Berlin-based producer Liam Mour has released his latest single “Alone” which explores his club-ready sound that he’s quickly becoming known for. The new single is taken from his forthcoming EP Angel High which is set to be released on January the 20th, via Ode To Youth. After showcasing a diverse catalog of music that explores an ambient and electronica style sound, Mour returns with a serene hymn at 140bpm, to round off the year. it’s a track that draws in inspiration from UK garage and electronica.
Speaking on the new single, Mour writes “During the summer months I had a heart attack as a result of a Myocarditis probably caused by a Covid infection. This completely changed my perspective and feeling for speed. It feels like time is running faster now and somehow I need to speed up my music to be able to align my emotions,“ states the artist. „Alone was the first track I made after the heart attack that has really calmed me down – even though it‘s in 140bpm“.
We’ve become accustomed to seeing Liam creating emotive pieces of orchestral-electronica, but on “Alone” we see the Berlin-based producer take a more simplified approach. Sticking to a 4×4 drum pattern with a catchy vocal that will stick with listeners for months.
Alone by Liam Mour is out now on all streaming platforms.
Liam Mour is supporting SOHN’s upcoming UK/IE tour on these dates:
Greek studio beyondthosehills has shared with us some tips for creating abstract art style (and pitfalls to avoid). Here are some tips based on their experience with their minimalist puzzle game reky.
Maria Aloupi, co-founder and game producer at beyondthosehills
Minimalist art style should compliment gameplay
When it comes to style, less is often more. In a sea of games shouting for attention, we decided that a unique aesthetic would help the game stand out from the crowd. Finalizing the concept took a lot of work and iteration with elements that have come together from an eclectic mix of disciplines: architecture culture, minimalist style, abstract art, and ambient music.
Based on architectural design and technical drawing, reky is a fresh and modern puzzle game that aims to accentuate its physical space with compositions that support the functionality in each level.
Creating puzzles with cubes was a great opportunity to use a design inspired by broader modernist, minimalist architecture and Bauhaus philosophy. The cubes in combination with gameplay indicate a minimal environment that reminds the player of an abstract situation like being in construction mode.
Ultimately these choices led to designing the game using only the most necessary elements. Players interact with different puzzle elements of every level, shifting and moving them in order to create a path to the goal of each simple yet brain-teasing challenge.
One of reky’s early versions
Who is beyondthosehills?
Based in Athens, Greece, beyondthosehills was co-founded by Andreas Diktyopoulos and Maria Aloupi in 2012.
The team’s debut title, point and click adventure game The Minims, came out in 2015 for iOS before later being ported to PC and Android.
beyondthosehills completely switched the genre with reky, which won a few awards for its art style. The game is available on mobile and PC, and the studio also recently released a Nintendo Switch version.
Right now, the team is working on Albert Wilde: The Quantum P.I., black-and-white comedy game about a cat detective set in noir New York.
Keeping everything simple was key to avoiding certain game design pitfalls
The infinite possibilities of games have always fascinated us. Unlike more traditional mediums, there are no physical or material constraints, so one is free to creatively explore spaces that could not exist otherwise. This creative freedom, however, is both a blessing and a curse. It is very easy to fall into the trap of creating very complex concepts which are difficult to implement properly.
For reky, we avoided this trap. We decided, from the very beginning, to “keep it simple” so that we could manage a very well-balanced and coherent whole, where aesthetics, game design, and user experience were given the equal attention they deserve.
The result is a game where fresh technical drawing aesthetics meet a large variety of elegantly designed logic challenges to create a minimalist puzzle title with an understated artistic flair.
One of reky’s early versions
Design should be as clear as possible to the player
The choice of a minimalist art style is a reflection of beyondthosehills’ love for simple and intuitive design. It felt natural to bring this sort of philosophy into the design of the game.
Based on an abstract concept, we had to create the rules, the structure, and then build each of the levels. The intention was to create clever, beautiful challenges to stimulate logic and lateral thinking.
To maintain players’ interest, we crafted several types of puzzles and carefully arranged them based on their category and difficulty. But a lot of work went into making player interaction as simple and intuitive as possible.
Through many iterations, we created a smart algorithm that understands what the player wants to do when tapping on the cube. As with good architecture, the goal is to make the game just work and be super clear to understand without any barriers or learning curve.
One of reky’s early versions
Soundscape should be coherent and consistent with the overall minimalist approach
Ambient waves of sound and gentle chimes for every input give reky a relaxing feel. The feeling of random sounds when the player interacts with the cubes was intentionally created after a careful choice of selected interactive sounds that always harmonize with the ambient background.
We created an environment of Interactable Elements that works as a virtual musical instrument. Players come into active contact with the sound every time they interact with each action element in the game.
At the same time, a subtle, non-intrusive long loop provided a canvas on which all of reky’s interactive sounds would be weaved together to create a coherent whole. So every single player action plays either a sound or, more interestingly, a melodic sound intertwined with the canvas to produce a pleasing end result.
As far as the national press cared, Chicago’s 1990s indie-rock scene revolved around Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair, and Urge Overkill. I won’t say anything one way or the other about the merit of those artists, but their success had the felicitous side effect of persuading major labels to slosh irresponsible amounts of money around the city—and local labels, producers, and musicians used that money to do much more interesting things.
One of the local labels that arose in this environment was Kranky, founded in 1993 by Bruce Adams and Joel Leoschke. Like Drag City and Thrill Jockey, two of its best-known peers from that era, Kranky (styled “kranky” by the label) was uncompromising in its aesthetic choices—in fact, one of its early slogans was “What we want, when you need it.” Unlike those operations, though, Kranky stayed small. When the label matured in the late 90s, it was averaging just eight or nine releases per year—but its influence has long been hugely out of proportion with its size.
In the pre-Internet era, when albums had to be physically shipped, Chicago remained an important hub of music-industry infrastructure even as its other industries withered. Adams worked for a suburban distributor called Kaleidoscope in the late 80s (it also employed Drag City founders Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn), and a few years later he befriended Leoschke while they were colleagues at Cargo, a major distributor of indie labels. Musicians often worked at distributors, labels, venues, recording studios, publicity firms, or college radio stations, and even if they didn’t, they knew people who did. This helped trigger an explosion of grassroots collaborations, with noise-rock players rubbing elbows with folks operating in avant-garde jazz, electronic dance, psychedelia, ambient music, and more.
