Film-maker and and sound artist Rose Kallal and Mark Pilkington (The Asterism, Raagnagrok, Stëllä Märïs Drönë Örchësträ, etc.) collaborated on the soundtrack to Kallal’s Implicate Explicate installation for three 16mm projectors in Glasgow in 2012, and this EP results from the music they produced together.
In its original mix, Kallal and Pilkington manipulate the heavy drones and reverbs to shudder the speakers and mush things up generally, the sound of modulars in excelsis and radiophonic fun being had by all. Getting Ekoplekz in to rework the sounds results in a slightly less dubby experience than might at first be expected, the buzzing whirr of the basic mix subsumed in a drum loop of surprisingly sprightly demeanour, the whole unfurling in squelchy fashion, squamous trails of saw-tooth flocks swarming all around. Definitely one which could probably be danced to, if at a tangent.
TVO (The Village Orchestra)’s mix takes the drone way home at first, before bringing up the beats in a cardiac pulsation once again letting the original sounds ebb and flow in deracinated form, tripping and trickling as the rhythms slumber past in a head-nod style. Give it a push and it could be dub techno at sloth-friendly BPMs; switch the vinyl spped up a notch (as the track itself does towrds the end) and it will pretty much suit for those of a faster metabolic disposition.Which leaves label head honcho Paul Purgas to take the track and mash it into its component molecules, the rhythms dropped sinister and sullen with the by-now familiarly-treated whirr and fizz of the source enfolding ominous industrial klang and ruminant low-end shudder. Leavened with analogue squirts and pushing ever forwards into the darkness, Purgas holds back from any hopes of release, instead leaving everything to rumble to its own re-purposed devices for a final fade.
-Richard Fontenoy-
