The producer known as ACTRESS and his r&b concrète

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed

this is great! listened to previous album at the time and it left no impression, maybe i was too hasty

'r&b concrète' is the sort of self decription that usually entices and then disappoints but it's quite fitting in this case

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 03:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

this fuckin BURIES the competition

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 04:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

post linx

acoleuthic, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 04:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

there's a mediafire link on the second page of results, idk

and

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4141569-lost-10-of-2010-1--actress-splazsh

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 04:47 (2 years ago) Permalink

"r&b concrète" is not an 'enticing' description lmao

zvookster, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:12 (2 years ago) Permalink

self description

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

kinda is

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:14 (2 years ago) Permalink

ilx is full of ppl having their grand claims for their music dismissed, just this once u gotta allow it's kinda apt

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

it could be apt

zvookster, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:18 (2 years ago) Permalink

zvookster, runoff

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

Been listening to this for the last ten days or so... there are a few songs ("Lost" especially) that stood out right away. The rest I've been warming up to.

Wire named this their #1 album of the year, btw.

scott pgwp (pgwp), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

yeah i'm guessing a few respondents itt will have seen it there

not an egregiously 'wire'ish album tho, i can imagine ppl who have never heard of luc ferrari enjoying it

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

excellent album, though not quite one of my very favorites of the year. i've been playing it for a month or two, and enjoy it while it's on, but find that it leaves little impression after the fact. i wonder if this is perhaps due to the fact that it inhabits a genre i spend little time with (i have never heard of luc ferrari, ftr), so i'm less able to identify its most distinctive traits? anyway, i particularly enjoy the stretch from "maze" through "let's fly," songs that fans of this type of thing never seem to mention.

contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

don't wanna sound like a hater, but it's ok. I can see how people who haven't heard Steve Poindexter and Musique Records and Hieroglyphic Being might find it groundbreaking -- it kinda straddles the middle ground between that sound, and the abstract side of US deep house like DJ Qu and M. Pittman, w/ a bit of Chillwave enabled haze thrown in. but beyond the admittedly quite cool sound design the compositions seem to me a bit generic at times, I don't get how it "BURIES the competition". i do like the track "Hubble" a lot

he's a good dj btw, plays loads of Flyte Tyme and New Jack Swing and 90s house and stuff

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

a lot of the writing about this album concentrates on this "r&b concrete" angle as if "disembodied vocal samples" are somehow this new groundbreaking technique of modern electronic music production, when in actuality it is about the most cliched. hasn't Todd Edwards been "disembodying" rnb vocals since like, 1994?

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:09 (2 years ago) Permalink

u do sound like a h8r and not a very interesting one

have heard first two of those and it's not a close relaish

i wouldn't make claims for splazsh being hugely innovative

u misunderstood a ref to another hyped south london producah who might get called 'r&b concrete' ;_;

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:14 (2 years ago) Permalink

how many tracks on this have "disembodied vocal samples" and how do u discern between those and common or garden vocal samples

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:15 (2 years ago) Permalink

no need to get defensive, though if it helps boost your ILX status by all means. next step "sock master" amirite?

if anything i'm just trying to work out why this leaves me cold when I love so much of the stuff it cribs from. I guess you missed the part where I praised the sound design and mentioned that I like the track "Hubble" a lot, while touching on his excellent dj skills?

and if you can't hear Hieroglpyhic Being in something like say "Bubble Buts And Equations" then I don't believe you've heard Hieroglyphic Being

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:22 (2 years ago) Permalink

havent we already had this convo about james blake, or is this diff somehow

lyrics is weak ... like clock radio similes (deej), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:26 (2 years ago) Permalink

^^

BIG SANTA aka the sleighdriver (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:31 (2 years ago) Permalink

missing u know yr shit and have good taste but 'I can see how people who haven't heard Steve Poindexter and Musique Records and Hieroglyphic Being might find it groundbreaking' is the sort of pass/agg trainspotter drivel that's not rly conducive to good ilx

u will know i have not heard 'Hieroglyphic Being' cuz he is third in yr list and i 'have heard first two of those '

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

idk about james blake, don't rly care/rate/etc him

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

there's some talk of actress in one of the rolling dance threads btw, moonship digs it iirc

zvookster, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:35 (2 years ago) Permalink

no whiney weingarteno on this comment but really feel like most ppl that find this treatment of r&b interesting don't actually dig real r&b

this stuff is still pretty aight tho

BIG SANTA aka the sleighdriver (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:35 (2 years ago) Permalink

don't rly care about r&b beyond the big singles yuh

i like music concrete tho

of course it doesn't sound a lot like the former, and the schematic owes little to the latter but yknow it kinda works as shorthand for what he's doing