Adams and Leoschke contributed to this wildly fertile hybridization by opening a door from indie rock into an almost otherworldly space—one that rewards “concentration, stillness, and the abandonment of preexisting structures and conventions,” as Jordan Reyes put it in the Reader in 2018. “Kranky debuted with Prazision, a beautifully glacial album by Virginia drone-rock trio Labradford,” he wrote, “and since then it’s maintained a focus on meticulous, entrancing sounds, sometimes understated and ghostly . . . and sometimes towering and awe inspiring.”
Labradford’s 1993 album Prazision, the first Kranky release, has proved enduringly influential.
Kranky began working with its best-known artists in the late 90s: it released three albums by Minnesota trio Low before their move to Sub Pop, and it issued the CD version of the debut full-length by Montreal collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor, F♯ A♯ ∞, followed by Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven. But by then the label’s sonic territory—lush and caustic, serene and uneasy—had already been staked out by the likes of Labradford, Jessamine, Bowery Electric, and Stars of the Lid.
Bowery Electric helped define the Kranky sound with their 1995 debut album.
“At a certain point, an aesthetic started to congeal,” Adams told Reader critic Peter Margasak in a 1998 label profile. “I always think of it as the intersection where our tastes overlap with the economic possibilities of who we can work with.”
The label developed a distinctive personality too: austere, remote, and quietly, somewhat cryptically playful, with a sprinkling of what Margasak called “almost recreational negativity.” The title of Adams’s recent book about Kranky and its milieu, set mostly in the 90s and early 2000s, comes from another label slogan: You’re With Stupid: Kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music.
Latter-day Kranky artists include Liz Harris’s project Grouper.
After Adams sold his share of Kranky to Leoschke in 2005, he ran a low-key imprint called Flingco Sound System for more than a decade. He now lives in Urbana. Leoschke is in Portland, Oregon, as is the Kranky warehouse. The label’s other staffer, Brian Foote, does management and promo work in Los Angeles. Kranky’s latter-day artists include Tim Hecker and Grouper.
This excerpt from You’re With Stupid (published by the University of Texas Press) is drawn from two different spots in the book. It sets the stage for the launch of Kranky and describes the community of musicians that Adams and Leoschke helped shape with their stubbornly idiosyncratic ears and prescient vision. Philip Montoro
Bruce Adams cofounded the Kranky label in 1993 and sold his stake to Joel Leoschke, the other founder, in 2005. His book You’re With Stupid covers mostly the years 1991 till 2002. Credit: Photo of Bruce Adams by Annie F. Adams
From You’re With Stupid: Kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music by Bruce Adams
The story of kranky is a Chicago story. In the early eighties, as a global music underground was developing, a network of wholesale music distributors, independent record labels, clubs, recording studios, college radio stations, and DIY publications established themselves in Chicago. The city had been a center of the recorded music business since 1913, when the Brunswick Company started making phonograph machines and pressing vinyl. Chicago had been home to jazz pioneers Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and Louis Armstrong for a brief, impactful time. In the 1950s Chess Records was a force in the blues and R&B scenes. Alligator Records was an independent blues label started in 1971. But the founding of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (or AACM) in 1965 is what created the precedent and working model for independent organization and avant-garde music in the city that eventually was reflected in house music and underground rock. AACM’s self-reliance and the border-crossing devotion of related musicians who incorporated ancient African music into the creation of future-facing music put Chicago on the map of innovative and independent music centers.
It was possible to get cheap apartments to live in or practice space for your band or even a storefront to open a distributor or store. The hollowing of the city’s industrial base had left empty warehouses and business spaces that were ideal for multiple activities, especially for anyone willing to live near a highway, train line, or in a low-income or overlooked neighborhood. One point of origin for house music was an underground club called “The Warehouse.”
The people behind the bars or record store counters, or piling the boxes up in warehouses, were often musicians, or artists, or both. Well-stocked record stores and distributors brought records into the city, giving people opportunities to listen to and process music. The radio provided access to multiple college stations playing a dizzying variety of music. Rent was cheap enough that people didn’t need full-time jobs and could pursue their enthusiasms. David Sims of The Jesus Lizard moved to Chicago in 1989 and recalled in the free weekly the Chicago Reader in 2017 that the band’s landlord “raised the rent on the apartment five dollars a month every year. When we moved in it was $625 a month, and when I left 11 years later it was $675 a month.” My experience was similar.
Stars of the Lid released their magnum opus—a three-LP album—through Kranky in 2001.
If you were a music lover but not a musician, you could work for a music-related business or start your own. Self-published fanzines popped up, and people had workspaces where they could screen print posters and T-shirts for bands. The major labels and national media were located on the coasts, lessening the temptation for bands to angle for the attention of the star-maker machinery. The circuitous impact of all the above was meaningful in shaping how and why Chicago would become the fertile center of the American indie rock scene, and why it produced so much music that broke the stylistic molds of that scene.
I moved to Chicago from Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the summer of 1987. I shared a house with a roommate from Michigan in a northside neighborhood called Bowmanville and started work in a suburb called Des Plaines, right by O’Hare. It was at a distributor called Kaleidoscope, run by the unforgettable Nick Hadjis, whom everybody called Nick the Greek. His brother Dmitri had a store in Athens and promoted shows for American bands like LA’s industrial/tribal/psychedelic outfit Savage Republic. Kaleidoscope was a common starting point for enterprising young music folks seeking to enter the grassroots music business within Chicago. People came in from downstate Illinois or Louisville, Kentucky, or Austin, Texas, and worked there before they went off into the city to work at the growing Wax Trax! and Touch & Go operations. Bands were starting their own labels to record and release their music, following the pattern established by the SST and Dischord labels. In those pre-Internet times, scenes grew up around successful bands who distributed their singles via touring the country, getting fanzine coverage, and garnering college radio airplay. The seven-inch single, LP, and tape cassette were the preferred formats for these bands and labels.
Kranky coreleased Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s debut album with the Constellation label.
Two guys named Dan (Koretzky and Osborn, respectively) who worked at Kaleidoscope had been impressed, and rightly so, by a self-released, self-titled album by the duo Royal Trux that Kaleidoscope stocked. A little later, I had a single called “Slay Tracks 1933:1969” self-released by the band Pavement firmly pressed into my hands by one or another Dan and was informed that only a thousand were pressed. I bought it that day. Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn each worked at the distributor, had experience at Northwestern’s WNUR radio station, and were strategically placed to discover and make contact with new bands. They reached out to Royal Trux and Pavement, started a label called Drag City in 1988, and began releasing records in 1989. In a similar process, Joel Leoschke and I would start kranky after hearing the first single from an unknown ambient duo from Richmond called Labradford four years later.
