ÆGIR — LOOK AT PRETTY THINGS

---

To hear something from Iceland that isn’t solely gently electronic or obviously introspective is a huge gulp of fresh air. ‘Look At Pretty Things’ begins with a mesmeric fumble through tracts of bubbling synth, an oscillating hot tub of thick relaxation, but this serves to lull your ears into a state of malleability.

For Icelandic musicmaker Ægir, clearly this is the ideal ground on which plant his bumper crop of barrelling breakbeats. These come into earshot like a mob of metallic beetles — the snarling snap of snares slapping the air while the kick drum thunders and quakes.

Ægir’s background as a hardcore drummer gives the percussion a living-and-breathing feel; the sense of direction in the beat, despite its speed, is expertly crafted. Overall, ‘Look At Pretty Things’ is a cross between an alien abduction and a sweaty basement gig: weird, but 100% worth it.

---

• 🔔 This track is taken from Ægir’s album The Earth Grew Uncertain, released back in June on Reykjavik’s very own Why not? Plötuútgáfa! Records. Stream, purchase it on Bandcamp. There's also a video for 'Look At Pretty Things'.

---

📠
☟ Ægir Internet Presence ☟
bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

---

🐣 WALTER EGO — SENSU BEANS

In this track there is power and there is mysticism and there is beauty. A sort of expansive feeling that takes its cue from the reverb that seems to lance through clouds and into the stratosphere. A definite thud in the beat that has been bludgeoned into the shape of grime, sparse and robust, gaps where gaps feel good, the stop-start rhythm of it like a kickstart to the heart and blood pumping. And with this foundation, crinkling chimes form the main ornamentation, like gold foil covering jagged rocks on stark outcrops, jangling and warped and alien but warm in their mesmeric resounding.

---

---

☞ YES/NO LAZY INTERVIEW #29 W WALTER EGO (September/2017) ☜

---

---

This is the sound of Sheffield musicmaker Walter Ego. 'Sensu Beans' is essentially a classic minimalist grime instrumental with a futuristic lilt that channels Dragonball Z, the wholly fresh and weird and exciting feel of it with the homely nostalgic familiarity that this quite universal anime inspired and continues to inspire in many people. Combined with many samples presumably taken from the show itself – unplaceable, unintelligible but recognisable – the chimes summon that same alien warmth, a bulge of gradual bass creeping in the beat skittering virtuoso with clacking snares and hi-hats that tick staplegun and whirr uzi fast by turns and the sshh of sheafing shakers. And we are all healed, as well as amazed, by the miracle senzu beans.

---

• 🔔 'Sensu Beans' is taken from Walter Ego's clearly DBZ-inspired Seven Star Ball EP, released last month via fellow Sheffield-based label Bad Taste Records. You can purchase the three-track wonder of hard beats and fluid sounds over here if you like.

---

---

📠
☟ Walter Ego Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ songkick

---

---

🐣 JOANNE POLLOCK — EXPECT ME

The space in this track makes all of its sounds feel so wonderful, the breathing space between the experimental hits of digitised synth and beats allowing the tapestry of noises to make their impact and help create this sense of voidsome expanse, of space-anchored clusters of free-floating alien matter, this entity that exists in its own location and in its own time with no references to anything but the silence that frames it and punctuates its tumbling sentences and phrases. Listening to 'Expect Me' is like satisfying a craving: same way your stomach growls your ears yearn and for things such as this, these are tasty treats, Canadian singer and musicmaker Joanne Pollock spreading a controlled cacophony of booms, clacks, ticks, tings, trickling icy overdriven percussion.

Adjoining sounds range wonderfully, wildly, high-pitched synth twinkling, traditional warm chords, bops and beeps all bloopsome, squashed columns of sub-bass heavy and rumbling, gleaming otherworldly, so much of it unconventional and unusual all broken and fragmented abstract and collage-like, noises cut and pasted for maximum atmosphere evoking impact, her voice wandering amidst the thickets layered and just lightly airbrushed with reverb with this human quality that bridges the dimension where this icy music exists and your mind, part of you perishing as the poetry proceeds. How a sense of space sets this so far from the here and now, from your situation, reminiscent of nothing but instead Joanne Pollock's unique universe of sound.

---

• 🔔 This is taken from Joanne Pollock's album Stranger, out now via Venetian Snares-owned Timesig, a Planet Mu imprint.
• 🔔 The fittingly abstract and alternate-world-summoning, very water-themed video for 'Expect Me' was directed by Desiree Deleau alongside Joanne herself.

---

---

📠
☟ Joanne Pollock Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ youtube ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

---

---