Council Meeting Memo #050
Raff: Reductionist (Nous’klaer Audio, EP)
Took a few attempts to find the right angle of entry for this one. Initially was gonna be all meh, but over time its singular vision managed to win me over. Head for the sinister swagger of ‘They don’t wanna see us’. Disembodied pitched down vocals counterpoint warped sub-bass and rat-a-tat percussion. ‘Freeze’ aligns itself to a more familiar house template but the deep bleeps skew it to somewhere Detroitian. SA
Objekt: Objekt #5 (Objekt, 12”)
I like the sonic hints at non-dance based genres in Objekt’s tracks. I remember flourishes of post-punk and industrial on his debut album in amongst in the pristine sound design. And it’s a trick he repeats here. ‘Bad Apples’ a slow-time lopsided dancehall shuffle with a gnarly bass-guitar drive as its backbone. ‘Ballast’ swaps out the bass-guitar for bleeps and is slightly less effective. SA
Prince Of Queens: Sound Of Life (Second Hand Records, EP)
NYC House vibes. The title track is positively uplifting without being forced. Some nice subtle rhythmic trickery at play here. Doesn’t do much else, but then it doesn’t have to. Ciel’s remix takes it apart but doesn’t quite know how to put it back together again. SA
Pantha du Prince: Garden Gaia (Modern Recordings, Album)
I listened to this album after visiting an ecologically-focused exhibition at the Barbican in London called ‘Our Time on Earth’. Although the diverse projects highlighted in the show were laudable, there was no mention of the massive elephant in the room, capitalism, our present ouroborian affliction working overtime to ensure our planetary demise. We were dismayed to discover on leaving that the show was sponsored by Meta, that obscenely profitable, autocratically-governed tool for the subversion of democracy. And here we have an album making a claim for ecological concerns through its sound, its titles and its cover art depicting people of colour in an edenic landscape. I visited PdP’s website to look for further context, but apart from myriad options to stream or buy the record I couldn’t find further information, only further digital renderings of landscapes and other paeans to nature. The music is gently meditative and lovely to behold, a continuation and development from 2020’s ‘Conference of Trees’. The Dolby Atmos / Spatial Audio mix really contributes to the experience, I’d highly recommend it. Garden Gaia appears to be an admirable plea for listeners to care for nature. It may also serve as a calming soundtrack while our ecosystems are subjected to intolerable pressure and falter and fail. CB
Terrain: Mantis 08 (Mantis, EP)
Really like the tone of green this label uses for all their cover art. Always think that colour goes well to accompany a certain type of propulsive techno driven by dynamics. And that’s what Terrain delivers in spades, with ‘Choices’ being the calling card. Also liked the sludgy bass-heavy breath of ‘Mode’. Whilst you’re here, consume everything else this Delsin sub-label has released, yeah? SA