Low were one of Kranky’s other best-known signings.
In the economic sense and at the label level, independent or “indie” refers to a means of production and distribution. Independent labels operated outside the fiscal control of major labels and multinationals that owned them; the so-called “Big Six” of the Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony Music, BMG, PolyGram, and Universal that operated from 1988 to 1999. Indie labels arranged and paid for manufacturing themselves and were distributed at least in part by independent distributors like Chicago-based Cargo, or Mordam Records in San Francisco, who sourced records from hundreds of labels around the world and got them into record shops domestically.
The levels of economic independence labels exercised were on a spectrum. So, for example, hardcore punk records on the Washington, DC, Dischord label were manufactured by the British independent distributor Southern Records, which also provided European manufacturing and distribution for a consortium of mostly British labels. Although Chicago-based Touch & Go Records were also distributed by Southern in Europe, the label arranged and financed its own manufacturing. By necessity, most labels had to interact with multinationals, and those interactions also existed along a spectrum. The psych pop Creation label, home to My Bloody Valentine and Oasis, and grindcore pioneers Earache Records with Napalm Death and Godflesh started out as independents in England and were eventually manufactured and distributed in North America by Sony. RED, originally an independent distributor called Important, was eventually acquired by Sony. Virgin/EMI Records opened Caroline Records and Distribution in 1983 in New York. Touch & Go was distributed by both of these distributors.
On Kranky’s early roster, Jessamine stood out as one of the more rock-leaning acts.
Labels turned artists’ recordings and artwork into LPs, singles, cassettes, and compact discs. Parts were shepherded through the manufacturing process, and finished products were received and warehoused somewhere, be it someone’s closet, basement, or a wholesale distributor, and then scheduled for shipment to record stores and mail-order customers. Stores needed to know what was arriving when in order to predictably stock their shelves, and so release schedules had to be created, coordinated, and adhered to. Likewise, fanzines, the magazines created by dedicated fans/amateur writers, and radio stations had to be serviced with promotional or “play” copies of releases so that reviews were run and music was played on air when records arrived in stores or as close to that time as possible. If there was enough money available, advertising would accompany the release. Some labels had paid staff or volunteers who promoted records; others hired agencies. If bands were touring, stock had to be ready for them to sell on the road. And if a label wanted to export releases or had a European distributor, the schedule had to be aligned with the logistics of overseas shipping and sales. At any step in the process of releasing music—manufacturing, shipping, or distribution—a label could easily find itself doing business with a multinational. Complete self-sufficiency and independence for record labels was virtually impossible in practice. It’s fair to say that the greater the degree of economic independence a label possessed, the more aesthetic leeway it had to operate with.
There was something about the Chicago music scene that is harder to quantify, but definitely existed: an attitude of mutual support and aid. When I worked at Kaleidoscope, my coworkers were in bands like Eleventh Dream Day and the Jesus Lizard. At Cargo, many of the employees were in bands and would show up at each other’s shows to lend support. This was, to some extent, an inheritance from the early days of the hardcore punk rock circuit, when bands had to depend on each other to organize and pull off shows. I had seen the ethos in action when I roadied for Laughing Hyenas and saw how they coordinated with the Milwaukee band Die Kreuzen to perform together in weekend shows across the Midwest. This do-it-yourself, or DIY, approach worked for sound engineers like Steve Albini and John McEntire who had begun as musicians. As David Trumfio puts it, “Touring and meeting other people on a similar path was very important to keeping my focus. Being a musician is and was essential to being a successful engineer and/or producer in my opinion. You have to have that perspective to know how to relate to the people you’re recording.” As groups returned to Chicago from touring, they offered reciprocal aid to bands they played with in other cities. Tortoise provided space in their loft to Stereolab, and Carter Brown from Labradford sold equipment to Douglas McCombs from Tortoise. In Chicago, musicians performed and recorded together, crossing over genre boundaries to interact. Tom Windish summarizes it by saying, “It wasn’t like the Touch & Go people couldn’t be friends with the Drag City people or the Wax Trax! people couldn’t be friends with the Bloodshot people.” Brent Gutzeit, who came to Chicago from Kalamazoo, Michigan, in late 1995, describes the scene: “Everybody was jamming with each other. Jazz dudes playing alongside experimental/noise musicians, punk kids and no wave folks. Ken Vandermark was setting up improv and jazz shows at the Bop-Shop and Hot House. Michael Zerang set up shows at Lunar Cabaret. Fireside Bowl had punk shows as well as experimental stuff. Lounge Ax always had great rock shows. Empty Bottle used to have a lot of great shows. I set up jazz and experimental shows at Roby’s on Division. Then there was Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge down on the southside. There were underground venues like ODUM, Milk of Burgundy, and Magnatroid where the no wave and experimental bands would play. Even smaller independent cafés like the Nervous Center in Lincoln Square and Lula Cafe in Logan Square hosted experimental shows. There was no pressure to be a ‘rock star’ and nobody had big egos. There was a lot of crossover in band members, which influenced rock bands to venture into the outer peripheries of music, which provided musical growth in the ‘rock’ scene.”
Kranky has worked with a few Chicago projects, among them Robert A.A. Lowe’s Lichens.
Ken Vandermark breaks down the resources and people who made Chicago such an exciting city to be in: “A combination of creative factors fell into place in Chicago during the mid-’90s that was unique to any city I’ve seen before or since. A large number of innovative musicians, working in different genres, were living very close to each other. Key players had been developing their ideas for years, and many were roughly the same age—from their late twenties to early thirties. A number of adventurous music journalists, also in the same age group, were starting to get published in established Chicago periodicals. People who ran the venues who presented the cutting-edge music were of this generation too. Music listings for more avant-garde material were getting posted effectively online. All of this activity coalesced at the same time, without any one individual ‘controlling’ it. And there was an audience hungry to hear what would happen next, night after night.”
Bill Meyer sees this cooperative spirit from the independent scene of the mid-1990s in present-day Chicago: “I describe it as an act of collective will. This thing exists because it does not exist in this way, anywhere else in the world. What we have now are people who really want to get together. They will rehearse each other’s pieces and they will be in each other’s bands. They don’t resent each other’s successes. If you go to New York, there’s a lot of people doing things, but there’s also a lot more hierarchy involved. You don’t have that here. And I think that to some extent, the Touch & Go aesthetic imported over into the people who came after Ken Vandermark and were very attentive to that kind of thing.”
