It’s surprising to think that Numbers is only a two-year-old label, given the clout they carry in the UK scene. Granted the component labels that gave rise to the collective have a few more years behind them, but in some ways it’s hard to recall the days before major league dances were daubed in the dazzling colours of hyper-modern output from Deadboy, Mr Mageeka or Mosca.
The organisers of the excellent Corsica Studios-based night Beyond The Clouds have offered us a pair of tickets to their next party, featuring the formidable talents of DJ Deep, Maurice Fulton, Actress and Hunee.
Seemingly intent on keeping a captive following guessing, Actress has spent much of 2011 merely hinting at what his next substantial move will be. Those who follow his obtuse Twitter feed will no doubt have basked in the free sonic experiments he’s left as a digital trail over the past few months, whilst there have been some intriguing remix commissions along the way (a sonic dissection of New York’s Laurel Halo in particular resonates still). Of course there has been a drip feed of original material this year too, with a decidedly swampy contribution to the NonPlus canon complemented by what was revealed to this website as a personally illuminating experience in Africa recording as part of the DRC album for Warp.
That wait is of course drawing to a close with the recent news that Honest Jon’s will release the third album from Actress, further strengthening the relationship that commenced when the label released his second album Splazsh in 2010. An advance chance to bask in the possibilities of how the as yet unnamed album will sound is afforded with this sonically challenging but quite excellent twelve inch. There is plenty to admire here, with the lead track described quite presciently by the label as the “alien son of Sleng Teng”. Just like that riddim pioneered a new wave of digital dancehall when Wayne Smith joined forces with King Jammy on “Under Me Sleng Teng”, “Rainy Dub” seems to signify a concentrated shift in focus towards ever new jagged dissections through the fuzziest extremes of sub bass. Minute attention to detail such as the near indecipherable vocal gurgles trapped far beneath ensure you keep returning to the track as new sonic elements come to light.
“Faceless” creeps towards you like second album highlight “Purple Splazsh” regurgitated through a robotic variant of the human centipede, with the track’s hazy melodic elements desperately trying to claw through the claustrophobic rhythms, creeping corroded textures and rising gurgles of stomach acid. It would be churlish to presume how that forthcoming album may sound on the basis of “Rainy Dub” and “Faceless” as neither will be present on it, but both tracks show one of the UK’s most interesting musical talents in uncompromising form.
Tony Poland
Promoters and record label extraordinaire Huntleys & Palmers have just announced details of their fourth birthday bash, featuring appearances from Planningtorock, Actress, Ivan Smagghe and patten.
As with most things Honest Jon’s, a new release from Actress has just dropped on the label with little prior fanfare, offering an insight into the elusive producer’s forthcoming album, set for release on the West London label early next year.
Actress, real name Darren Cunningham, remains of the most elusive, singular, and, well, interesting characters in contemporary electronic music. His unique brand of muggy, heavily compressed electronica has graced two much-loved albums – one on his own Werk Discs imprint, the other via West London record emporium Honest Jon’s. There have also been EPs via Instra:mental’s Nonplus and Trus’me’s Prime Numbers labels, but it has been his relationship with Honest Jon’s (who released Spazsh, and will release his next album) that has given him his widest audience. His shadowy reputation has been fostered by an (at times) aloof attitude to self-promotion and a wonderfully baffling Twitter account, through which he’s been known to give away free tracks en masse. His live performance at the recent Field Day festival in London, although not quite attaining Zomby levels of capriciousness, served only to enhance his reputation: 25 minutes late for his scheduled slot, he arrived dressed in a black cape and proceeded to put on one of the most incendiary performances of the day.
He recently took part in the DRC project – on Oxfam initiative spearheaded by former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, which saw a troupe of UK based musicians travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo to record an album with local musicians. Albarn’s close association with Honest Jon’s no doubt alerted him to Cunningham’s production prowess, and he was joined on the voyage to Central Africa by a varied cast of musicians including XL boss Richard Russell, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Dan The Automator, Jneiro Jarel, Marc Antoine, Alwest, Remi Kabaka, Rodaidh McDonald and Kwes. The album, entitled Kinshasa One Two, was recorded in Kinshasa over a five day period in July this year and will see release via UK label Warp. We spoke to Cunningham about his time in the Congo, which he discussed in vivid detail, describing it as a “life changing” experience. Typically, he chose to take a slightly different approach to his peers, spending most of his time away from the studio interacting with local families, walking through the ghettos of Kinshasa and experiencing the city’s vibrant club scene.
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Arriving at this year’s edition of Field Day soon after the gates opened, it was possible to watch Pearson Sound’s DJ set and bask in the festival’s humongous surrounds long before the rest of London descended. Whilst the notion of catching David Kennedy at 1 in the afternoon in the Bugged Out! tent seemed odd at first, it certainly didn’t put him off running through a typically upfront selection, with Auntie Flo’s forthcoming “Oh My Days” sandwiched in between his own Night Slugs bootleg and Four Tet’s dramatic “Locked”. The bleary eyed gathering quickly grew ten fold as his set progressed, rapidly adapting to the notion of an ice cold San Miguel at midday. His performance was of the high quality expected from the Hessle boss, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he turned up much higher on the bill again next year.
