title:

broken waves

label:

boltfish recordings

format:

cd / mp3

release date:

29.01.09

cat. no.:

boltlp005

tracks:

traces

conduit

pachinko

object not found

closing in

pica

blanchot

data packet

pantone

bracken

hikari

moiré

casiotonic (reason or romanza remix)

scattered (electricwest remix)

bellflowerroot (preston remix)

"in the era of downloads, self-released cdrs and the like, there’s nothing to limit the amount of stuff that an artist releases apart from their own self-editing and self-restraint. wil bolton, who records as cheju, has more than thirty releases listed on discogs, all issued since 2004. many of these were of ludicrously small print runs, and the number of realworld and netlabels involved runs into double figures. help is at hand for the confused punter. bolton has selected eleven of his personal favourites, together with one previously unissued track and a trio of remixes, and made them into an album. many of these ragbag collections of tracks from various sources and periods can sound incoherent, but you wouldn’t know from listening to broken waves that it was anything other than a specifically recorded project. its advantage is that all of these pieces will have had time to prove themselves, so the things that sounded good for a week can be easily jettisoned. the cheju sound can be broadly summed-up as old school melodic home listening electronica, infused with very 21st century beats that range from pan sonic-like noise pulses, to insectoid micro-clicks and pops. it’s a formula – but then so is guitar, bass and drums. broken waves turns out to be a very strong and cohesive set indeed. the melodies are sticky and immediate, the beats and rhythms varied and fresh, and there’s always enough going on to benefit close scrutiny. the glitched guitar figure that opens “traces” is a winning start, and the next hour and a quarter is full of high points. the big symphonic sweep of “blanchot” juxtaposed against juddering, arrhythmic beats; the micro-clicks and melodious funk of “closing in”; the distorted guitar undercurrent of “data packet” and the beautiful afx-inspired “pantone” are just four. the remixes are all of a high standard, and since they aren’t of tracks that have already featured, they don’t seem tacked on. although its providence is taking stock, broken waves feels like the first exceptional electronica release of 2009. 8.5/10" - [sic] magazine, 01.09

"cheju is the solo project of wil bolton, who also shares duties as head of boltfish records with murray fisher, who regularly officiates as mint. bolton relocated from london to peaceful norfolk a couple of years ago and now operates from the more urban liverpool. following a debut ep in 2003, he has appeared on labels such as percussion lab, en:peg digital, laced milk, rednetic or static caravan. cheju’s music is a sophisticated blend of clean melodic electronica, angular hip-hop beats and processed atmospheric textures. while broken waves is not bolton’s first album as such, it is his more prominent release to date. collecting twelve compositions, recorded over the course of three years and originally published on now sold out eps for static caravan, smallfish, herb recordings, unlabel, october man and boltfish, plus three specially commissioned remixes, spread over just under eighty minutes, this album acts as a sort of retrospective of cheju’s work and offers a perfect entry point to his catalogue. the album comes as a single cd and as a limited edition cd and dvd package, featuring videos for data packet and object not found. despite the time frame and the various track release contexts, broken waves is surprisingly consistent, and has a natural flow pretty much throughout. this is certainly a testament of cheju’s integrity as an artist, and a clear manifestation of his musical persona. the sound is varied and rich, drifting from exquisite digital slicing (traces, pica) to lush atmospheric sound forms (pachinko, bracken) and evocative landscapes (closing in, data packet), but the overall mood remains dreamy and, at times, cinematic, especially when bolton toys with orchestral forms, on blanchot, weaving together processed strings, subtle beats and ethereal melody. the three additional remixes, placed at the end of the album, continue on a similar mood, but also bring some new elements to the mix. the reason or romanza remix of casiotonic certainly does justice to the piece’s title by injecting some playful beats and sounds, while electricwest turns scattered into a haunting textural drone and preston gives bellflowerroot a truly heavenly feel, complete with warm analogue soundwaves and guitar motifs. ever since it first appeared, boltfish has always favoured beautiful melodic electronica. cheju’s work sticks close to the label’s ethic and demonstrates here a strong sense for bringing textures, atmospheres and melodies together into beautiful pieces. 4.1/5 " - the milkfactory, 01.09