Kranky has been around long enough for its newer artists to be influenced by the label’s early output.
In Chicago, 1998 was a year of significant releases from Tortoise, Gastr del Sol, and the Touch & Go edition of the Dirty Three’s Ocean Songs. The latter was an Australian band made up of violinist Warren Ellis, drummer Jim White, and guitarist Mick Turner. Their fourth album was recorded in Chicago by Steve Albini and is one of the most accurately titled ever. Ocean Songs ebbs and flows with the trio’s interplay and became very popular with rock fans who may have been familiar with the Touch & Go label but were otherwise unenthusiastic about the new bands in Chicago. In performance, the Dirty Three were dynamic, with Ellis being particularly charismatic. White moved to the city and contributed to the Boxhead Ensemble and numerous recording sessions. Drag City released Gastr del Sol’s Camofleur, solo records from Grubbs, and a triple-LP/double-CD compilation of Stereolab tracks called Aluminum Tunes. Thrill Jockey were channeling the Tortoise TNT album through Touch & Go Distribution.
The Chicago scene was producing an incredible range of music. Lisa Bralts-Kelly observes that unlike earlier in the decade, when groups moved to Seattle to make it as grunge stars, “Nobody came to Chicago to sound like Smashing Pumpkins or Liz Phair.” And unlike centers of the “industry” like New York City and Los Angeles, prone to waves of hype that focused on a few bands, as occurred with the Strokes beginning in 2001, a multitude of Chicago bands could develop, connect with supportive labels, and build an audience.
WOOD DRIFT is a music project realised between Demi and Andy Dennis, two lifelong friends, bonded through formative experiences on the dance floors of some of London’s most iconic clubs during a golden era of music in the 90’s and noughties.
Demi’s career trajectory since then took his brand of music to all four corners of the globe with numerous awards, accolades and release compilations which endeared many to his brand of sound and personality.
The post rave, progressive sound with a more sophisticated euphoric approach in its composition underpins the Wood Drift vision.
A handful of single releases which featured on the Earth compilation, spearheaded by Eli from Soul Clap and Hernan Cattaneo’s Sunbeat imprint now sees the pair noticed by a wider audience with their first full EP release on Do Not Sit Recordings.
The three track BuzzTap EP begins to demonstrate the breadth of their work together as Wood Drift. Timeless and universal are strong currents that flow in their production approach. We look forward to their full length album in 2023
We caught up with the duo and asked them to talk us through a playlist of their influences.
Payfone – Sofian (12″ Mix)
These type of slow tempo sounds always run a risk of noodling for the sake of it. We try to ensure that whatever we make has some element of tension and momentum regardless of tempo. There has to be purpose. Here we have a very cool outing from Payfone that marries with soft spoken vocals which are very much a sonic blueprint of the comfort end of sounds we produce in the studio.
Maricopa – One Impulse
This is a classic Wood Drift influence sounding record. Drifting into a deep-sea ocean of harmonies and melodies that are underpinned by a soft rhythm section that keeps the momentum flowing. Positively charged.
Afterlife – La Torre
A comfort sounding trip that rhythmically sits perfectly with the soft pads and steady groove we look for in our productions. A beautiful piece that slowly sits into your conscious stream.
Margino – Happy People
There is also very much a soulful and playful side to our characters too. At heart we are positively charged souls and there’s so much 70’s and 80’s boogie music that we continue to unearth. This is a gorgeous slice of boogie funk for the dancefloor.
Hypnotique – Le Divan
A more uptempo slice of synth pop goodness that still draws influence from the 80’s with the signature rhythms and snares. And who doesn’t love the sound of a sultry French spoken voice too 🙂 When Wood Drift pumps, it tends to follow and flow like this.
Body San – Last Breath
We’re always striving to create ambient music and soundscapes that are tinged with that sense of euphoria.
A.C. Band – Good Feelings
Summer poolside vibes aplenty here!
Mystic Jungle – Money Wonder
Tune repeat alert. That iconic drum programming sound from the Roland Cr78. But that’s not what carries this. Simplicity at its best here and what we strive to achieve with our work.
Wubble U – Time
Another key component in our music making is storytelling. We love the extended intro on this and is a great mix tool to use in your sets. An uptempo classic house number that ooozes class. Wait for the drop. A dancefloor moment!
Smith & Mudd – The Surveyor
We’re big fans of the output from Claremont 56. We love every aspect of how they package their music as well. This is simply timeless. Pure Balaeric feels here in the slow steady tempo range.
Tommy Rawson – 7 Days (12″ Digital Bonus)
Back to an uptempo bounce here. Tinged with a mature slice of funk and progressive. Very reminiscent of the vintage Spirit Catcher vibe. Another timeless masterpiece here by Tommy Rawson.
Semtek – Angel
Another example of the bounce we push for with our our sound. Simple bassline grooves and snappy rhythms with fleeting dreamy sounds layered on top. Yes please.
Trembling Blue Stars – The Rainbow
Hard to believe this was made 25 years ago. An indie pop band that formed in 1995 that unfortunately disbanded in 2010. A song with timeless lyrics that touches the soul.
Alias “Who’s Story?” – Da Journey
Classic garage rhythms, with a killer groove but with the signiature elements that turn the Wood Drift camp on. Another timeless number.
Wood Drift – Buzztap EP is out now on Do Not Sit On The Furniture Recordings
Having kept himself busy in 2022 by releasing not one but two new albums with Red Hot Chili Peppers – not to mention touring the world with them – John Frusciante has announced that he’s also returned to one of his other great loves: making electronic music.
The star actually has two albums on the way: ‘. I :’ (pronounced ‘one’) and two ‘: I I .’ (pronounced ‘two’). These will be released on Avenue 66, a sub-label of Berlin-via-LA-based label Acid Test that focuses on leftfield electronic projects.
And leftfield these two records most certainly are. In fact, Frusciante suggests that they’re a direct response to spending “a year and a half writing and recording rock music” with the Chili Peppers.
