|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
RAVE 029CD
|
Mechanosphere is Cam Deas's staggeringly abstract yet poignant second album exploring ideas of rhythmic dissonance and head-spinning proprioceptions for The Death of Rave. Following directly from Cam's cultishly-acclaimed mini-LP Time Exercises (RAVE 022LP, 2018), which was surprisingly deployed in Richie Hawtin's "CLOSE COMBINED - LIVE" mix and hailed as "Holy F#ck-What is This?!?" by Brainwashed, his new album applies rich polychromatic color to his signature rhythmic constructions with a greatly heightened emotive traction and broader appeal while only going deeper on his radical ideas about the fundamentals of sound and composition. Using a computer-controlled modular synth, Cam takes the simple idea of layering pitches in multiple tempi to Nth degrees, resulting in a sensational and warped sense of temporality and gravity-defying physics. Effectively placing pitch on a scale in a similar way to Conlon Nancarrow's player-piano programming or even Ligeti's famous metronome experiment, Cam explores solutions to the problem of grid-locked linearity, or at least perceptions of it, by effectively ripping the rug from under electronic music convention to make his music appear as though in perpetual freefall, or a process of omnidirectional contraction/expansion that never quite resolves - always the same, ever different. In Mechanosphere listeners effectively navigate through the music by a loose means of pattern recognition, picking out accentuated kicks and hits that pierce thru Cam's incredibly dense swells of endless metallic tone. But where his Time Exercises LP was unreservedly abstract and emotive in an alien sense, his follow-up practically sounds as though aliens have developed a form of 3D midi folk-jazz or court music for bacchanals and spiritual reasons. From the vertiginous scale of "Ascension", thru the jaw-dropping hyper stepper "Slip", to the controlled chaos of "Reflect, Deflect", and ultimately the deeply solemn yet discordantly lush finale of shearing metallic pitches in "Solitude", Cam offers an often shocking and ever fascinating grasp of electronic music's potential to relate hard-to-communicate but intuitively felt ideas to the body and emotions. It's a sober but incredibly wondrous sound, and only confirms that Cam's seismic stylistic transition this decade from preeminent, post-Takoma 12-string guitar player to visionary synthesist was certainly worthwhile. RIYL Autechre, Xenakis, Ligeti, Rashad Becker. Art and layout by Tom Kilburn and Cam Deas; Spot gloss digipak. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
RAVE 022LP
|
Time Exercises is a complex study in amorphous polymetric rhythms by UK artist Cam Deas for The Death of Rave. His first LP composed solely for modular synths and computer, Cam's follow-up to the acclaimed String Studies (ALT 018LP, 2014) marks a headlong tilt from acoustic to electronic spheres with a staggering effect resulting from meticulous research and process. It sounds as advanced as Xenakis or Roland Kayn superstructures, with the rhythmic displacement of Fis or Autechre, and with a grasp of slippery, mind-bending timbral dissonance comparable to Coil and Rashad Becker records. Cam's six Time Exercises form both a bold break with -- and an extension of -- the avant, folk, blues, and outernational traditions that he's worked to deconstruct and fluidly syncretize over the past decade. In the past four years he's stepped away from the guitar as a compositional tool, turning to electronic hardware in a focused effort to consolidate myriad tunings and meters with a precision that had previously eluded him in the acoustic sphere. Severed from the tactility and sentimentality of instrumental inflection, Cam's disembodied music plays out a thrilling dramaturgy and syntax of alien dissonance and disorienting rhythmic resolution. Harmonic shapes as densely widescreen as those in Roland Kayn's Cybernetic Music (1995) roil in unfathomable fever dream space, where massed batteries of synthetic percussion swarm like an orchestra of Cut Hands in viscous formation, and where polychromatic mentasm figures converge like cenobites laying siege to Rashad Becker's utopia. On Time Exercises Cam articulates a synthetic musical language that speaks to the listener in myriad, quantum tongues awaiting to be deciphered by keen ears everywhere. It's an outstanding record for lovers of forward-looking but deeply rooted electronic music. Master and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
BRR 175LP
|
"Fantastic new LP from Cam Deas, which was issued in a tiny run CDR for his recent Euro tour with Jack Allett earlier this year. This is a slightly different release from the previous LP and split LP with Spoono, essentially this one being a long improvised acoustic freak-out. Loose frequent and infrequent twangs to pure whirlwinds of aggressive string assaults and finger shredding plucking. This still retains Cam's signature traditional playing somehow, especially the more intense heavier moments. A solid recording. Limited to 500 copies on heavyweight vinyl in pro-printed fold over covers with photography by Cam and printed labels. Pressed at the superb Record Industry in the Netherlands."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
BRR 078LP
|
"I am very pleased to be releasing the debut LP from Sheffield-London-Brighton guitar master, Cam Deas. This follows his two long sold out CDRs on Blackest Rainbow, and proves once again that he is off the chain! OK, so there's always gonna be the immediate comparison to James Blackshaw, but the sound is different, more aggressive almost and raw... this guitar playing has an edge -- it's deep and it's powerful. The LP consists of three tracks, the A side is an epic, almost 20-minute piece entitled 'The Waters Of Kvaloya' recorded by Ben Nash. The B side's and album's title track begins with almost a minute of near silent distant drone that develops with stomach-wrenching string twangs. The closing piece is 'As Spring Fell From The Leaves,' which was originally issued on the For The Silver Waters, Sing! CDR last year on BR, but has been considered by people who've bought his releases and seen Cam live as possibly one of the best things he has composed. Total genius, with a real blissful, but eventually dark, vibe. This track definitely deserved to be put on wax. Mastered by Ben Nash. Limited to 300 copies."
|