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

not sure i get the (any) connection to musique concrete. it sounds like pleasantly spacey/funky idm to me. connect the dots?

contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:44 (2 years ago) Permalink

"u will know i have not heard 'Hieroglyphic Being' cuz he is third in yr list and i 'have heard first two of those '"

ok well my point still stands, if you can't hear the influence Steve Poindexter's label, Muzique Records, has had on Actress's album Splazsh then etcetc

sorry if it's "pas/agg trainspotter drivel" to actually know my shit about the subject at hand, but when you say something like "this fuckin BURIES the competition" you shouldn't be surprised that somebody else might say, well actually, there's other stuff out there that already sounds like this and does it better

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:02 (2 years ago) Permalink

god yr slow

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:15 (2 years ago) Permalink

god yr butthurt?

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:16 (2 years ago) Permalink

i didn't come here to argue dude, I'll leave your thread be *waves*

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

tsccchhhh

entrylevs

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

oh ok, Burial reference, excellent. bravo old chap

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

still, I'm not so slow as to realize that "rnb concrete" is fucking lame

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:23 (2 years ago) Permalink

yeah its kinda a lame thread title trinket to get the spesh addled vagrants like yrself thru the door, all counts towards the admission stats tho

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:26 (2 years ago) Permalink

my sympathies, nakhchivan, for post-launch events itt

contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:28 (2 years ago) Permalink

ikr

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

missing no just needs to chill a lil, i don't wanna scare off ppl who know more about techno than me

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

yeah apols for missing your pun. keep the ad homs coming though, you'll be reposted in zing thread in no time

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:31 (2 years ago) Permalink

Apparently Actress samples Youtube in his beats, tons of tightly edited low bitrate samples stacked layer upon layer.

It definitely seems like a reasonable comparison to the original Musique Concrete guys.

And I'm a big Hieroglyphic Being fan and don't feel that Actress is at all a bad comparison.

With Jamal its huge amounts material to dig through, with Actress: 2 minute long tracks.

Maybe the argument should be between brevity and long-windedness?

sistern, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:01 (2 years ago) Permalink

hmmm i don't really dig jamal moss very much and i don't think it's a great comparison unless you fixate on certain aspects of actress and the much better end of jamal moss.

the r&b-ish parts ("purple splazsh", "wrong potion") are the bits i like least. love love love the pleasantly spacy/funky IDM parts ("hubble", "bubble butts", "the kettle men"). i loathe the todd edwards influenced parts.

it didn't make my top 10, but it would've made #11 and if i made a list just on amount of time spent listening this would've been in the top 10.

i have hazyville but haven't really given it a listen ... what about his nonplus release? that was sick.

moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:03 (2 years ago) Permalink

^^ sounds more like urban tribe to me than burial or todd e

moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:04 (2 years ago) Permalink

srsly off topic but jamal moss is 75% wack

moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

as is being detroit/chicago nerd, as anyone who witnessed moonship: the early years will certainly attest to

moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:09 (2 years ago) Permalink

:)

if i did, i would

Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:12 (2 years ago) Permalink

Apparently Actress samples Youtube in his beats, tons of tightly edited low bitrate samples stacked layer upon layer.

It definitely seems like a reasonable comparison to the original Musique Concrete guys.

is this so? have heard this said of other producers, but not of cunningham. which may be to say, "i haven't done the research," but what's (not) done is done. and yeah, if true, that working process does make sense of the phrase/thread title. plus helps explain the pleasant fuzziness of the sound.

contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

sounds pleasant but it's a little too clever isn't it, calling albums "hazyville" and stuff to bait the hauntology crew?

moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

i just think he's best when he keeps it light, straightforward and beat oriented

moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

I need to dig the album out again and give it another listen, shifted so much stuff around in my room I've got no idea where it is.

This is one of the few albums this year I felt compelled to own on vinyl.

sistern, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

And yeah, Jamal does have that Sun Ra quality control thing going on. When he's on he's definitely on.

Whereas all the Actress stuff I've heard was at least worth listening to more than once.

Hazyville included, some great shit on there.

sistern, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

i read the Youtube thing as well and it definitely goes to explain the graininess and warmth of the album -- kinda like an extreme update of the vintage sampler aliasing you hear on classic NY boom bap stuff

the Hieroglyphic Being/Muzique comparisons I only make with reference to Splazsh. it's that slightly unhinged, unpredictable approach to drum programming, wildly unquantized percussion patterns on top of straight 4x4 kicks, crunchy bass drums and hi hats that sizzle, and insanely unfathomable synth lines. he def has a more refined sense of melody and song structure that is his own, overall the album strikes me as an IDM dude's take on the abstract US house sound that's been popular over the past couple of years or so, that just so happens to fit in with the current chillwave/hypnagogic zeitgeist. despite not being crazy on the album, it's at least an interesting direction

basically though, I wanna hear more things like "Hubble" or "Paint, Straw and Bubbles", and less like "Senorita" or "Purple Splazsh"

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 11:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

his edit of this on Thriller is cool

missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 12:01 (2 years ago) Permalink

the r&b-ish parts ("purple splazsh", "wrong potion") are the bits i like least.