“I needed to clear my head,” he explains. “I listened to and made music where things generally happen gradually rather than suddenly. I would set up patches on a [Elektron] Monomachine or Analog Four and listen to them, hearing one sound morph into others, making changes to a patch only after having listened for quite a while, gradually adding elements, and finally manipulating the sounds on the fly. All tracks were recorded live to CD burner, with no overdubs, and executed on one or two machines.”
Frusciante cites a range of experimental musicians as influences on the albums, also referencing “John Lennon’s tape and mellotron experiments he made at home during his time in the Beatles, as well as events like the first minute of Bowie’s Station To Station, …And The Gods Made Love by Jimi Hendrix, the synths in the song Mass Production by Iggy Pop, and the general idea of [Brian] Eno’s initial concept of Ambient music.”
In a bid to convey “both movement and stillness,” Frusciante reports that he “refrained from sudden musical changes, especially avoiding sequences of notes and rhythms.”
He goes on to say that “in fact, this music was made from sequences which never exceed a single note, many of these pieces being made on a single pattern. The movement which a good sculptor conveys when the shape of his medium meets the eyes of the viewer who walks around the piece, or the sun changes its position, are the kinds of movement which it was the role of the synth patches to communicate.”
Confirming that “there was no place for sequences of notes and rhythms in my plans,” Frusciante attributes this creative philosophy to coming off the back of “writing songs and playing guitar” for 18 months.
“When the band’s recording phase was completed, I needed to go back to my adopted language,” he explains. “I had done enough with chords, rhythms, notes, defined sections, sharp transitions, etc… What I needed was to create music from the ground up with nothing but sound, and have that music reflect ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. It was a therapeutic way of re-balancing myself, before and during my band’s mixing process.”
Given all of the above, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that the new albums won’t be made up of hooky three-minute pop songs.
“This music seeks to just exist, and is not attempting to manipulate or grab the listener in any way,” says Frusciante. “I believe it works well if one listens loud and focuses on it, but also works well at soft volumes and in the background. It can compete with silence on silence’s own terms, and it can also happily wipe silence out.”
Released on CD, ‘two’ is essentially a longer version of ‘one’, which will be put out on vinyl. “The reason the vinyl is shorter is that some of the tracks have sounds that can not be pressed on vinyl,” Frusciante explains, though there is one additional track that’s exclusive to the vinyl release.
You can find out more and pre-order the albums on the Acid Test Bandcamp page. They’ll be released on 3 February 2023.
If you asked George Clinton ‘where’d you get that funk from?’, the answer could range from his mother to those who control the mothership to James Brown. Wherever it came from, Clinton and Parliament delivered funk to the moon and back. Funkentelechy vs the Placebo Syndrome is often considered the peak of P-Funk along with their other classics Mothership Connection and One Nation Under a Groove, and with good reason. The entire album is held together with a space-age narrative of Star Child defeating Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk by instilling him with the funk. Even the least funky would struggle to be D’Voidoffunk by the end of the album.
Funkentelechy Vs The Placebo Syndrome ends with the quintessential P-Funk song “Flashlight”. An outlier in their discography with the legendary Bootsy Collins delivering strong but simple drums as the driving bassline comes from Bernie Worrell’s synths. “Flashlight” pulses for around 6 minutes as Worrell’s synth dances in your head. With memorable chanting vocals featuring lines such as ‘everybody’s got a little light under the sun’. As the song progresses, we get more and more elements coming in, more vocals, more synth, horns, and a relentless groove that keeps the dancefloor on fire throughout. Their most successful song and a live staple until Clinton’s recent retirement, the song matches the deepest of grooves with the funkiest of melodies to deliver the highlight of their career.
This isn’t to say that the 5 songs that precede this aren’t full of magic. As they describe themselves, this is heavyweight funk and the rhythm sections plays simple, restrained but pulsing grooves throughout. Musically, this is far from the fastest or wildest P-Funk album there is, but what it lacks in chaos it more than makes up for in pure funkiness. With a huge cast of legendary musicians, including Clinton, Worrell, Collins, Garry Shider, Fred Wesley, Jerome Brailey and vocals from The Brides of Dr Funkenstein, we are treated to quality in every second.
1977 was the year punk broke as disco penetrated the mainstream. The album was a comment on disco and the difficult time of the late ’70s where the world was seemingly more and more devoid of funk. Forever fighting this, Clinton and Parliament doubled down and the depth of their grooves and level of their narrative. With a trademark voiceover, we are driven through a story with the depth of any Hollywood film of the time. One could get lost in the narrative, fighting against the ‘nosiest computer I know’, putting all of their funky power behind Star Child as he uses the ‘greatest invention of all time’, the Bop Gun, to fight against the myriad of forces Sir Nose employs against him. One could also get lost in the grooves, blown away by the quality of the instrumentation, layering, production and the forward thinking nature of this funk classic.
Parliament’s sense of humour and playfulness is fully on show here, Clinton employs lyrics full of puns, childlike wordplay and a generally admirable level of goofing around for a man who can orchestrate an album like this one. The vinyl version of this album comes with a mini-comic (brilliantly written and illustrated by artist Overton Lloyd) of the narrative as well, giving more insight into the inspirations, ideologies and sense of humour that influenced the group. The afro-futurist influence is clear to see, as they continue with pyramid imagery and the alien conspiracy of Ancient Egypt. There is plenty of sci-fi imagery showing African-American characters, something that goes against Hollywood’s sci-fi. Clinton once stated that they had to put black people ‘in places where they had never been perceived to be’, including outer space. This is just a small example of the underlying politics of P-Funk, while playfully creating afro-futurist music, he supported the black freedom movement and while making jokes about being a wizard of finance he takes on the strangeness of an increasingly neo-liberal economy creeping in during the late ’70s.
Parliament-Funkadelic had an incredible run of albums during the ’70s, releasing a plethora of genre-defining albums including this one. The music speaks for itself, but the magic of P-Funk lies deeper. The stage shows were huge, the narratives were massive, and the funk was even bigger. Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome still sounds fresh in 2022, and inspires me to move like little else before or since.
‘Would you trade your funk for what’s behind the third door?’ Not if you dived into the funky masterpiece that defines this cult of musicians, the genre of funk and the year 1977.