"cracking collection of tracks from wil bolton aka cheju. includes a few tracks from hard to get releases and some specially commisioned remixes which really complement the original tracks very nicely. from a slightly tougher, crunchier electronica sound through to his trademark soft and melodic flavour, cheju is totally at home with a range of sound palettes. there's a playfulness to some of these tracks that sit sweetly next to the edgier cuts and with the addition of the remixes from electricwest, preston and reason or romanza you've got a nicely paced, very well put together album of pure electronic bliss. excellent stuff, of course." - smallfish, 02.09

"this cheju cd is really, really good too. non-coffee table laidbacktronica that isn't boards of canada? i'd buy that for a dollar! we've also got limited copies with a bonus dvd for a few extra pounds. broken waves is out on his own boltfish label and it's part of brett's cd club this week." - norman records, 02.09

"2008 avait vu wil bolton se consacrer à ses projets en duo, ces pages ayant pu rendre compte des disques de biotron shelf et anzio green. 2009 permet à l’anglais de reprendre pleinement langue avec son projet solo, cheju (nullement abandonné puisqu’il avait sorti trois cd-r 3" sous cet alias l’an passé, disques dont non évoqués ici), pour un album sortant sur le label qu’il codirige avec mint. musicalement, peu de surprises sont à attendre d’un disque de cheju (et, même, si on poussait un peu le raisonnement, d’un disque paraissant sur boltfish recordings) : on sait que l’electronica y sera toute mélodique, agrémentée de rythmiques savamment construites et de sonorités pouvant se faire plus robotiques ou plus connotées 80’s selon les morceaux, le tout baignant dans une atmosphère sachant verser dans une certaine mélancolie par endroits. au-delà de ces éléments que l’on retrouve naturellement sur broken waves, ce sont plutôt les composantes absentes que l’on relèvera, par rapport aux précédents enregistrements du britanniques : ni guitare acoustique digitalisée, ni pulsation proche du dub. à l’inverse, les rythmiques grésillantes sont légion et servent idéalement de supports aux développements chromatiques (object not found, pica, data packet, hikari ou le délicatissime pantone). à côté de ces excellents titres (dont trois d’entre eux se trouvaient déjà sur des disques précédents de wil bolton, mais sortis à 100 exemplaires ou moins), les morceaux opérant dans un registre plus dépouillé semblent moins convaincants, souffrant donc de la comparaison avec leurs congénères, mais font néanmoins preuve de qualités indéniables. tout au bout de ce long album (plus d’une heure et quart), cheju voit trois de ses anciens morceaux remixés par des artistes proches de bolftish recordings (voire ayant déjà sorti des disques sur cette structure). tandis que reason or romanza ne change pas grand-chose à l’ordonnancement originel du morceau dont il a la charge, electricwest superpose habilement rythmiques crunchy et nappes et preston apporte une dimension laid-back bienvenue." - etherreal, 02.09

"wil bolton's cheju material is always compositionally solid and impeccably crafted and his third cd album's no different. interestingly, broken waves is the first full-length the boltfish recordings co-owner has released on his own label, with 2006's pica and 2007's diode having been issued by unlabel and u-cover respectively. the latest collection is pretty much what we've come to expect from the cheju style: crunchy electronic beat programming and gleaming analogue synth melodies wrapped in synthetic gauze and arranged into tight, six-minute frameworks. par for the genre, broken waves is also overstuffed at seventy-nine minutes in length with three of its fifteen tracks given over to specially commissioned remixes (in this case, boltfish artists reason or romanza, electricwest, and preston). (for the record, broken waves isn't a singularly-conceived work but a selection of 2005-08 tracks from sold-out limited-edition releases on static caravan, october man, smallfish, unlabel, herb, and boltfish.) if there's anything different about the current cheju model in comparison to its earlier incarnation, it's perhaps a willingness on bolton's part to allow more grit and grime to seep into the material than ever before—a positive move given how much the noise textures provide a welcome counterpoint to the pristine melodic dimension (heard in “closing in,” for example, when the track's wistful melodies are offset by a textural flow of crackle and static). it's not a move he always makes, however, as the ultra-smooth “blanchot” proves with its lush mix of silken strings and lilting synthesizer melodies. the pretty and serenading side of the cheju style also comes to the fore in “pachinko” which arranges harp-like asian melodies, atmospheric synth washes, and crunchy beats into a transporting whole, and a similar restrained handling of material characterizes “bracken” too. on the more aggressive side, there are tracks such as “object not found,” which counters the grime of hammering beat patterns with the gleam of chiming keyboard melodies, the arcade rumble of “conduit,” and “hikari,” whose heavy beat flurries hit hard too. the album's most anomalous venture is “moiré,” which builds itself around a light-footed dance of wispy, heavily-processed piano tones. it's an electro-acoustic dimension that Bolton would be wise to explore further as doing so will enable him to open up the cheju style even more in his future work." - textura, 02.09