OTM ... if there was $$$ to be made from making techno tributes to Prince then everyone would have been doing it years ago.

NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 16:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

re: hazyville, i like the hardcore references in "again the addiction"

moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 02:16 (2 years ago) Permalink

and on "crushed", too!

moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:17 (2 years ago) Permalink

this album is so good & not really r&b at all and i don't think people who don't really like r&b would ever mistake this with r&b. feel like the sounds on it are very tube-ey, i visualize a lot of the lines as orange neon lights, something really linear (yet obviously very contorted) about it. way better than james blake although i didn't get the bfd w/ that thread but i also don't know anything about dance music. i've listened to this album on drugs a lot

flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

moonship what's your top 10

flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:44 (2 years ago) Permalink

my top 10 favorite albums this year

moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:53 (2 years ago) Permalink

moonship what are your top 10 favourite albums this year

flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

top 10 albums

demdike stare - liberation through hearing
martyn - fabric 50
ben klock - berghain 04
emeralds - does it look like I'm here?
dBridge & instra:mental - fabriclive 50
flying lotus - cosmogramma
shackleton - fabric 55
shed - the traveller
madlib - medicine show volume 3
anthony shakir - frictionalism

top 10 singles

martyn - is this insanity (remixes)
mmm - nous sommes mmm
wax - 30003
eqd - 04
locussolus - gunship

and other than that it was all from 2009: 2562, martyn, peverelist, zomby, the rest of that crew, wax and eqd sides by shed, scion versions, levon vincent, t++, dettmann and klock, function stuff on sandwell, milton bradley, frozen border, etc etc it all sounded as relevant or more this year as it did last year, and generally much more than what i read about in a lot of other dance music year-end lists :-(

moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

your top 10 is lookin more like a top 5

flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:11 (2 years ago) Permalink

& thanks

flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:11 (2 years ago) Permalink

actually i forgot some off of my top 10 list

2562 - demons
2562 - rear window
rustie - sunburst
joker - tron

moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:12 (2 years ago) Permalink

what's your top 10, flopson?

moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:26 (2 years ago) Permalink

no dance stuff or anything, and i have difficulty with albums so ten is kind of a stretch but i pretty much love all these

waka flocka flame - flockavelli
e-40 - revenue retrievin
earl sweatshirt - earl
gucci mane - mr zone 6/jewelry selection
nht boyz - power triangle

purling hiss - hissteria
pc worship - s/t lp and 7" on shdwply
pig - magnetic
sex church - 6 songs by sex church
drunkdriver - s/t

flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:48 (2 years ago) Permalink

this demdike stare is awesome

flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

this didn't leave any impression on me the first couple of times i listened to it. i've been assured that it's a grower, tho not sure i care enough to find this out for myself. it's assuredly better than james blake tho.

lex diamonds (lex pretend), Thursday, 30 December 2010 09:00 (2 years ago) Permalink

missingNO: your mentioning of the "slightly unhinged, unpredictable approach to drum programming [&] wildly unquantized percussion patterns on top of straight 4x4 kicks" brings to mind how psyched I was to have learned about Terrence Dixon back in late '08 through Cunningham himself referring to him (along w/ a bunch of other better-known Detroiters, whose approaches I don't hear quite as strongly in Actress' work) as an influence on the 1-sheet blurb for "Hazyville".

Most of the T. Dixon/Population One stuff released on Metroplex and elsewhere that I've heard (from the mid-'90s to recent) has rhythmically really reminded me of Actress, in terms of the funky misalignments, etc.

(Anybody here into Downliners Sekt? A similar-enough aesthetic to warrant asking...)
http://boomkat.com/downloads/317164-downliners-sekt-hello-lonely-hold-the-nation
http://boomkat.com/downloads/367254-downliners-sekt-we-make-hits-not-the-public

Don't Make Me A Burrito (Craig D.), Thursday, 30 December 2010 14:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

Good to see Moonship's list there.

puff pastry hangman (admrl), Friday, 31 December 2010 19:48 (2 years ago) Permalink

what's better

this - FWIW also **BUBBLING** just just outside the top 10, possibly nudging out dbridge or shackleton, FWIW also r&b concréte

or this - is this r&b concréte

moonship journey to baja, Friday, 31 December 2010 23:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

downliners sekt have the right sound but the beats are chopped up a little OTT for my taste.

