Council Meeting Memo #040
Kode9: Escapology (Hyperdub, Album)
We’re in: progression lit by lamps no longer neon. Beetling virtually along a highway, pile-ups implied, none hurt obvs (physically, software more a concern). Arrive scrambled, location unknown (some)where harsh, unforgiving (no choice), assigned; deploy stoicism. Cut: spaceport (unreliable announcer). Primed for launch, destination scrambled, circuits infected; someone cut the map with Occam’s razor. Float free/light is deafening/wait pensively. Cut: loading dock, equatorial zone, hope dosage exhausted, but for what (unknown). Co-ordinates: 42.33º/-83.04º, elevation: 192m. Getting hectic, need to step up: time divides, no time to lose>losing>lost. We’re caught in a loop, can’t break free. Call spatial mechanics. Jacob, what are the optics? Did we make it? Cut. CB
TIBSLC: Hypertranslucent (Sferic, Album)
Mellifluous surges of wave-borne warmth wash across soft shores, while below the surface bass notes thrum like soft pebbles. A great whale of sonorous tones; the sound of ocean liner engines, rumble over the horizon. Manta rays ullulate, shoals of luminescent fish flit, a humming bird, all lime plumage flecked with scarlet flashes by, too fast to see. Dive down deep into the blue then up again, strain to taste the difference between ocean and atmosphere, trough and crest. We are simultaneously sub-aquatic, among quizzical maritime oddities and extra-planetary, porous to the infinite quake of distant galaxies. Voltage flickers, voices murmur, all incomprehensible, yet we are indivisible and must surrender. Float back to the beach, lie in the shallows and wait expectantly, washed gently by each swell, each ripple until we become cloud-like and melt into the humming air. CB
DJ T-Cuts: Never Compare (Mined, 12”)
I liked the discombobulated breakbeat at the start of the title track, but it quickly settles into something slightly more predictable. But ‘Cut to the chase’ is the real find though, a nifty meld of retro hip-hop sonics (scratches, stuttered vocals) and rave pick’n mix (hoover bassline, atonal synths). Gets better as it charges along too, especially in the last few minutes where it collapses in on itself. SA
Robert Hood: Internal Empire (Tresor, Album Reissue)
Still sounding as urgent and ferocious now as it did way back upon its initial release in 1994. I didnt realise that the CD / digital version had some different tracks and a completely different running order until now. Totally skewing my famliairity of this album. The ones that worked for me back in the day (’Minus’, ‘Home’, ‘Chase’) still work for me now. If you never have, then you should. SA
Flex Luthor: Boiling Point EP (7th Storey Projects, EP)
Sounds deceptively straight forward on initial consumption. A bunch of sample heavy R’n B timestreched vocal jungle. But on closer inspection, you’ll hear a layer of welcome complexity to the template. The title track best demonstrates this, didn’t really care for the rest though (Ok, maybe the weirdness of ‘Take A Ride’ might have raised quizzical looks). SA