"broken waves is a collection of previously released limited edition compilation tracks for a wide variety of labels such as static caravan, smallfish Records and the boltfish label itself. far from sounding like a collection of also ran tracks, though, the works, by boltfish co-owner wil bolton in his cheju guise, hang together seamlessly giving an overview of his warm and inviting version of glitchy electronica. there is variety, as is to be expected in such a collection, from the pure sinetone electronics of ‘conduit’ to the heavily processed piano of ‘moiré’, rhythmic explorations with heavy bitcrushing such as ‘object not found’ to mostly harmonic information of ‘bracken’ with it’s gentler, simpler beats. what binds most of the pieces though, is a consistency of timbral grain. cheju obviously loves his bitcrushing dsp's and deploys them almost universally across the tracks. his great success is that, where that description would often suggest a sonic harshness and music that repels the listener, bolt contrasts the grit with beautiful chordal progressions on warm synths which give a great sense of intimacy (naturally heightened by the use of headphones - highly recommended). the 12 original tracks are rounded out by three remixes he has done for other artists which, by their nature, take on slightly different hues based on the original versions but which demonstrate the strength of bolt’s individual voice. for an introduction to the cheju aesthetic, this collection is an excellent starting point." - cyclic defrost, 04.09

"cheju, aka will bolton, est un britannique injustement méconnu. malgré cela, il fait son petit bout de chemin dans le monde de l'idm. co-créateur du label boltfish, il a également sorti plusieurs galettes sur des labels reconnus comme rednetic ou u-cover. ce broken waves, paru en janvier 2009, a mis du temps à venir à mes oreilles. ce qui frappe chez cheju, c'est qu'il pratique une idm comme on en faisait au milieu des 90's en la faisant sonner moderne. on pense rapidement au texturology de l'illustre beaumont hannant, datant de 1994, ou plus récemment à proem. au gré de cet album, on se sent entre ciel et terre, en apesanteur face aux lumières du monde en perpétuel mouvement, spectateur volontairement impuissant face à l'évolution des structures émergentes. oui, c'est un peu pompeux dit comme ça mais c'est amplement mérité. pas radin le cheju, l'album atteint presque les 75 min, composé de 12 titres plus trois remix (dont le sublime bellflowerroot de fermeture). tous les titres ne sont pas des indispensables mais l'ensemble est tellement cohérent qu'on est presque obligé d'envisager cet album comme un tout. cette idm est particulièrement planante, renvoyant le mot aérien à l'essence même de sa signification. les synthés utilisés sonnent pour la plupart un peu vintage (c'est décidément la mode en 2009). des bleeps redondants, de profondes infrabasses et un glitch discret sont la recette magique de cet orfèvre du son. les broken beats et les textures atmosphériques s'accordent parfaitement. mélancolie, profondeur, volupté. beaucoup de jolis mots pour un magnifique album. les titres traces, pachinko, pica, object not found, l'onirique blanchot, bracken ou le plus incisif hikari sont de véritables perles. malgré le titre de l'album, on souhaiterait presque que ces "vagues" ne viennent jamais finir leur course en se brisant sur le rivage. grand disque, définitivement." - croniques electroniques, 04.09