moonship journey to baja, Friday, 31 December 2010 23:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

actress' 2010 top ten features steve poindexter @ #1
http://www.boomkat.com/charts.cfm?id=576&gID=11

sisilafami, Sunday, 2 January 2011 23:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Listening to this now. Not sure I get it - any of it. Tracks have been popping up on random for a while now and they've just sounded like awkward repeating patterns with little structure or development. So I've decided to listen to it as a whole. Don't hear any r'n'b whatsoever. I guess I will have to give it a couple of goes.

chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:41 (2 years ago) Permalink

what's there to get? it's house music, man. we're hardly talking fucking xenakis here

missingNO, Thursday, 17 February 2011 02:59 (2 years ago) Permalink

I would call Actress neither house music nor easy to get to be honest.

EDB, Thursday, 17 February 2011 03:20 (2 years ago) Permalink

yeah i dont really get it either, i thought it would be a grower...

just sayin, Thursday, 17 February 2011 09:52 (2 years ago) Permalink

It doesn't really become house music until at least the fourth track, and even then it's pretty abstract. Some tracks, that Bubble Butts one in particular, is just plain annoying. Again, I'll def give it another shot, because I've a feeling it's the kind of thing that clicks once heard in context and from then on you can't do without.

chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Thursday, 17 February 2011 10:07 (2 years ago) Permalink

i particularly enjoy the stretch from "maze" through "let's fly," songs that fans of this type of thing never seem to mention.

― contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 05:42 (1 month ago)

THIS, massively. Had forgotten how good 'Maze' is until putting it on again at the weekend.

I see he's on a bill with Demdike Stare and others in Bristol soon, that's hella tempting if I had any money at all.

the worst dong of the last ten years (Craigo Boingo), Thursday, 17 February 2011 10:47 (2 years ago) Permalink

I've been slowly getting into the Splazsh album. Works well on headphones.

sam500, Thursday, 17 February 2011 11:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

Hazyville is good too, if a lot less evolved.

seminal fuiud (NickB), Thursday, 17 February 2011 11:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, I heard and liked 'Hazyville' - relatively passively - when it came out, 'Splazsh' was a big evolution though. And it does keep rewarding. Both a grower and with some moments of great immediacy.

the worst dong of the last ten years (Craigo Boingo), Thursday, 17 February 2011 11:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

I'm gonna go to that Bristol show on Saturday I think

Jari Litmandem (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 17 February 2011 12:01 (2 years ago) Permalink

i like that he uses bits of cut up youtube vids or w/e, presumably just the audio but if u play mpeg videos in winamp 2.xx u get some chill ass noise so who knows

nulty dread (nakhchivan), Thursday, 17 February 2011 12:09 (2 years ago) Permalink

this is awful.

gr8080, Friday, 18 February 2011 00:02 (2 years ago) Permalink

people don't know how to troll anymore

☠ (roxymuzak), Friday, 18 February 2011 00:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

whither phil paterson

☠ (roxymuzak), Friday, 18 February 2011 00:09 (2 years ago) Permalink

this album is kind of infuriating but a few times listening to it it was the best, i don't know if i would recommend repeatedly trying it too many times -- try drugs maybe?

flopson, Friday, 18 February 2011 00:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

yeah i was gonna say, were u hi?

☠ (roxymuzak), Friday, 18 February 2011 00:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

i hadn't even heard the album when i made this thread, just the first two or three tracks

i don't like it as much as i did over xmas, but this and his recent singles are p good

roy stride or die (nakhchivan), Friday, 18 February 2011 00:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

I really like this

corey, Monday, 21 March 2011 12:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

New 12" is excellent too

the worst dong of the last ten years (Craigo Boingo), Monday, 21 March 2011 12:35 (2 years ago) Permalink

I dunno if the musique concrète comparisons are apt — it just seems like soulful house-influenced electronic with a fastidious approach to sounds. wonder what kind of soft/hardware he used

corey, Monday, 21 March 2011 12:35 (2 years ago) Permalink

also thankful this doesn't have that annoying cod 90s R&B filtered-synth squiggle that you hear on like everything that gets called dubstep or post-ds

corey, Monday, 21 March 2011 12:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

tho thankfully this isn't dubstep or post-dubstep

kid 606: the nultness (nakhchivan), Monday, 21 March 2011 19:11 (2 years ago) Permalink

Apparently Actress samples Youtube in his beats, tons of tightly edited low bitrate samples stacked layer upon layer.

It definitely seems like a reasonable comparison to the original Musique Concrete guys.

