“Full bleed” is a term of art in the printing industry, a field with hundreds of years of culture and workmanship and not a small store of esoteric mysticism. The bleed is deep in the margins — an extra half-inch to eighth-inch around the edge which runs off the page and is trimmed off after printing. Without it, you’ll have a white line of varying thickness, or essential parts of the illustration may be missing, as cutting blades are not completely precise. What this means is that when the bleed is correct, it’s invisible, and the observer only notices the bleed when it was never there. You can see now why Gutenberg and so many other printers probably began their careers in the seminary.
Most of the arts have something like this — an unseen action or technique or practice which the observer takes for granted or never notices except when it’s done wrong and draws attention to itself. In electronic music it may be mastering, compression settings or another post-production step that you only notice by its absence or when it’s done badly. I don’t know if that esoteric knowledge is what Alland Byallo had in mind when he called his label “Full Bleed Sound” but it wouldn’t surprise me: if Alland doesn’t teach music production he could and likely should based upon the sterling sound quality of his tracks, two of which appear on the Fill Light Shine EP.
Awash in cymbals, brass and rim clicks, “Karma Beach” is likely going to be called “jazzy” and I can’t stop myself from doing it here too. There’s way more going on under the hood here, though: moody pads, electric keys and a groove that sounds positively celestial. Heads who love deep and soulful sounds will love this, yet its production style (it has a ceiling that sounds about 10,000 feet high) and musicality makes it a powerful tool in the hands of any DJ who plays music derived even indirectly from soul.
I’ve been a fan of Alland Byallo since I bought “Got It Wrong” on Real Tone a decade ago. He’s one of the few producers I can think of who doesn’t just continue to produce at a high level but is elevating higher all the time.
Alland Byallo: Fill Light Shine EP (Full Bleed Sound / Digital / March 2023)
1. Alland Byallo: Karma Beach (06:17)
2. Alland Byallo: Reflect, Rotate (06:40)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement: This record was submitted as a promo.