"over thirty albums and one consolidated label in just four years just imagine that. pretty hectic huh? well, the man behind cheju project and boltfish recordings has not been losing time for sure. wil bolton is certainly a dedicated individual to sonic adventure and that is explicit on his recent cheju creation and third album released on his label. “broken waves” comes as the attester from this effort. what we have here is an advanced idm explorer, filling the bag with all the possible magical wonders that the generic world from electronica may give. from highly intelligent break beat to cerebral downtempo and some melancholic post rock harmonies rounded with several other electronic spices you will find cheju as one of the leaders from the classic idm school. the interest for melody is evident since the very commence. complex arrangements stand as the centre that commands each track development and from there on the song structure is constructed in a very solid way, the accompaniments are fluent and exquisite, proportionally delicate and pertinent and body of sound from the work is varied and sound supremely authentic. apparently real instruments take special incidence in the creation of the melodic lines from some songs, guitar & bass lines are prominent as well as drum sets, presenting a organic sound that has a sensual warmth and achieves an immediate link with the listener. the starter “traces” for example immediately introduce a spanish guitar dissected in an impressive demonstration of glitch expertise. the organic texture manifested by the guitar sounds alien with the segmentation produced by the glitch partition, this effect produce a magical sonority, completely autochthonous for what ultimately constitutes cheju idiosyncrasy. another appreciation that conforms the character from this work is its warmth body of sound equally distributing chill out like textures with welcoming rhythmic sections and an incredible array of sound accompaniments ranging from noises, clicks and pops to pulsations preserving a very minimal aesthetic. cheju’s logic for rhythm remains indispensable to administer the balance from each track, the rhythmic are often fixated but suffer tonality changes and synthesis variation, an aspect that gives the music a constant aspect of mutation joined with the magnificent and clear sonority of the melodies. nevertheless it is on the melodic lines where the listener will find the principal charm from the work, especially coming from the fact of the melodic variation for each track denotes diversification and induce aural seduction by avoiding repetitiveness. “broken waves” centre is very relaxed, somehow melancholic (not extremely accented on this aspect though) and works a strange effect on the mind, an hybrid sensation that is both tranquillity and alertness. necessary to highlight how the old school electronica represented in the idm conception expressed in this work is rejuvenated and ultimately connotes an smartly chosen contemporary compendium that is more planted in the logic from this epoch. oriental like melodies colliding with chill out sonorities “pachinko”, post rock sensibilities and break beat cadences “data pocket” with the supreme shoegaze intermezzo (probably one of the best tracks), glitch minimalisms and micro rhythms colliding in downtempo melodies and finally squeezed with rhythmic noise pulses “object not found” or the pure space flotation and dreamy mood from “closing in” synthesizing spatial ambient with minimal glitch or the quasi gothic and rhythmically magnified remix track “casiotronic” presenting what sounds like a ghostly clavichord accompanied by jungle arrhythmia. not to mention the symphonic flirts found on “blanchot” melodic backgrounds rhythmically augmented by micro/macro break beats. “broken waves” comes as the ultimate sound adventure from cheju, exemplifying not only their ability to blend ambience and intrepid multi generic rhythmic bases but as evidence of the more futuristic aspect from the idm reign, exposing its evolution and adaptation to the new century challenges and ultimately synthesizing the many forms and contexts it may have had introduced to its own quest. high iq chill out music!" - heathen harvest, 05.09

"wil bolton est le genre de type qui ne s'arrête jamais. le jour, wil est un banal cadre administratif, coincé derrière le bureau d'un prestigieux établissement financier. le soir, wil manage boltfish recordings, ou compose pour son projet cheju. cheju n'existe que depuis 2004. et pourtant, le nombre de productions estampillées cheju a déjà de quoi donner le tournis. wil est le genre de passionné tellement investi dans son délire qu'on verrait presque en lui l'incarnation d'un nouveau paradinas. les deux bonshommes partagent d'ailleurs de nombreux points communs, à commencer par leur air de famille : lunettes, cheveux hirsutes et tronche de geek. les deux préfèrent la chaleur de vieux claviers aux sonorités froides d'un idm plus technique. chez cheju comme chez µ-ziq, on a pas honte de gaver quelques compos de chœurs de violon synthétiques droit sortis de la banque de sons d'un reason périmé. chez cheju comme chez µ-ziq, on aime construire des morceaux complets autour d'une petite mélodie à deux balles. il y a donc de fortes chances que les amateurs du second apprécient le premier. pis comme la musique de cheju est un peu mieux buvable que la dernière livraison d'µ-ziq, on ne va pas s'en priver. broken waves est un album d'idm naïf, simple et gentillet, bercé dans une nostalgie à peine dissimulée pour les premiers essais du genre. pourtant, cheju arrive à proposer quelque chose de plutôt personnel, alliant comme nul autre mélodies enfantines et d'incisifs pics moulés à partir d'indus et d'electronica. les morceaux ne se valent pas tous, mais certains sont extraordinairement bien pensés. mon coup de cœur va à pachinko, qui, avec quelques autres titres bien sentis, rendent sûrement broken waves plus ou moins incontournable pour quiconque s'intéresse à l'idm." - dmute, 06.09