Darren Cunningham returns to the business of releasing records for the first time since his stunning 2010 long player, Splazsh. Releasing on Instra:mental’s Nonplus for the second time, almost a year to the day since his first 12″ on the imprint, Actress drops two tracks of his idiosyncratic brand of muggy electronica.
The thick compression and hazy, undulating Detroit chords on “Harrier ATTK” sees Cunningham once again succeed in creating a dense soundscape in which deft samples and effects-laden instrumentation throb and pulse almost of their own accord. It immediately carves out an eerie, introspective, cavernous soundscape with little embellishment or sonic adornment save for a few creaks and crackles. Instead, it’s got that heavy, hazy atmospheric pressure, and this seems to dominate the track for the duration, coupled with a deeply hypnotic pull and humming electro synth riff.
In contrast, “Gershwin” flips the proverbial lid with a decidedly more lively venture, characterised by intricate drum programming, experimental sci-fi sounds and flurry of textured SFX which fidget around, colourful in a Night Slugs way, and never sitting still for more than a moment. It’s certainly more sketch like in quality, shorter in length with fuzzy, muffled drum programming flung around with reckless abandon beneath distorted synths. A glorious return for Actress.
Belinda Rowse
Much deliberation, heated debate, banging of fists and vociferous dismissal took place within the walls of Juno Plus before we arrived at the list you see below. 2010 has been a particularly strong year for all strands of electronic music which is more than evident in the surfeit of genres included on this list. Each of these releases however are albums in the truest sense of the word; something you can pop on at home, in the car, wherever, and soak up over its entirety…
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!K7 have called on Milo Cordell of “strident electro rock duo” The Big Pink to mix the second installment of their rather infrequent Tapes mix series, which is set for release on October 18.
Darren Cunningham’s 2008 debut Hazyville was a wonderful journey though a myriad of disparate influences, from Detroit techno to glitchy electronica and dubstep. Here we see the Werk Discs chief revisit some of those influences but also tread new ground with his follow up LP, Splazsh. It’s a startling journey: every track on here is worth listening to, digesting, and listening to again. “Hubble” is a neat way to start, taking off where Hazyville left off with warm, luscious pads buried deep beneath a sea of heavy compression.
“Lost” is one of the more tender moments on the album, with a female vocal draped over a rolling synth line and metallic snare. “Bubble Butts & Equation” would be the perfect theme song should the world come to as sudden and messy end, while “Always Human” has the squelchy leftfield techno sound of Anthony Shake Shakir, with some chopped up R&B vocals and a Space Invaders sample that seems to be Actress’ way of saying, ‘hey I could make a normal track, I just don’t wanna’. Then comes “Get Ohn (Fairlight mix),” which sounds like a Simon & Garfunkel b-side warped to within an inch of its life through compression and layered samples. “Maze” is one of the album’s true highlights, a stunningly simple piece that shows how beautiful electronic music can be when stripped back to its bare bones, while the broken beat of “Purrple Splazsh” once again shows Cunningham’s deft touch with sampling.
Things get more obtuse as the album trundles along, but that only serves to keep the listener engaged. Even the weird, experimental tracks toward the end are deliciously rich and textured, including the superbly titled “Supreme Cunnilingus”. With so many ideas crammed into 14 songs it’s a wonder Cunningham has ended up with such a perfect little album – often artists suffer from a surplus ideas, but on Splazsh that is not the case. This album could only have been made in 2010 and that, above all else, it what makes Splazsh so special. This is one for the ages.
Review: Aaron Coultate
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Artist: Actress
Title: Machine & Voice
Label: Nonplus
Genre: Dubstep/Grime
Format: 12″, Digital
Buy From: Juno Records, Juno Download
Werk Discs chief Actress – aka Darren Cunningham – drops the breathtaking Machine & Voice EP ahead of a full album release slated for May. Despite a relative paucity of releases in recent years, 2010 is set to be a watershed for Cunningham. A remix of Joy Orbison’s recent single “The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow”, on Will Saul’s Aus Music, kicked things off. Now within a space of a fortnight he’s dropped this EP, on Instra:mental’s Nonplus imprint, and another on his own label. And of course Splaszh, his second full length album, continues to loom tantilisingly on the horizon.
Machine & Voice sees Actress pulls off his usual trick of drawing on many disparate influences – from dubstep to techno to drum & bass – yet managing to make his sound stand alone. In keeping with the label, these three tracks are of a more experimental/bass-driven bent, although such an ambiguous description hardly does it justice. Whatever you want to call it, the fact is Actress now occupies a space in electronic music that no one else can touch. Do not miss this EP.
Review: Aaron Coultate
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