Music is a temporal art form, a medium bound to a linear experience. Russian composer Igor Stravinsky described music as a chrononomy: a measuring tool for time. Yet some musicians can achieve a sense of infinitude in their sound by mimicking nature’s eternal characteristics. Laurie Spiegel’s endless arpeggiated synths flow like rivers, Lubomyr Melnyk’s cacophonous piano compositions blow like torrential winds, and Alice Coltrane’s rolled harp chords expand endlessly like our universe. On Palaces of Pity, French producer Malibu suggests boundlessness by embodying the expansivity of the ocean. Submerged synths undulate like waves folding into themselves, producing a sense of agonizing solitude that feels like drifting in a lifeboat with no land in sight. The sound begs you to slow down and stare into the horizon, squinting to find out just how far you can see before the world goes blurry.
In the years since her 2019 debut One Life, Malibu, whose legal name is Barbara Braccini, has developed her oceanic sound. On her monthly NTS radio show, United in Flames, she treats songs by Madonna, Dean Blunt, or Enigma like water-soluble compounds, dousing them with reverb until they dissolve into a sea of sound. In 2021 she morphed Himera and Petal Supply’s hyperpop banger “You Make It Look So Easy (S.M.I.L.E.Y)” into a heart-wrenching ballad, and earlier this year she released “Idle Citi,” a seven-minute collaboration with Swedish instrumentalist and vocalist Merely featuring seagull calls and the sound of thunder. Braccini, whose father was an oceanographer, has made the ocean her muse, using its duality of stillness and turbulence as inspiration to produce music that ebbs and flows eternally.
Palaces of Pity harbors the emotions you hold onto, willingly or not. There are few intelligible lyrics, most notably the voice in “Cheirosa ’94” that asks, “Can you feel it? When I look at you I feel it too.” Most of the album is narrated by longing moans that beckon like sirens. Braccini expands on this isolated yearning by building depth with distance. Ominous bass stabs mimic a faraway thunderclap on “The Things That Fade” and gull-like synths chirp in the skies above “So Far Out of Love.” Braccini has described the album as a sequel to One Life, which was inspired by the loss of a friendship. Palaces of Pity in turn represents the feeling of distant trauma, the way pain may fade from the surface while remaining within you.
Malibu’s music is as formless as water. Sounds creep into the picture with long attacks, slowly building into a frothy crest before dissipating into a silent trough, only to reincarnate as a new wave. “The Things That Fade” begins with a windy synth that moves from ear to ear while Braccini coos in Auto-Tune. A bass synth momentarily submerges everything underwater before her moans break the surface and the synths begin building once more. Along the way various instruments—cellos, guitars, mallets—appear like seasick hallucinations. These oscillating dynamics can be disorienting because they suggest a non-linear experience, perhaps the gradual and irregular process of healing.
By referencing the constant characteristics of the ocean, Braccini approaches a world where music can live outside of time. “Illiad,” the final track, is a nine-minute soundscape that feels like falling forever. It begins with overlapping voices, one cooing, another crying. As the vocals vanish the music settles into a descending three-note melody, conjuring the feeling of sinking into water, and a whale-like call reminds you that you’re not alone. Then a delayed synth begins to dance over the melody, like streaks of light piercing the surface. The song fades so slowly that it feels like you’ll never reach the ocean floor. Perhaps, in the Earth’s deepest waters, you can sink for eternity.
Needless to say, Ukraine is in the midst of a perilous time in their history. Hailing from Kyiv, ambient artist Hanna Svirska is attempting to reconcile with the conflict in her own way, as she reflects on her latest work, “Chornyi Zvar” (which translates to “The Black Beast” in English), “This is a track-legend about the beast which represents the greatest and the most terrible evil. The beast came at night and killed people. He tortured them, destroyed and robbed their houses. However, people realized that they have to stop being afraid of him, so he will perish without the attention and the confirmation of his own significance. People weren’t afraid of the beast anymore and he just turned into ashes and then disappeared. This is my comparison to the Russian-Ukrainian war.”
She is currently in the midst of preparing an EP, but as she shared with this writer, “Currently, the electricity situation in my city is very bad, so the process of working on tracks is getting harder and longer.” It’s rare that music carries such weight and gravity.
The track itself weaves between traditional ambient and contemporary electronica, also boasting vocals that seem to carry the pain of her current situation.
Check it out below, and stay tuned for more from Hanna Svirska whenever it becomes possible.
The pandemic might have been the Grinch that “stole” the past two Christmas and year-end holiday seasons in Malaysia, but this year, it looks like the masses will be up and about, dining, partying and being jolly.
If you’re looking to add festive concerts and theatre shows into your social calendar, then you’re in luck.
From a morning trek and community choir carol session at the leafy Taman Tugu in KL to an epic cast on stage at KLPac’s family-friendly Christmas show, you can enjoy the music fun outdoors and indoors.
Here is a list of arts events in the Klang Valley that will guarantee you stay in high spirits this festive season.
MUSICAL: FOLLOW THE LIGHT
Venue: Nero Event Space PJPAC, 1 Utama Shopping Centre
Dates: Dec 8-11
Just in time for the holiday season, theatrethreesixty is rolling out composer Nick Choo’s stage production Follow The Light at this intimate manger-like space at PJPAC. The 12th anniversary production of this musical will be directed by Christopher Ling.
“A young woman is unexpectedly told she is about to have a baby … An earnest but confused carpenter frets over the prospect of fatherhood … Some dysfunctional shepherd siblings watch their flocks by night … And a trio of men, wise or otherwise, salivate at the prospect of glory they believe they deserve …” reads the show’s synopsis.
“Follow The Light is ultimately a show for the season – a cultural, musical and historical interpretation of this timeless tale (accuracy debatable) – told primarily through song and filled with lots of warmth and laughs” says Choo of the production.
“It should be enjoyed by one and all regardless of background or belief, and I hope everyone will partake of the festive season through this unique musical experience.”
More info here.
KLPac in a Christmas mood: a rehearsal session featuring the KLPac String Orchestra – under the baton of Andrea Sim and the Young Choral Academy Chorus – led by chorus master Mak Chi Hoe. Photo: KLPac
CONCERT: CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA
Venue: Pentas 1, KLPac
Date: Dec 8-11
It looks like the entire KLPac family has come together to light up and celebrate the year-end holidays.
This massive spectacular (75-minutes of Christmas “feels”) will feature over 150 performers from across the KLPac ranks, with a generous spread of brassy sounds, swirly strings and heavenly voices.
Who will be on stage? That would be the KLPac Orchestra (conducted by Lee Kok Leong), KLPac Symphonic Band (conducted by Cheryl Mah), KLPac String Orchestra (conducted by Andrea Sim), and the Young Choral Academy Chorus (chorus master Mak Chi Hoe) … all coming under the direction of music man Ian Chow, with co-direction and narration by Datuk Faridah Merican.