"living in cairo, a city where a twenty-minute drive can turn into an hour and a half of anti-human torture in traffic, i have to be equipped with music that doesn’t play merely in the background but rather as a refuge from the painstakingly endless commute. over the years, my car has served as a courthouse for a myriad of albums; it’s the place in which i discovered my favorite bands and where many others were discredited and kicked out of my sanctuary. broken waves is definitely among the first category of albums. broken waves is a deeply captivating, thought-provoking album that brilliantly blends ambient soundscapes with electronic beats varying between the subtle and the overwhelmingly heavy. it is like a heavier and chirpier boards of canada, with hints of brian eno, aphex twin, and even telefon tel aviv included at some moments. this gives the tracks on this album a very soothing, yet tense and schizophrenic feel to them, ultimately demonstrating that cheju's sound is more than merely a amalgamation of influences. instead, through the project's five year history, cheju has successfully fashioned an individual niche and is quickly coming into his own in the electronica circuit. wil bolton, the man behind cheju, is a perfectly capable musician whose music is supported by some amazing piano and guitar lines, as well as the versatile break beat that truly gives this album its edge. he also displays his mastery as a producer, as each layer is perfectly audible whether it is meant to be in the forefront or the background, which is the main reason why this album is extremely entrancing. the one-two punch of strong musicianship and excellent production makes broken waves quite the enjoyable listen - be it the stunning instrumentation or the crystal-clear sonic palette, bolton provides our ears with a veritable audible feast. broken waves' major drawback is its run time. even though each track individually succeeds on its own merit, the album clocks in just under eighty minutes and begins to drag out toward the end. this issue actually highlights another - that the album lacks depth. ideally, bolton concocts a crisp electro-ambient album that flies right by, but the extended timing reveals that he's also working with a limited bag of tricks. bolton could have cleaned up his work here by approximately halving the run time or showing more dexterity in the compositional phase and trimming the fat off some of his tracks. individual tracks like 'object not found', 'blanchot', 'data packet', and 'pantone' are lovely by their lonesomes, but their appeal wears thin when grouped together. despite these criticisms, broken waves is still a success. wil bolton has admirably provided a very nice selection of tracks and undoubtedly proved that he has something to offer the electronica world. with a little more attention given to the overall construction of the album, cheju will be a force to be reckoned with. 6.5/10" - the silent ballet, 07.09

