FREDDIE B’S AUTUMN LEAVES
October 6th, 2004 by freddie96
R E L A X
Dollboy: Plans for a modern city (Different Drummer CD)
Fans of ambient textures as opposed to chilled beats have to wait quite some time these days between notable releases. So it’s great having Different Drummer make a foray into this territory, for as you’d expect, their taste proves to be impeccable.
The title of this album is beautifully descriptive of the music you’ll find on it. I generally find ambient music spatially liberating, for want of a better phrase, inviting me to imagine myself in a world other than this one – sometimes quite literally, as with Biosphere’s recent ‘Autour de la lune’ (Touch), voyaging out into space.
Dollboy, by comparison, invite the listener into a more architectural environment: a place with great purity of intention, clean lines, close attention to detail, and an overriding aesthetic of beauty. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its shadowy corners and threatening moments – ‘Monks & Bells’ takes you into a haunted monastery, and ‘China’ into some kind of super-futuristic industrial space. These apart, the other nine tracks immerse you in a calm, ordered world in which pleasure and relaxation are paramount.
Naturally there’s a good deal of fantasy to all this. If you watch the video that comes embedded on this CD, you’ll find Dollboy have a fondness for the fifties, that era that dreamed of paradise on earth: fully automated kitchens, pneumatically sexy automobiles, shiny happy families and heaps of leisure time to spend at the beach surfing and cooking up barbeques. This is reflected in their use of slide guitar and the occasional cornet – faint echoes of Durutti Column and Bill Wells Trio – but for the most part they construct a clean, modern sound that is refreshingly original. Definitely one for the dreamers out there.
T H I N K
State River Widening: Cottonwood (Vertical Form CD / LP)
The third LP from this London-based instrumental trio is an interesting development from ‘Early Music’, their last opus. Much remains the same – the rich blend of acoustic and electric, the gradual accumulation of rhythm, the attention to detail – but the mood is more pensive; more autumnal, perhaps.
Where ‘Early Music’ was a free-spirited celebration of pure musicality, the textured layers of ‘Cottonwood’ conjure a more considered atmosphere. The mournful strings on ‘Crown’, the opener, immediately strike a sombre note. The brief appearance of wistful ’60s folk vocalist Anne Briggs on ‘Lowlands’ adds to this, while ‘Desertesque’ gives Steve Reich a good run for his money.
Once again the comparisons to Tortoise (back when they were great) are hard to avoid, only this lot are more earthy – strongly influenced by English folk music – a lot more accessible and, in the long run, a lot more rewarding to listen to.
Efterklang: Tripper (Leaf CD / LP)
As a frustrated Sigur Ros fan – when will they make the truly great album they have in them? – I’ve long been on the lookout for something to satisfy my craving for weird Nordic shit, to coin an unflattering phrase. Having heard this album, I now have high hopes for Efterklang, a ten-piece who make similarly intense, beautiful music.
Their name means ‘reverberation’ or, literally, ‘after noise’, a concept that has immediate appeal to the chiller in retreat from the current resurgence of rough and ready rock ‘n’ roll. Certainly there are no guitars here; instead, you get delicate washes of electronica (comparisons with Mum spring to mind), sparse piano and trumpet, achingly emotive strings – from the same Icelandic crew who’ve collaborated with Sigur Ros – hushed vocals, and some truly stunning choral work from a Greenlandic choir.
As with some classical music, the overall effect is simultaneously austere and emotionally overpowering. It’s what I think of as winter music: crisp, reflective and hugely refreshing. A terrific debut from a band I’d really like to experience live.
S M I L E
Momma Gravy: Adios (Different Drummer CD/LP)
Another feather in Different Drummer’s cap – the addition of Momma Gravy to their roster. The former Porkster here continues to do what he does best, namely to lay down a succession of infectious rhythms perfectly pitched into that midway point between the horizontal and the vertical.
S I N G L E S E L E C T I O N
Nylon Rhythm Machine: Chimera EP (Catskills 12)
One of my favourite Catskills acts returns after a two-year silence with four feelgood midtempo tunes. A little like Lemon Jelly – only with tiger cub fangs, not milk teeth.
Laura B: Midi A Minuit EP (Fantastic Recordings CD)
Four thoroughly sublime tracks from the fantastic Laura B, all of them suffused with energy and emotion. Few people make electronica as pure and uplifting as this.
The Funky Lowlives feat. Marshmello: ‘Til I Left The Music (Outer 12)
The one and only Marshmello adds a touch of her sweet soul to a low slung Lowlife groove. Guaranteed to have you nodding your head; the Mark Rae remix treats the feet.
Diplo: Diplo Rhythm (Big Dada 12)
A huge, stomping tune, given some sass and soul by Sandra Melody. Lots of fun.
