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2LP
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BKEDITDS 037LP
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Dreams are made and displaced on Mark Fell & Rian Treanor's oneiric electro-acoustic inception Last Exit, borne from long days in the family garden, and assembled into a mesmerizing masterpiece of minimalist modal rhythm and atmospheric exploration, into rapt smallsound detailing in breathtaking form. It's a bit like listening to Virginia Astley's From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, with washes of Autechre seeping into the mix from outside. Last Exit originally appeared in a different form as a cassette release for Boomkat's Documenting Sound series in 2021, and was edited this year by Mark and Rian for this new expanded and altered edition, mastered by Rashad Becker. Across four parts, they kern, juxtapose and diffract synthesized percussion and field recordings into polymetric arrangements riddled with timbral nuance of a highly unpredictable nature. While patently inflected with nods to Indonesian gamelan, Ugandan folk, Indian Carnatic classical, Morton Feldman-esque minimalism, free jazz improvisation and a sort of rhythmic cubism that speaks to their mutual, voracious listening habits and tastes, the results are arguably without direct compare. Attentive listeners will recognize, however, that Last Exit effortlessly transcends their respective styles, achieving a new high watermark of imaginary future-hyperfolk expressed in a sort of personalized but highly relatable meta-musical language. The 80 minutes in between feel like returning to a dream, with flashes of FM strings dabbed to sloshing rhythms and domestic detritus, tilting into a nervously tentative tension ruptured with abstract dance dynamism and angular free jazz ballistics. A longform isolationist fantasy, consider it crucial listening if you are into Robert Ashley's Automatic Writing, Graham Lambkin, Autechre or Nuno Canavarro.
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