Times have changed. It used to be that after musicians released an album they would go off and fuck hookers and develop drug habits then find religion. Nowadays people seem to be much more likely to go off and record another album and get it out as soon as possible. The number of prodigiously talented and ludicrously hard working musicians I know has risen exponentially in the last couple of years, and one new addition to that roster is Silent Strangers, and by extension the Section 27 netlabel.
The first album in Silent Strangers “Anagram” series got a review on the site which you can drag out if you choose, but I basically said “Good. Get it. It’s free”. This release is a little more cryptic and dark but also of a very high standard. Dark, dense and intellectual electronica abstracted from ancient rules laid down by Autechre but twisted and manipulated into an alien sounding new universe. The first two tracks are imposing and broody and it’s not till “Left Cold” that I start to get a handle on whats going on. The album is almost psychedelic in the free reign given to ideas and sounds but not shambling and messy psychedelic, just so experimental that it is, at times, difficult to recognise it as music. That makes it sound unapproachable, and even for me it is a forboding album but if you feed off challenging ideas then this will contain a wealth of treats for you. Textures and noise shaping and drum sounds are all pretty much perfectly presented, and there is no point where I think “wrong” or “should have done that differently”.
My ideal observation platform for this album would be the weird bubble spaceship in “The Fountain” but seeing as how I can’t manage that I am going to have to settle for listening to “Hexeract” with my headphones on and my eyes closed, while I fantasise about nanobots repairing my fractured amygdala.
Get it here http://section27netlabel.blogspot.com/
Kim Monaghan
