explains that “all the motivation and excitement of being a part of that festival was reflected in the work I started doing in my studio once I got back home. I wanted to produce something with much more life, combining electronic sounds with live and acoustic instrumentation. The intention was to put in practice all those influences I felt I had left behind and start doing arrangements with my first and principal instrument, the electric guitar. You could say that the guitar was one of the main motors that led to the creation of PRIMARIO”.
As a proof of FAX’s new space of sound, which he says he plans to combine in live appearances with his more customary dance mix sets (depending on the occasion), tracks like the stunning ‘Paracaídas’ or the couple of tracks in which Alex Ayuli collaborates on vocals, definitely showcase a mature electronic music producer who is not afraid to veer away from his previous musical path in order of creating a new body of work that is faithful to his original vision. Another sign of FAX’s unwillingness to slow down is his recent production work with Carrie, Maniqui Lazer and Seekers Who Are Lovers, as well as running his independent netlabel Cyan Recs.
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