Label: Infant Tree – IT007
Format: CDr, Album
Country: UK
Released: 6 Aug 2021
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Experimental
Another low-key masterpiece from unassuming London label Infant Tree (remember that Sprigs CD from earlier this year??), this time with a CD full length from imprint overseer Malvern Brume. It’s six tracks of properly home-brewed, bedroom kosmiche that feels hunkered down and cloistered away - a hermetic sound assortment arranged through the soft clatter of found objects and smearings of warbling synth textures. But it’s far from the usual bedroom racket - Brume manages to dilate the mood into a variety of different sound settings without loosing any cohesion - the homey, nostalgic tape rustle on opener ‘The Chordal Bell’ triggers memories of early Cotton Goods / The Humble Bee pieces, before it morphs into the soft, soporific pitter patter of the title track with the delay-riddled synth melodies recalling the looser end of mid 90’s UK techno (Redcell, As One, et al), or is that jus me projecting. The two tracks ‘Middle Dock’ and ‘Pacing A Hollow Path’ are seemingly cut from the same cloth as the contributions to the recent Left Alone uber cassette compilation - the former nailing that ominous, espionage electronics feel that underpins that killer Karl Lindh release, whilst the later is closer to something like The Shadow Ring, if they had a tender side. The home straight delves into long, drawn-out synth drones laid on top of heavily composed field recordings and organic clangor ensuring that we’re left feeling heavily detached from the outside world when the final piece fades out. A much needed ray of hope amidst what’s felt like a baron couple of weeks for new and interesting DIY music and a heavily-backed middle finger to the increasingly impossible vinyl production situation. STUNNER! (Mint / new)
Tracklist
1 The Chordal Bell
2 Harsh Miniatures
3 Middle Dock
4 Pacing A Hollow Path
5 Skeletal Stems
6 When The Cup Has Been Drained And The Play Has Been Played
