Umor Rex
Bringing together odds and ends, remixes and new studio work, Radiations takes it title from a track originally included on 2016’s Colliding Contours. While at first it might seem odd to repeat the track on a new record, the appearance of Shackleton‘s remix of the track on Side A means that it all makes sense.
In its original form, “Radiations” itself is a slow motion slab of reverberant modular dub, rippling and brimming with menace and electronic shimmer, almost febrile in intent and a piece that showcases
Driftmachine‘s technique well. Here, the machines set their bright stars on course through a parade of trills, throbs and dubwise basslines, and it’s as good a track as any to use as an exemplar of
Andreas Gerth (
Tied & Tickled Trio) and
Florian Zimmer’s signature textures, as well as demonstrating their sense of both gravity and motion. In Sam Shackleton’s capable hands, it takes on a somewhat tricksterish aspect, sprightly swizzle,
Coilish
springs and curlicues splitting the sound into deracinated, haunted meanders and buzzing detournements, offering a wholly fresh – and still slower, at nearly twice the length of the original – take on the uses and abuses of drums and bass.
“Vermiform Burrows” appears twice too,
The Sight Below‘s remix heaving into view first in hissy dub techno style, somewhat
Orbular in extraction with a clicky, bouyant rhythm and serenely uplifting pads circling the upper atmospheres as congas roll and patter below. By comparison, the Driftmachine original is more sedate, more fluttery and considered, perhaps; still grooving, but from
a laterally different perspective, languorous and concentrated on an alternate vanishing point to the remix.
And so to the LP’s (semi-)oddity, “Call Mr Moriba”, appearing on vinyl for the first time, having previously been offered up as a download-only bonus track for the début LP Nocturnes in 2014. It’s a convoluted little number, twisting sprightly drum patterns across sequences of almost funky melody and effervescent evolutions, and finds its place on Radiations as part of an album that makes for quite an effective overview of the evocative Driftmachine sound.
-Linus Tossio-
Bringing together odds and ends, remixes and new studio work, Radiations takes it title from a track originally included on 2016’s Colliding Contours. While at first it might seem odd to repeat the track on a new record, the appearance of Shackleton‘s remix of the track on Side A means that it all makes sense.