"dopo una trentina di apparizioni nel giro di poco più di 5 anni fra release digitali, comparse e lasciti ad etichette e netlabel principalmente inglesi, tra cui spiccano le sigle per rednetic, percussion lab, unlabel e static caravan, wil bolton - compositore che da londra ha deciso di trasferirsi prima nella più tranquilla norfolk, per poi muoversi nel contesto più urbano di liverpool -, una delle due teste della minuscola, ma iperattiva, boltfish, sceglie certosinamente fra le sue registrazioni con lo pseudonimo cheju (...che non riteniamo essere un'espressione onomatopeica sostitutiva del più convenzionale etciù per designare l'atto dello starnutire...) per confezionare una release il cui titolo 'broken waves', oltre che far riferimento al suo modo di comporre elettronica, pensiamo possa alludere al fatto che questa release abbraccia un numero piuttosto ampio di anni di attività, pur conservando una qualche omogeneità stilistica. in altre parole non si tratta propriamente di un album con un determinato filo conduttore nè tantomeno un nuovo album; questo 'broken waves' potrebbe piuttosto essere considerato un assaggio di componimenti che ripercorrono l'evoluzione del suo stile e fotografano il suo repertorio, fornendo un discreto punto di partenza per esplorare le sue produzioni passate. dodici brani a cui si aggiungono tre remixes commissionati da will a tre differenti giocolieri elettronici, che rendono abbastanza bene l'idea delle varie tappe stilistiche nonchè delle influenze (soprattutto dell'elettronica inglese) di cui risente inevitabilmente il suo modo di comporre e la sua personalità artistica. sommariamente potremmo dire che cheju abbia attraversato i territori dell'elettronica melodica della seconda metà degli anni novanta, combinandola con palleggi ritmici che potranno ricordare episodi più recenti venuti fuori dai laptop di numerosi manipolatori sonori, ma alcune chicche sembrano disvelare una capacità sincretica nonchè numerosi richiami alla musica classica di notevole pregio. tra le influenze ci salta immediatamente alla mente quella degli esordi di simeon bowring con il suo progetto pentatonik, ascoltando tracce come 'bracken' - composizione che traccia un movimento downbeat tra il soporifero e l'ipotico, senza tuttavia essere troppo "intrusivo" -, 'conduit' - discreto lavoro che con l'affine pantone, ci pare tuttavia il calco di alcuni brani contenuti in movements, l'antologia di pentatonik che la deviant pubblicò subito dopo il singolo credo/zeitgeist - o pica - in cui riaffiorano alla memoria ascolti del sakamoto "di mezzo" e dei primi lavori di proem con beat compressi e l'accento sulla quarta su sonorità un po' origami -; parimenti riaffiorano alcune sinfonie digitali che venivano spesso pubblicate con il rassicurante marchio della hydrogen dukebox o della mego nonchè alcune divagazioni sul tema proposte da benge tramite la expanding durante l'ascolto di brani intinti spesso di quel tocco di malinconia passatista aggiunto da una line up che riprende la triade chitarra-basso-batteria delle line up più classiche, quali l'introduttiva (e molto coinvolgente) 'traces' o la sorniona closing in (suggestivo l'innesto di micromelodie funk e l'effetto cortocircuitale introduttivo che a qualcuno potrebbe dare l'impressione che un calabrone sia rimasto incastrato nel magnete della cuffia!). il picchio qualitativo a nostro giudizio lo si raggiunge nelle arie della traccia che reca il cognome di maurice blanchot, uno dei padri delle teorie post-strutturaliste nonchè una delle più misteriose figure della letteratura contemporanea, brano che a nostro giudizio avrebbe composto hindmith se fosse nato negli anni 70! di notevole interesse anche i "nipponismi" downbeat di 'hikari' e 'pachinko', la formicolante distorsione sulla chitarra e l'accento sull'ottava battuta che ricorda vagamente il tono un po' "macchina da scrivere" emesso dalle tastiere casio quando si selezionano i toni dalla sound bank in 'data packet' e, dulcis in fundo, l'effetto straniante della melodia microtonale di 'moiré'. di notevole spessore qualitativo anche i tre remix; fra essi il drone avvolgente e ipnotico della versione di 'scattered' proposta da patrick benolkin aka electricwest è senza dubbio quello che gradirete maggiormente." - the vibes, 07.09

"cheju‘s latest is chock-full of casual beats making its title fit quite snug, broken waves. a bit of a sleeper, this one features three p’s: pica (breakbeat background music), pantone (perfectly paced instrumental, minimalist erasure) and the stand-out pachinko (delicate asian harmonies overlain with soft statics and funky staccato). keeping you on your toes throughout, with lots of tangible and floating tones. elsewhere cheju (uk’s wil bolton) livens the more noirish textures without losing his rhythmic composure on the extremely lovely moiré. each short track (all 15 are under 7 mins) is truly a unique composition. this is not a record that flows-thru continuously – so it reads like a set of short films. not for the couchside listener as the pace changes unexpectedly, but the climax has to be double-header of the charming closing in and conduit, a brightly lit minimal techno piece that grows like a fine cad design, line by line. it’s a great balance of smoothing out the edge of old-school electronica, drawing attention to tempos without sacrificing the smart edge of its pop sensibility. the disc includes three additional mixes by all that flow perfectly with these broken waves." - toneshift, 05.10