Platform - Pseudochromis - FISH8CM-27 - 3" CDr - December 2009 - It really does give me a huge amount of pleasure to bring you this release from Platform. Not only am I a big fan of his work as well as the Minimal Resource Manipulation imprint he runs, he’s also a bloody good bloke! We talked about this a long time ago and, with the way things panned out this year, it’s ended up coming out a bit later than I wanted, but it’s here and it’s absolutely awesome. Taking cues from his broad body of released work, there are three different vibes on Pseudochromis. The first cut ‘Varient’ takes a clicked out approach to minimal electronica. It has touches of melody but tends to work more with the rhythms to create some surprisingly upbeat grooves. You can hear an almost electro style vibe to the way it works and combined with the eerie string sounds and cunning edits and drops this is a cracking way to kick things off. Next comes ‘Axis’ which moves into a more overtly melodic style. It’s a brilliant track that uses analogue style bleeps and a slight nod to Detroit coupled with nicely processed beats to give it lots of movement, lots of variety and plenty of atmosphere. A wonderful, and mildly disturbing break in the middle really sets it off beautifully. Strangely funky this, and all the better for it. Finally we hit the superb ‘Through Glass’ which is constructed using field recordings and an incredibly deep and sinister series of sounds and textures. The initial bird calls give way to the sound of a reverbed out dog which is spooky in itself but when you add in the tense, dramatic mid-range texture that slides into the mix you get a beautiful sense of darkness, tempered by those original naturalistic sounds. And then you’re surrounded by a low-end chord / bass that takes it onto another level. A wonderfully conceived beatless ambient track that I’ve been enjoying for ages. All in all this is another extremely fine work from Platform and another release that I’m proud to be able to bring you. Big thanks go out to Matt for getting involved and bearing with me during the somewhat long birth of this release! - Audio to follow shortly - |
