Sam Prekop – Open Close / Scholars Of The Peak – Transmissions From Mother Hill / Harder Than Concrete – Quark Life

Venturing once more into the overflowing world of wires, elemental sounds and wordlessly channelled conceptualism brings us to three more new things from electronic explorers from across the globe. Beginning in Chicago, we find The Sea And Cake’s Sam Prekop resurfacing once again with his umpteenth solo LP, in the form of Open Close (Thrill Jockey).

Whilst many long-time followers may still hanker for another songs-based post-jazz ensemble affair akin to 1999’s classic eponymous full-length or 2005’s Who’s New Your Professor as well as for his velvety vocals to return for sole-trader activities, evidently Prekop’s non-TSAC aural endeavours are going to remain resolutely ‘all about the synths’. This isn’t necessarily an unwelcome situation though, especially when considering Open Close as part of a certain ongoing strand within Prekop’s multi-disciplined artistry.

Hearteningly following more of the rhythmical routings mapped out on 2022’s adroitly expansive Sons Of duo side-release with John McEntire — instead of the comparatively motionless approaches taken on his run of long-players from 2010’s Old Punch Card to 2020’s Comma — the freshly fashioned Open Close is the most panoramic and percussive-minded presentation to date for Prekop’s man-meets-modular-synthesis operations.

Hence, setting the scene with serious-minded intent, the stately opening title track’s saturnine Tangerine Dream-tinged atmospherics steadily swell until they break into warming ambient-techno waves. Thereafter, “Font” propels itself along with playful Polypores-meets-Pulselovers sleekness; “Para” decelerates into Field Lines Cartographer-like astral ethereality; the sublime seven-minute “Light Shadow” echoes the Brian Eno-gone-Balearic pulse fusions of The Home Current; “A Book” shifts between various dark shades of ‘80s electro-noir; and the closing “Opera” slips into hip underground Berlin nightclub trancing.

Not an album that immediately grabs the senses, but neither one that just wafts in the background, Open Close is a subtly compelling collection that takes time to reveal its distant yet unguarded aural allure, through doggedly discreet examinations of mood and movement.

Over in the Peak District, conceptually at least, we find Drew Huddard’s Scholars Of The Peak forging the pastoral-minded Transmissions From Mother Hill for the Preston Capes imprint. Syphoning topographical themes of Mam Tor into an array of sonic landscapes with accessible melodic components, the ten-track selection both glides and burrows along with commanding confidence.

Traversing through soaring Harmonia-meets-Eat Lights Become Lights kosmische (“The Ones She Let Go” and “The Path We Didn’t Take”); sunlit rural inversions of Concretism’s gritty grey urbanism (“Anthem For The Peaks”); bubbling watery settings (“Mind The Puddles” and “Folk Tor”); eerie minimalism (“Forecast For Two”); early-Tortoise clank and thrum (“A Place Once Mined”); and smeared spectral projections (“Between The Lifting & The Laid”), Huddard impressively covers a lot of ground without drifting into dilettantism.

Pursuing a far murkier modus operandi from Inaccessible Spare Room Studios in Leeds is Preston Capes labelmate Benjamin Addison, trading under his Harder Than Concrete alias, for the punningly-titled Quark Life. Divided into two cassette-side-apiece tracks, the album presents somewhat of a split personality.

The twenty-minute “Exit Planet Rust” is certainly the most striking cut of the pair. Prowling, as it does, through a psych-meets-motorik chug à la the mighty Water Damage, before breaking down into all manner of early-’80s Doctor Who sound effects discombobulations.

Elsewhere, on the flipside of the extruded plastic, we’re taken on an even sparser journey that melds the instrumental interludes of Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity with dystopic abandoned spaceship drones, into one eighteen-minute slab of musique concrète.

One for those who like their noise manipulations to come from the most niche corners of the domestic electronica community.

-Adrian-