Labels: Quietus Recordings
Review by: Adam Cassidy
Blurry photograph of some hills on the cover? Check.
Track names such as Always on the Outside? Check.
Hand numbered? Check.
Benefit release? Check.
No friends, this is not the latest demo from some young and idealistic diy band, it is the latest album by a well established electronic artist from the States. Treading a more ambient path than the dubbed out excellence of the previous album, Dreams of a Red Chamber, fuzzy beats and soft glitches are the order of the day here.
With four tracks in forty five minutes you could expect this to be a bit of a drag in places, but it’s evolving layers of sound do well to keep you amused. It’s nice hearing something electronic sound so organic and epic, more open minded fans of post-rock would certainly have a good time exploring this album. An excellent release from a brilliant label which has ethics that put 99% of ‘punk’ labels to shame. For the record, when faced with previous releases from the label being quite sought after on ebay, discogs etc. They came up with the idea of increasing their ‘print’ run from 300 copies up to 500 to allow more people to gain access to the music. Instead of capitalising and taking this extra money to the bank, all net proceeds from the extra copies will be donated to the San Francisco SPCA shelter for abused animals.
Emo techno is potentially the most horrid genre tag ever, but if the cap fits…