It’s a family-friendly concert, where theatregoers look set to experience the magic of the season with traditional Christmas carols as well as some contemporary numbers. Think Joy To The World, Deck The Halls, Silent Night, Jingle Bell Rock, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and many more.
Bring your own mistletoe if you are planning a big date night.
More info here.
The ‘Christmas With MPO’ concert will be conducted by MPO’s resident conductor Gerard Salonga, who will probably bring his Santa hat on stage. Photo: MPO
CONCERT: CHRISTMAS WITH MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (MPO)
Venue: Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, KLCC
Date: Dec 10
Here’s a concert where you can suit up and look your festive and stylish best. Just sit back and enjoy the classical celebrations onstage with the added bonus of guest vocalists KL’s Dithyrambic Singers, all set to deliver a merry setlist of popular carols.
The MPO will run through a set, including festive classical favourites from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Gustav Holst, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, right to Nigel Hess, John Williams and a rollicking side of Jingle Bell Rock.
The concert – spanning Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Selections to Williams’ Home Alone film music – will be conducted by MPO’s resident conductor Gerard Salonga.
More info here.
Performing arts veteran Mervyn Peters leading a rehearsal session with The Choir of The Philharmonic Society of Selangor, fondly known as The Phil. Photo: The Star/Samuel Ong
PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY OF SELANGOR: SINGING IN THE PARK
Venue: The Nursery, Taman Tugu, Kuala Lumpur
Date: Dec 11
The Philharmonic Society of Selangor (or just The Phil) is on a roll after its sold out Songs For The Season shows at DPAC last month. Just like a gift that keeps on giving, The Phil will be presenting an hour-long (10am onwards) morning concert session at Taman Tugu this Sunday.
Share this season of joy and harmony with this community choir in a Songs For The Season Sing-Along at Taman Tugu, the urban forest park in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. There might not be any reindeer sightings but you’ll be joined by the sounds of Mother Nature. Also, rumour has it Santa and his elves will be making an appearance.
This is a community singalong, no experience necessary, just turn up, scan the QR code at the venue for song sheet. Free admission.
More info here.
An Early Music festive showcase, presented by VerSes, will see the music of Bach and Charpentier played by a small ensemble at the Church Of The Holy Rosary in KL on Dec 16. Photo: The Star/Filepic
CONCERT: BACH AND CHARPENTIER
Venue: Church Of The Holy Rosary, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, KL
Date: Dec 16
Here’s another great edition in the “Renaissance & Baroque Gems” series, focused on Bach and Charpentier this time. The venue – Church of Holy Rosary – adds to the upcoming evening concert’s warm ambience.
In Malaysia, Early Music performances, especially those utilising period instruments, are still uncommon. This performance will feature pieces by J.S. Bach and M.A. Charpentier in an effort to introduce and promote Early Music.
Although both legendary composers are from the Baroque-era, their styles are very different, giving the music of the era a broad viewpoint. The concert, presented by VerSes, will feature an instrumental ensemble featuring two Baroque recorders, a viola da gamba, a cello, guitar and an organ. For this Christmas-inspired show, the Baroque Ensemble players will perform alongside the KL Madrigal Singers.
More info here.
BALLET: NUTCRACKER AND CLARA’S DREAM
Venue: Stage 1, PJPAC, 1 Utama Shopping Centre
Date: Dec 23-25
Land of Sweets? Sugar Plum Fairy? And the Mouse King? It’s not Christmas without a Nutcracker ballet.
This beloved classic, all set to turn PJPAC’s main stage into fantasy land, invites you to experience Clara’s dream that tells the story of the Nutcracker from a cinematic perspective, with dramatic acting and ballet dancing, provided by an international cast of dancers.
The show, directed by Lu Wit Chin, promises a series of elaborate big stage effects that will remind theatregoers of the opulent interior of Mr Staulbahm’s house and extravagant Baroque-style party dresses, right to curtains that never close and a winter wonderland of visual delight.
Let us set the scene. You’re hungover, nauseous, have been at work all day, and the location of the experimental music festival you’re imminently due at is a church where you once sat a chemistry exam.
You take a deep breath, say your affirmations, and put on a brave face.
This is how it went.
Held across four days and a variety of impressive venues, SOFT CENTRE returned last weekend with UNFURL, a festival program of concerts, raves, workshops and discussions based around experimental performances, visuals, and sounds.
Earlier this year, SOFT CENTRE shocked and scared us — but we were ready for more. UNFURL is described as a ‘new evolutionary phase’ for the festival, and this new lease on life was evident across its vibrant and vivid events.
Going into the opening night of UNFURL, we knew that it would be a ‘concert of ecstatic ritual music and hypnotic live sets’ — visions swirled of dancefloor ecstasy, transcendence through music, and sounds without words to describe them.
We should have known that every time we think we know what to expect from SOFT CENTRE, it throws us a curveball.
Walking into St Barnabas’ Church on Broadway, two thoughts echoed in our minds: “I’m scared,” and “how did they get this venue?”
Through the doors, we were met in the foyer by an assortment of drinks available (obviously natural wines and other trendy drinks) as well as beautiful banners by Eek, visually identifying UNFURL through a series of cryptic, biomorphic artefacts and sigils.
Called further into the church by fog and noise, we emerged into its main auditorium where attendees sat cross-legged on the floor, enraptured by the performance taking place on the stage. The audience’s single-minded focus on appreciation of sound felt appropriate for a place of worship.
The lights dimmed, smoke filled the air, and the crowd nestled closer as the opening act of night number one — Silzedrek (Tarquin Manek) — echoed through the room. Impressive, unique lighting has become a mainstay of the SOFT CENTRE experience; warm red and white ethereal lights poured into the space, illuminating the fog, and the space was immediately transformed into a new world. Silzedrek’s set was characterised by shimmering and undulating synths, otherworldly notes which entranced us, and an unrelenting confidence driving it from start to end.
Piquing our interest, Silzedrek not only utilised electronic instruments, but he also experimented with the clarinet and bass clarinet throughout the performance. The piercing brass layer provided a guiding direction for the performance, uniting disparate elements in a single through-line. His performance was heightened through playing instruments effectively upside down: speaking and vocalising into the open end (‘the bell’) of his bass clarinet, the inversion elicited cosmic and elastic thrums like nothing we had heard before.