― sistern, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:01 (2 months ago)

this, p much

kid 606: the nultness (nakhchivan), Monday, 21 March 2011 19:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

Hubble has a very strange effect on my brain if I listen to it all the way through. It puts me in a sinister dreamlike trance that I can't quite describe, but have rarely experienced in music

farielan chosder bout a chagh an i ballme trantuming (dog latin), Monday, 21 March 2011 19:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

Bubble Butts and Equations has been sticking in my head this week.

mh, Monday, 21 March 2011 20:23 (2 years ago) Permalink

tho thankfully this isn't dubstep or post-dubstep

I didn't say it was!

corey, Monday, 21 March 2011 21:41 (2 years ago) Permalink

and i didn't say you said it was!

kid 606: the nultness (nakhchivan), Monday, 21 March 2011 21:43 (2 years ago) Permalink

i've stopped playing this so much but it definitely caught me for a while

i find a lot of his tracks fastidious....in a good way! they are uhm 'well architected'

kid 606: the nultness (nakhchivan), Monday, 21 March 2011 21:45 (2 years ago) Permalink

was surprised my friend who's an autechre fiend thought this was "meh", it seems to me like Ae fans would appresh this

corey, Monday, 21 March 2011 21:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

i like this stuff a lot

adult music person (Jordan), Monday, 21 March 2011 22:03 (2 years ago) Permalink

someone post your favorite one or two things of his that are on youtube cause i listened to this last year and thought it was awful but am willing to re-asses

gr8080, Monday, 21 March 2011 22:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

dont know too much about your taste & there is a p wide range of stuff on the album ito danceability, experimentalness, minimalism. i like these tho



flopson, Monday, 21 March 2011 22:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

I liked that last one better than the other two but this shit just isn't for me I guess.

I like his logo/cover art tho!

gr8080, Tuesday, 22 March 2011 06:00 (2 years ago) Permalink

Hubble has a very strange effect on my brain if I listen to it all the way through. It puts me in a sinister dreamlike trance that I can't quite describe, but have rarely experienced in music

― farielan chosder bout a chagh an i ballme trantuming (dog latin), Monday, March 21, 2011 2:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it makes me sleepy

adult music person (Jordan), Tuesday, 22 March 2011 14:25 (2 years ago) Permalink

MAZE is what i wished the TR2N soundtrack sounded like

diamonddave85, Tuesday, 22 March 2011 14:43 (2 years ago) Permalink

senorita has become my ipod rep from this album. so simple, but kind of addictive (and actually pretty!)

Dominique, Tuesday, 22 March 2011 14:55 (2 years ago) Permalink

Jordan - yeah sleepy, but I think it once made me have an inverse parasomniac moment where I kinda fell asleep while walking around with headphones and started tripping out. It was heavy man.

farielan chosder bout a chagh an i ballme trantuming (dog latin), Tuesday, 22 March 2011 15:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

the b side of the new single is great

kid 606: the nultness (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 22 March 2011 15:10 (2 years ago) Permalink

Senorita contains an Aaliyah sample, right? Hubble is one of those songs that I can listen to on repeat for 2 hours. Shigeto's album Full Circle is a good companion to Splazsh. He also plays live drums in his sets which took me by surprise (Shigeto, not Actress).

Call on me (Spinspin Sugah), Saturday, 26 March 2011 21:41 (2 years ago) Permalink

If you love Actress like me then check out "Plastic World" by BNJMN on Rush Hour. It's like a lush, less austere Splazsh. http://phs.abstractdynamics.org/2011/03/two_albums_morphosis_bnjmn.html

Professor Respect, Sunday, 27 March 2011 18:26 (2 years ago) Permalink

The Geirogeirgegege (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 16:24 (2 years ago) Permalink

Agreed on the BNJMN comparison. In some ways they're very different; BNJMN has a much housier feel, closer to FaltyDL maybe, and definitely a good fit for Rush Hour. But the textural quality of their sound and their approach to compression definitely share some similarities.

Also, Andy Stott's forthcoming 2x12 on Modern Love has a very Actressy vibe, maybe crossed with Dettinger... Amazing stuff.

pshrbrn, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 17:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

this is as good as anything's he's done

http://www.sendspace.com/file/1ky4su

MY WEEDS STRONG BLUD.mp3 (nakhchivan), Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

some of this sounds cool on an actress tip

http://soundcloud.com/lukid/preview-of-spitting-bile-ep

back in a .gif ;) (flopson), Saturday, 13 August 2011 17:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

Sounds good--nice turning-the dial/soundbite preview segues. I recall Lukid's "Boxing Club" 12" from last year sounding particularly great, too.

