Description

BTB returns to Boltfish Recordings for an album of his own blisteringly good tracks and some superb remixes from other artists too.

"a flawlessly crafted collection of gleaming electronic sounds" - Textura

"a crispy, crunchy, melodic and beautifully produced collection" - Smallfish

THIS RELEASE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FROM THE BOLTFISH CATALOGUE ON CD. HOWEVER, YOU CAN STILL PURCHASE IT VIA DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FROM A RANGE OF ONLINE RETAILERS.

Tracklisting:

1. Building A Better Life Through Living
2. Ill Brain
3. Climatic Dot
4. Medicine All Days
5. Bugree
6. I Have Diagrams and Mushrooms
7. Life to B#
8. Sweet Lysoform
9. Vip r (Cheju Remix)
10. Bugree (Mint's Electrified Remix)
11. I Have Diagrams and Mushrooms (Milieu's Mushroom Field Remix)
12. Tykua (Melodium Remix)

All tracks © The artists/Boltfish Recordings 2007
Cover artwork by Murray Fisher

Reviews

E|I Mag - December 2007
"The Boltfish... label’s identity as a kind of muso-techie version of a cottage industry purveying bespoke budget-priced electronica has by now been established over a series of well-mannered beyond-bedroom IDM. Lately the sound has become over-familiar and risked flirtation with the anodyne. So it’s gratifying to detect some injections of grit and substance to the Boltfish base courtesy of Argentine Franco Colombo, aka BTB. Tracks like "Ill Brain" and "Climatic Dot" pack a combo of full-on whomp, glitchy crunch, and top-end crack that prove he’s no pussy. Keyboard tones remain resolutely in that Plaid-ish ambient techno vein that’s become Boltfish regulation issue by now, but this collection somehow provides more chewy harder-edged sustenance than the norm, especially at the lower-end. But there’s also a pleasing variation in sound design and architecture between tracks, often a shortcoming with neophyte electronic artists. A scrunched up leftfield hip-hop loop provides the bedding for the woozy synth sprawl that is "Life To B#"—a sure-fire Merck-pleaser, while "Sweet Lysoform" takes a satisfying urban detour into a late-night landscape prickling with soft static, borrowing deep Detroit chords and remotely tuning in to basic Berlin channels. Obligatory Boltfish remixes come from boss-Boltfishermen Cheju (ok so-so) and Mint (decent anthemic electro-infused), but Milieu’s combo of head-nod and skygaze synth-haze wins out, while Melodium (faux-naif classico-arpeggio piano and harp with inelegant stomp beat) gets the booby prize."

Leonard's Lair
"It's not difficult to find downtempo electronica in this day and age, yet Argentina wouldn't be the obvious place to look for it. However, Franco Colombo - recording under the name of BTB - makes the kind of chilled music that sends shivers down the spine in all the right ways.

'Building A Better Life Through Living' kind of sums up the whole experience in a nutshell. It's a track which seems overcome with melancholia to balance the over-positive title; the music is a synth wash and simple beats, rather like a Junior Boys instrumental. Beats drop down like mighty stalactites on the cool 'Climactic Dot' and 'Bugree'. 'Life To B#' borrows the voice samples and stacatto effects of Funkstörung. 'Sweet Lysoform' meanwhile, moves along at glacial speed; it's basic melody underpinned by static and bass rhythm. The four final tracks are made up of remixes from other Boltfish artists, the pick of which is Milleu's ghostly, trippy version of 'I Have Diagrams & Mushrooms'. Yet even if Colombo has grave concerns for the state of the world, at least he should have no worries about the health of his own music, because on this form, it's in fine fettle."

Textura
"Like many a Boltfish release, BTB's Who wants to be healthy in this sick world? is a flawlessly crafted collection of gleaming electronic sounds. But Franco Colombo, who's been issuing tracks from his native Buenos Aires, Argentina home base since 2001, brings a welcome degree of grime and grit to the material that isn't as common a Boltfish characteristic. The heavy, cut-throat attack in "Climatic Dot," for example, proves Colombo 's no wallflower: the slowly unfurling keyboard tones may be textbook Boltfish but the song's clattering groove assuredly isn't. Though Colombo's material generally pairs shimmering keyboard melodies with broken and funk beats in an IDM-related style that suggests a harder-edged Plaid, he's not afraid to mix it up either: a head-nodding lurch pushes "Life To B#" in the direction of instrumental hip-hop, and "Sweet Lysoform" is most certainly a Basic Channel-Chain Reaction tribute.

Though BTB's eight cuts constitute a full-enough meal, the release includes four remixes: Mint's ‘Electrified' version of "Bugree" presses all the right buttons, Milieu's ‘Mushroom Field' hazy treatment of "I Have Diagrams & Mushrooms" brings forth BTB's hip-hop side, and Melodium merges piano and harp sparkle with punchy beats on "Tykua." "

Electronic Desert
"BTB second full-length album entitled Who Wants to be Healthy in this Sick World? following his debut Sysex EP from late 2005. BTB continues to make lovely sounding electronic music with excellent beats and melodies to accompany them. However as the title may suggest his music is set in a more sinister landscape (could it possibly be linked to the current state of the World?) This has in no way affected the quality of his music in any negative way. The opening track Building a better life through living is the perfect example with amplitude of atmosphere. The second track Ill Brain features more broken sounds and a deep sub bass to booth. Rhythmically complex and with a sinister undertone, but given the track’s title maybe not all that surprising. In any event it’s a really good track. The first eight tracks are accompanied by four remixes by the usual suspects with one possible exception: Melodium. The track title of his contribution is not among the other songs, that could be the effect of some last minute track changes who knows for sure. The other re-mixers would be: Cheju, Mint and Milieu all doing a fine job of interpretation. All in all Who Wants to be Healthy in this Sick World? is a very good album and my final free association takes me to the realms of the excellent German label Hymen."

Smallfish Records - 30/07/07
"Boltfish are back once again with another absolutely super slice of electronic goodness. BTB delivers a full album's worth of material here for your listening pleasure and it's a crispy, crunchy, melodic and beautifully produced collection indeed. Cracking rhythms really do imbue some oomph into the proceedings, whilst the melodic content complements the beats perfectly. Cool arrangements and lovely chord sequences lock horns with the occasional tougher moment with electro influences. Not only do you get all of this excellentness, but there are remixes from Boltfish head honchos Cheju and Mint as well as Milieu and Melodium. Really good stuff as always from this top quality UK label. Props!"

Vital Weekly - Number 583 - 02/07/07
"Behind BTB is one Franco Colombo, who hails from the rather unusual (for Vital Weekly that is) city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. His first release is from 2001 and he has some music for Audiobulb and various for Boltfish, who now release his 'Who Wants To Be Healthy In This Sick World?'. The differences are in the details, I wrote somewhere else, which certainly goes for releases on UK's Boltfish Recordings. Certainly there is a general matrix for the kind of music Boltfish releases, broken rhythms, spacious melancholical keyboard lines, instrumental, rhythmical but not always really danceable. For some of these artists, and Boltfish has a lot of artists on their roster, there is a stronger link to ambient music, or some more present rhythms and lesser dwelling on the keyboards. BTB is among them. His rhythms are stronger than is usual with the other artists on this label, with experimental sound bending (real time time stretching) and lesser to the keyboards, however they are there, pushed a bit to the back. Of the twelve tracks, four are remixes of other Boltfish artists, which proof the liveliness of the scene. BTB doesn't do an outstanding job, something beyond the ordinary, but it's throughout pleasant uptempo electronic music. "

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