Silzedrek was the perfect act to open the four-day rave — sonically and visually it was our portal into the weekend. Willingly, we stepped forth into the second act.
Welcoming us (and our hangovers) with open arms were the tranquil notes of the Newcastle-based duo Troth — Amelia Besseny and Cooper Bowman — and their xylophone. The lights shifted pink, the fog ascended to and engulfed the rooftop, and suddenly the once square church hall felt like falling into a limitless dream.
Troth’s haunting, siren-like vocals were grounded by a heavier beat behind them, a reverberating sound like machinery being dragged through a cavernous space. There was something nostalgic about the reverb and xylophones, sonic imagery of youth that felt peaceful yet full of depth.
If you had asked us an hour earlier what we expected at UNFURL, xylophones certainly would not have been on our list. However, Troth’s nature-inspired and ambient sound seamlessly paired with their haunting instrumentals to create an immersive soundscape like no other.
If Silzedrek’s performance was a portal to a new world, Troth’s was the journey through it.
By this point, we again felt like we had a handle on what this night of UNFURL would present to us: that it would be a peaceful introduction to the festival. Again, we were wrong.
Lulled into a false sense of security, the third act of the evening brought us back to reality: the electric pairing in the hybrid musical act, Senyawa. Existing within an international avant garde scene, the Indonesian duo match industrial, metallic clangs with guttural yet operatic vocals to construct a high-powered, rancorous atmosphere.
Soaring melodies from Wukir Suryadi were accompanied by Rully Shabara’s chant-like vocals, filling the space with their all-encompassing presence. Appearing through a scarlet haze, we could see only the silhouette of a man with a scarf wrapped around his neck, he exercised complete vocal control over screeches, croaks, and undulating vocalised noise. A vampire rave in a holy space, the night had unfurled into an experience decidedly and uniquely SOFT CENTRE.
The night’s final performance, courtesy of collaborative trio Karina Utomo, Rama Parwata and Mike Deslandes, RINUWAT shattered the between-the-set silence with a thunderous crack of the guitar. Their heavyset sound is founded in traditional sonic instrumentation from Southeast Asia, and yet it effortlessly melds itself with contemporary metal genres. Not for the faint of heart (or lacking of sleep), the outfit’s lead vocalist Karina’s words pierced the audience with dark incantations and carried RINUWAT’s intellectual message with strength.
The sonic onslaught of RINUWAT left us with an overwhelming sense of dread; we stumbled back out onto the mean streets of Ultimo, unsure what to do with ourselves. What to do, of course, was to rest up for the next night’s event.
Pleasures Playhouse was the ideal venue for UNFURL’s second night, as the venue itself is an anomaly in Sydney. Set against the backdrop of a city that has been historically unwelcoming to late-night partying, Pleasures Playhouse has recently breathed new life into Chinatown’s abandoned Harbour City Cinema with an initial six-week program of affordable music, film and parties — their licence was recently extended until the end of December and until 3am.
With one of us having attended the venue previously for a Charli XCX party (don’t ask), expectations for the energy UNFURL would bring to the room were high. Again, these were subverted. Attendees were seated on the tiered dancefloor that once housed cinema seating, their focus honed on the performance.
This is our largest criticism when it comes to SOFT CENTRE: wishing that attendees would give themselves over to dancing. What read as worship at St Barnabas now appeared as detachment. Intellectual and sensory enjoyment of visuals and noise does not have to come at the cost of your own movement — standing at the back and moving with the beat feels far more engaging and respectful of performers than sitting motionless.
Regardless, the night’s early performances were an emotionally and physically moving mix of club beats which echoed through the space as if heard through an adjoining room, alongside dance performances that conducted the space while also appearing to be invisibly puppeteered themselves.
Under the assumption that the energy could change at a moment’s notice, we continued on with our quest to dance. For the first time during the festival, we were right.
Spider Gang producer SOLSA screamed onto the stage, physically dragging the audience to their feet. Howls of “GET THE FUCK UP” echoed through the room, SOLSA enforcing that the audience would match his energy.
Violent, energetic and entirely outward-focused, SOLSA’s frenetic trap and metal infused rap was set against a backdrop of AI-generated faces warping across the digital backdrop, fluidly changing from one face to the next. The scenes were an appropriate representation of the ever-evolving energy of his set.
The highlight of the night was his solo performance debut, and it is hard to imagine that SOLSA is not already considered a master of the stage. He utterly enthralled the audience; this section of the review would be longer were we not afraid he would knock our phones right out of our hands at the sight of us taking notes.
The night’s penultimate performance was a DJ and A/V set from Horse MacGyver, an exploration of corrupted audiovisual delight and horror.
A journey through Blair-Witch-iMovie-cyberspace, Horse MacGyver’s entrancing visuals and lively set filled the room with easygoing, flowing movement. Deeply enjoyable and immersive, we are certainly keeping an eye out for Horse MacGyver’s next local performance.
The night’s final performance was decidedly not easygoing. After a last-minute reshuffle of the setlist, FITNESSS closed out the night with a deeply terrifying performance. Adorned with prosthetic electronics and wielding laser-encrusted fingertips, FITNESSS moved through the crowd like a wounded animal, negotiating space with the crowd as they lurched forward for a closer look and back out of his way.
The set was complete chaos, the room shook with harsh beats as red lights and lasers bathed the space. In the cacophony of noise and light, we absconded — ejected onto the comparably quiet streets of Haymarket and wondering what exactly we just experienced.
There were an additional two nights of UNFURL to follow — Saturday’s performances at Greenhouse Studios and Sunday’s at the Royal Botanical Gardens — however, we were thoroughly defeated. As we have come to learn with SOFT CENTRE, it is our sonic Everest and after two full nights (and days at work) we tapped out, but did so with smiles on our faces.
Ranging from soothing synths that carry you across dreamscapes, to the electric chords and vocals of contemporary metal-infused performances, nobody could argue that the performances at UNFURL weren’t wide-ranging, nor that they didn’t deliver. If even one part of this festival sounds like it might be up your alley, be sure to check it out next time — who knows what you might discover.
Though we loved every second, we weren’t hard core enough for SOFT CENTRE. Still, the four day melodic marathon has left us both eager to see what they deliver next — and if you dared to test the waters at all four nights of UNFURL, at all hours of the night, our hats go off to you.
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