As far as Actress + Lukid = Thriller goes, I'm enjoying their brand-new Radiohead remix (v. similar to Actress' "Surfer's Hymn" Panda Bear remix from earlier this year):

http://soundcloud.com/radiohead/radiohead-give-up-the-ghost

Went whole career w/o collabo, yo (Craig D.), Saturday, 13 August 2011 18:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

much prefer actress to lukid

moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 13 August 2011 18:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

I fell for the thread title bait, but there's nothing even remotely concrete about any of the tracks I listened to???

the wheelie king (wk), Saturday, 13 August 2011 19:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

explain

moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

not saying this is my favourite titled thread but it has been painstakingly elaborated on upthread

back in a .gif ;) (flopson), Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

it just sounds like synthesizers and drum machines. I didn't hear any "real" sounds or noises integrated into the work in any way. He might be sampling youtube videos or something, but the end result isn't any more "concrète" than any other music that has been made using a sampler since 1980.
xp

the wheelie king (wk), Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

it has been painstakingly elaborated on upthread

not really. people were like "oh he samples stuff from youtube. ok, concrète. cool"

the wheelie king (wk), Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

so you would say that a requirement for music concrete is the use of environmental sound?

moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

the last single harrier attk and some of the tracks released on twitter are the most 'sonically adventurous' things he has done

nakhchivan, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

well, I don't want to make any requirements or dredge up an obsolete 60-year-old debate on musique concrete vs. electronic music. I just don't hear anything in this music that makes me think "concrete" in any way. Every track seems to contain synthesizers. Now maybe those are actually samples of motors or something pitch-shifted and layered to sound like synth pads, but if the end result just sounds like plain-ol electronic music, I don't really see the point in labeling it "concrete."

xp

the wheelie king (wk), Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah its kinda a lame thread title trinket to get the spesh addled vagrants like yrself thru the door, all counts towards the admission stats tho

― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:26 (7 months ago)

nakhchivan, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

not saying u are a vagrant, obviously

nakhchivan, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

well ithink a quick skim of the article on wikipedia will clear it up for you wk

moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

it strikes me that you have a very narrow view of what is musique concrete that doesn't even hew to what even Pierre Schafer described as the basis of musique concrete

moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

don't take it the wrong way, nothing personal, you just don't understand what musique concrete is and you have obviously not read and understood the thread

Thank you, come again

moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 13 August 2011 20:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

maybe you should learn a little more about musique concrete than what you're getting from a quick skim of wikipedia

the wheelie king (wk), Saturday, 13 August 2011 22:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

well you might be interested to know that I have recently reread not one, not two, but THREE whole books about it

moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 13 August 2011 23:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

ugh plz somebody delete my posts in this thread fucking embarrassing shit ugh

missingNO, Monday, 15 August 2011 04:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

i read in an interview that this dude was working as a foley artists before he made it in the techno game

missingNO, Monday, 15 August 2011 04:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

and he records shit on a minidisc cuz of the low sample rate

missingNO, Monday, 15 August 2011 04:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Very late to this party as is my style, but a few thoughts after an initial 5-6 spins:

> "Hubble" is amazing, and quite unlike anything else I've heard. I can't remember if I read this somewhere or dreamt it (hopefully the latter), but I want to say that Actress called it "a study of 'Erotic City'"...

> The cut-up vocal tracks make me queasy, and it's a similar queasiness to seeing an unhealthily skinny girl walking really fast.

> I wish the album had more BASS throughout it; it sounds emaciated in parts, as if it had been gutted of bass rather than just built without bass as a foundation. This probably relates to my queasiness above.

> I do understand very much why so many people call this a grower and have given it many listens trying to "get it"... It's an almost painfully drawn-in-on-itself sounding record, a decisive statement of a very esoteric aesthetic; it almost feels as if its creator is autistic. I'm not sure if there's anything to "get," though, but I'm also not sure that matters.

Clarke B., Tuesday, 27 September 2011 14:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

Haha, I love this post, Clarke. Bit more Actress banter here: FACT's 20 albums for 2011 including the whole thing about Erotic City.

Yo wait a minute man, you better think about the world (dog latin), Tuesday, 27 September 2011 14:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

Andy Stott's recent album Passed Me By is operating in a similar vein, but with BASS

Number None, Tuesday, 27 September 2011 14:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

I like that Stott record; it's really solid. I think it's perhaps getting a little over-hyped in certain circles, but I enjoy it a lot. There's in immersiveness to it, however, that puts it in an entirely different ballpark than Actress for me. (Maybe that "immseriveness" is just bass!) Also, Actress's beats are sometimes skittery in a way Stott's aren't--not like drill-and-bass "wheeeee drum programming!" skittery, and not "purposefully degraded" skittery (like Burial's can feel... It's like a five-espressos skittery, as if he's playing his drum machines live (not quantized) but he can't stop shaking and twitching.

