The debut album by
Illum Sphere a.k.a Ryan Hunn, DJ and co-founder of the Hoya:Hoya club night in Manchester, doesn't make much effort to hide its influences. As such, the success of
Ghosts of Then and Now hinges on on how much the listener is likely to forego innovation to enjoy something simply well-executed. A mix of sequenced beats and live instrumentation, the record simultaneously recalls
Flying Lotus, circa
Los Angeles, and some of the finer tracks to grace
Gilles Peterson's
Brownswood Bubblers compilations.
Tracks like Sleeprunner are well-structured demonstrations of where beat-orientated electronic music currently resides. The arpeggiated thrum of keyboard keys set against more naturalistic mallet percussion and strings, the careful placement of rhythmic patterns to push and pull the song's tempo, are all hallmarks of a post-Brainfeeder landscape. The knock and hum interplay on Ra_Light is strangely comforting, and even the backwards introduction feels like it might have had a past life elsewhere.
None of this is to do Hunn a disservice.
Ghosts… is a very confident debut, with none of the nervous ticks that normally come with a first LP. The Road, with its tip-tap drum patterns and the soulful vocals from Shadowbox, is all assured and epic surges, and could well have sounded messy or needlessly melodramatic in other hands. Hunn pulls it off though, a repeated trick across the whole album.
The music is not so much about the pushing of boundaries, but a strong demonstration of where the genre's current preoccupations lie.
The jazzy overtones of a Hammond organ on the title track aren't going to shock or dramatically alter the listener's palette, but they fit and they do an effective job of conveying Hunn as a technically accomplished producer. There is no doubt that
Ghosts of Then and Now will gain both fans and critical praise, but the overall feeling is one of acclimatisation rather than exploration. As an interesting debut it will stand, but one can't help wishing that Hunn had been a bit bolder, a bit brasher, and a little more prepared to take risks.
Words: Andrew Spragg
No comments:
Post a Comment