The world is not short a woozy, textural, ambient drone album or two, lost as it is amidst a slightly surprising resurgence of the sort of ‘new age’ soundscape that were really very uncool only a decade or so ago. I can’t say I’m sold on the development – it tends to be all a little too ‘nice’ for my tastes, forgoing the caustic, critical nature of more demanding forms. It’s notable then, when an artist emerges that pushes past – in some small way at least – the contours of this trend – and Black Decelerant do just that. Yes, we are still awash with the glacial long held tones you’ve come to ‘love’, but here something slightly different is in play: a move towards the sort of very clean jazz is seeing its own baffling resurgence (remember when Jazz was about Albert Ayler laying in to a saxophone for 20 mins straight, with limited recourse to tonality? I miss that).
Peppered over the ambient wash, meandering lines of piano and bass, the odd synthesiser or errant glitch moving things into slightly more lively territory. Sure, its all still a bit coffee-table, but their trying, you know? Lead single ‘two’ is a standout of course, with a lovely elongated sax line that adds a welcome solemnity, something akin to Lonnie Holley (minus the mad vocal chops). ‘Nine’ works pretty well too, offering a slightly more intense palette of drones and glitches, a ‘why isn’t this more insufferable?’ lead-line dancing over the top in a way that at times almost, nearly, courts the atonal.
Reflections Vol. 2 is an album that hugely benefits from its composers occasional straying from the lines – where it sounds a little too fractured, a little too busy, is where it shines. In contrast, tracks like ‘five’ could honestly have been made by any one of a hundred cuddly ambient artists, not bad per say, but far more unremarkable than the album, at times, suggest itself to be.
Black Decelerant is out June 21st, on Rvng International.
Daniel Hignell-Tully
meansmagazine.com 