Clarke B., Tuesday, 27 September 2011 14:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

Dunno if there's a better thread for this sort of thing, so I'll just park this post here for the moment: the new Patten album GLAQJO XAACSSO is really fucking good. Similar kind of knee-capped beats to Actress and it's also seemingly been built out of all these odd off-cut samples that he's possibly fished out of the scraps bin. Where it is different is that it feels a whole lot lusher and denser. In some places it's kind of reminiscent of Disco Inferno in that you feel like you're trying to deal with this whole rush of sonic information all at once, you need to really stretch your ears wide-open to fit all of the sounds in. Well worth hearing imo.

master musicians of jamiroquai (NickB), Monday, 3 October 2011 12:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

master musicians of jamiroquai (NickB), Monday, 3 October 2011 12:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

plenty of good Actress this year > Lauren Halo remix, Panda Bear remix, Harrier ATTK / Gershwin, Parallel World. There is also a Honest Jons ad for an Actress meets Shangaan electro thing.

wolves lacan, Monday, 3 October 2011 13:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Adultswim interview with Actress that recently got posted is worth watching--I don't think he's ever really been interview on camera before, has he?
http://video.adultswim.com/unclassified/actress-interview.html

Spectrum Spools presents: Blogosfear (Craig D.), Monday, 3 October 2011 14:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah there's this one...

It's not as good as the adult swim one though.

Looking forward to his new album, whenever that's coming out.

jimitheexploder, Monday, 3 October 2011 14:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

i dig that patten track

hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Monday, 3 October 2011 14:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

He did a remix of Kasabian. It's kinda good!
&

Number None, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 16:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

Patten's album was mentioned upthread. I listened to it all the way through and thought it was pretty useless, but what did you guyses think?

Alexandre Dumbass (dog latin), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 17:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

agreed

the late great, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 17:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

just too left-footed for me to get down with, though i felt the same way about the entire genre of dubstep at first and now i'm a convert

the late great, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 17:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

before i check out the Kasabian remix i need to know if there's any Kasabian in it

Nultified Ancients of Man U (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 18:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 23:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

4 weeks pass...

whoa, there is a new full-length?

40oz of tears (Jordan), Thursday, 19 April 2012 16:30 (1 year ago) Permalink

RIP Actress

Friends of Mr Caeiro (NickB), Thursday, 19 April 2012 16:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

Getting lots of good reviews so far btw

Friends of Mr Caeiro (NickB), Thursday, 19 April 2012 16:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

blah, not on Spotify or whatever yet

mh, Thursday, 19 April 2012 16:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

Friends of Mr Caeiro (NickB), Thursday, 19 April 2012 16:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

And it's really lovely, he's given in to his pretty side.

Jedmond, Thursday, 19 April 2012 22:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

psyched for the set tonight for unsound

life's rich pageant then you die (uptown churl), Friday, 20 April 2012 01:30 (1 year ago) Permalink

RIP
rest in peace
fassy get the coffin
then dem get the wreath

the late great, Friday, 20 April 2012 01:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

(no homophobe)

the late great, Friday, 20 April 2012 01:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

excellent album

diamonddave85, Friday, 20 April 2012 03:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

like

Dominique, Friday, 20 April 2012 17:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, that is good but that whole Shangaan Shake series is all about that one Theo Parrish remix imo, that thing is a killer.

Friends of Mr Caeiro (NickB), Friday, 20 April 2012 18:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

I spent a lot of time a lil while ago unsuccessfully trying to work that electro 2 track into a set

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, 20 April 2012 18:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

the MMM is thee shangaan remix imo.

stirmonster, Friday, 20 April 2012 18:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

i want to do a shangaan remix poll, was thinking on the way to work about whether i'd vote for theo or MMM or old apparatus or peverelist, all so dope

<3 dj rashad and spinn's too but obv it's kinda just a particularly accessible footwork track w/ a shangaan sample or two

the late great, Friday, 20 April 2012 18:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

personally both of those actress mixes are a little too "out there" for me

the late great, Friday, 20 April 2012 19:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Damn, The Lord's Graffiti is one muthafucka of a tune. He is very good.

Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Friday, 27 April 2012 02:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Still digesting R.I.P personally ("Caves Of Paradise" is the standout for me so far--wobbly bassline phrase-length + phased fast hi-hats = sold), but this free John Cale remix is esp. great (more pitched-down/low-slung than anything on the new record): http://www.factmag.com/2012/04/20/download-actress-remix-of-john-cale/

