Title: Dissolved – ‘Emit Like A Prothonotary’
Label: Self Released
Released: Available Now
Format: CDR
When I first found Dissolved on the internet I umm-ed and aah-ed about listening to his music. He had lots of plays, but that means dick all on MySpace (Lily Allen anyone?) and (for me) the name Dissolved conjured up a cheesy goth-metal band. I eventually got round to listening and realized how wrong I had been.
Dissolved purveys complex, emotional music that swings between wistful melancholia, dreamy ambient and harsh electronica, all garnished with tape effects and field recordings that mostly seem to be taken from his own life (family Christmases, visits to very strange sounding libraries etc). This makes his music very personal, and one thing I have learned from listening to his thirteen odd albums and E.P’s is that Dissolved only makes music for one reason, and that is because he is one of those (lucky ?) people who are compelled to. Just as some people have to paint, run or smoke, Dissolved has to make music. This means that while you can level some criticism at him for sometimes being too intricate, or for over-reliance on certain “tricks”, you would have to have ears of cloth to think that any of his tunes were ever born from anything other than love (or possibly a little bit of madness). His fecundity can be overwhelming though because, when faced with so many releases, each laden with long song titles and obscure scientific terminology, it is not easy to know where to start. I had this problem, and it pissed me off that it might stop people listening to him, so I thought “he needs a greatest hits”. To this end I put together a podcast of all my favourite bits from previous releases, which you can find at http://daddytank.podbean.com
This latest release is, in some ways, a perfect introduction to the opaque world of Dissolved. At twenty four tracks spread over the double album (twelve tracks on each of the red and black discs), it was hard to make sense of it at first. After the first two listens I had the first disc pegged as being OK (with some great bits), while the second disc was fantastic and had some of his best tunes on. It was only on the third listen that I realized how well this album reflects the spectrum of Dissolved to date. Beat-less, drone-y ambient (“Body Spill From The Cinema”/ “Sentinent Chemostream”) and short melodic interludes (“Letter Light” / “Passing The Radar”) intermingle with “classic” Dissolved (“Lithology Induced A Multinucleate Angel”/ “Horses’s Name Is Too Long”).
While some of the album can be said to be fairly standard fare from the man (and don’t let “standard” read as “average” here), this album has some of my favourite new Dissolved tracks, showcasing some experimental touches that promise a whole new side to him, while staying within clearly defined territory. Tracks like the marvellous “Hospital Manifester” with its eerie synths and spidery beats, “Capillary Action” with its stuttering, perpetual motion feel and “Auntie Convulsion”, one of the most sinister and wonderful things to come from his mind, sounding like Blair Witch sound-tracked by Autechre. The highlight of the album though (and my new personal favourite) is “Transgressive Etching”. Trademark synths and off kilter beats offer a classic Dissolved opening passage, but all of a sudden there appears this tiny, tremulous voice singing the vocal. Not a professional voice by any means but honest and full of genuine emotion that lifts the track into greatness, especially once it collides with the sliced up breaks that suddenly punch their way through skittering electronic beats.
It’s not just the music that should entice you however. This album cost seven quid, with artwork by Dissolved, a hand numbered (and signed) photograph included and a limited run of 94 copies. It is a powerful argument against all of the things wrong with music nowadays and an even more powerful argument for persuading people to listen to Dissolved. Why download faceless .mp3 files when you can buy a work of heartfelt love and genuine art?
Check the Dissolved website here, or his Myspace here
Daddy Tank
Comments
You’re not wrong about the variety here, it’s really cool!
May have to get some of this!
Agreed. This is easily one of the top 5 electronic releases of the year! The sound is emotionally complex and multifaceted.
Cheers,
Jonathan