Wurlitztraction
is the brainchild of Chris Reid, a sound designer, producer and
instrumentalist. His first release, ‘The Starlit Numbers
On Her Fingers’ was born whilst Reid was working and studying
in Edinburgh. The underlying base of these tracks were developed
from the use of unused sound effects and field recordings from
short films and animations Reid was working on. Over these he
began to piece together a more definable structure, bringing synths,
guitars and drums into play to create a shifty yet accessible
soundscape of experimental electronica. With class-A influences
ranging from Amon Tobin to Godspeed You Black Emperor and Can
to Autechre, the style of ‘The Starlit Numbers…..’
was never going to be formulaic. Instead, Reid set about to create
a dark sonic journey weaved using a tapestry of electro-acoustic
processing, trip-hop beats and manic sound samples.
Across the album we see heavily layered
sounds dance haphazardly across an unusual terrain of broken beats
and warped melodies. One thing Reid cannot be accused of is adhering
to a specific style. All manners of sub-genre’s are thrown
into the mix from ethereal ambience to drum’n’bass,
moody trip-hop to clattering IDM and everything in between. Sometimes
the amalgamation of this mass of sounds may lack the fluidity
of scene masters such as Amon Tobin or Richard Devine but the
foundations are certainly there and occasionally the listener
may find themselves thinking they are listening to songs from
an artist on a specialist label such as Warp or Planet Mu.
‘Stomach
Full of Smoke’ starts off with an almost post-rock’ish
atmosphere akin to ‘65 Days of Static’ and shifts
emotively across a warped environment of melancholy melodies,
industrial beats and gaseous feedback. The melancholy melodies
continue throughout the release and manifest themselves gorgeously
on the downtrodden drum’n’bass melodica of ‘Talk
Riddles, Listen In Dreams’. Reid continues to showcase his
percussive programming prowess on ‘Ghost Train Dust Fight’
which moves into subtle Venetian Snares territory with an atmospheric
and meandering take on post drum’n’bass. Where the
album really excels is when Reid starts to carve frantic and turbulent
soundscapes made from unevenly clustered snippets of sound. Take
the Amon Tobin-esque cluttercore of ‘Kairos Call To Angels’
or the eerie electro-acoustic sound fuckery in the middle of ‘Another
Pathological Liar’. On ‘Talk Riddles, Listen In Dreams’,
drifting guitar melodies are seamlessly laced into bustling beatscapes
to provide an energised take on the trip-hop dynamic whilst darker
tracks like the twisted Bladerunner-esque freakscapes of ‘Wrapped
In Caustic’ contrast nicely against the more subtle offerings,
like the downtempo, threatening-yet-subtle ambience of ‘If
(You Left Your Body At Night, Where Would You Go?)'.
A keen sense of melody and beat-crafting
really prop up this release and in the end ‘The Starlit
Numbers…’ yields some interesting and unhinged results
that fans of fast-moving electronica will find endearing. (RM)
For
fans of: Venetian Snares, Massive Attack, Amon Tobin, Same Actor,
Richard Devine
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