Groove is in the shart (Craig D.), Friday, 27 April 2012 04:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

i've only heard "marble plexus" so far and i loved it, looking forward to picking up the album hopefully tomorrow

the late great, Friday, 27 April 2012 05:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

gah this album is fucking incredible

very "selected ambient works" imo

the late great, Saturday, 28 April 2012 17:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

had this locked on repeat since i got it

"N.E.W." is so incredible

the late great, Saturday, 28 April 2012 17:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

my favorite track on "splazsh" has always been "hubble"

you read my mind mr cunningham and made an entire album in that style

pretty sure one of the tracks on this is a remix of "crushed" from hazyville

the late great, Saturday, 28 April 2012 17:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

gah this album is fucking incredible

very "selected ambient works" imo

― the late great, Saturday, April 28, 2012 6:44 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

had this locked on repeat since i got it

"N.E.W." is so incredible

cosign all of this. never really got into splazsh, really digging this though.

toby, Saturday, 28 April 2012 18:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

this is really cool

never liked splazsh either

r|t|c, Sunday, 29 April 2012 00:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

dunno abt these last 4 tracks after 'glint'

kinda feel i need to start from the beginning again to work them out

r|t|c, Sunday, 29 April 2012 00:13 (1 year ago) Permalink

this is good

Ms Tum-Bla-Wi-Tee (nakhchivan), Sunday, 29 April 2012 12:15 (1 year ago) Permalink

Liking this, the lord's graffiti and raven are the two that stood out on first listen.

ooooiiiioooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaoooooh un - bi - leevable! (LocalGarda), Monday, 30 April 2012 07:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

Is this streaming anywhere?

scott pgwp (pgwp), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 04:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

i'm alright with these last four tracks now. i don't enjoy them especially but the juxtapositions they provide lend a sense of consequence to the rest, however gnomic; ie without them this would be a too-well-contained and easily disposable nice bit of idm retro.

i like the middle section in particular, 'jardin' / 'serpent' / 'shadow from tartarus' - 'serpent' is very autechre homage to nokia 3310. in fact a fair few of the tiny insectoid music box melody tracks remind me of lp5/ep7 era ae, moreso than aphex at least.

r|t|c, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 11:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

jardin is amazing...

ooooiiiioooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaoooooh un - bi - leevable! (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 11:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

you guys might be interested to check out shackleton's new "music for the quiet hour".

sisilafami, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 13:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

A new Shackleton already? Still getting a lot of mileage out of the Pinch collab. Another Honest Jon's release? Reading the response on the new Actress album I will definitely check it out, couldn't get into Splazsh..

willem, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 14:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

The new Shackleton is out on his own label:

http://boomkat.com/cds/523774-shackleton-music-for-the-quiet-hour-the-drawbar-organ

btw didn't i braek ur heart (NickB), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

i keep thinking of the word "palimpsest" in relation to this album, like what you get after coming home at 7am and all the music you've heard all night is still rattling around in a jangly smear inside your head

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

I LOVE THIS

Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Saturday, 19 May 2012 18:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

I just picked up R.I.P yesterday and want to add to the chorus of praise... This is immediately more engaging and satisfying to me than Splazsh--more beauty, more restraint, more detail, more melodic development. It's a lovely record that it's hard to imagine any other producer making. I think it may even be a "deeper" record than Splazsh but without the sheen of inscrutability that led so many people to keep on and keep on with it; R.I.P is more immediate without being any less complex.

Clarke B., Thursday, 7 June 2012 13:30 (11 months ago) Permalink

timely reminder for me that this is a good rainy day album

r|t|c, Thursday, 7 June 2012 13:37 (11 months ago) Permalink

i agree that it sounds a lot like autechre, especially the one track with the annoying birdsong sample sound and a couple others i can't recall are very much like the subtler confield-era stuff

the late great, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:26 (11 months ago) Permalink

I can see where that comparison comes from, but this is so much warmer and more luscious to me than Autechre.

Clarke B., Thursday, 7 June 2012 16:47 (11 months ago) Permalink

Think I prefer Splazsh tbh - this is okay, but very similar in vibe to Oversteps-era Ae but not as involving. Might need a few more spins though.

Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, 7 June 2012 17:44 (11 months ago) Permalink

This is really good - his production style certainly lends itself to moody atmospheric numbers far more than it does the more beat-driven dancefloor-based material. "Tree Of Knowledge" sounds like lurching brostep recorded to a tape deck via a microphone pressed against laptop speakers to my ears.

boxedjoy, Friday, 8 June 2012 10:06 (11 months ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

R.I.P. is going to save the lives of so many cracked-out kids, you know at 4am when the drugs won't let you sleep and no music sounds right - this will be the only album they can listen to

very "selected ambient works" imo

vahid otm

hot slag (lukas), Sunday, 20 January 2013 09:33 (4 months ago) Permalink

whenever I listen to this it feels like a watered down version of madlib beat tapes, I wish I could get into it because in theory this is like my favorite shit

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Sunday, 20 January 2013 18:03 (4 months ago) Permalink

which madlib beat tapes are these?

bass, Sunday, 20 January 2013 20:24 (4 months ago) