Tulipa Releases Robert Babicz’s X-Former

Tulipa distributes one-sheets that read like prose poems gradually decomposing down to fragments of automatic writing. That might put some people off, though I suspect the majority would be other label owners struggling themselves to find an alternative to shopworn cliches like “fire,” “label boss” and exhortations to stay awake.

It’s appropriate enough here as Robert Babicz’s music has been known to make solid citizens break out into free verse exclamations and X-Former is no different. Deep and meditative, it has a kind of fuzzy afterglow that just leaves a feeling of generalized contentment when the music passes over you, vibrant with colors you can reach out and taste.

The remix by Oniris more than matches up to the original (and frankly has such a distinct sound, it probably could have been passed off as an original track without too many diggers the wiser) – it exceeds it. Pushing the pace up to a gallop, every element added sounds like it’s been trimmed by optical lasers – absolutely precise, locked together with the precision of Incan temple stones.

And Hobo does the job too. Maybe it’s great source material from Babicz. Maybe it’s innate talent. Maybe it’s just a label insisting on quality rather than deadlines. I’m okay with it.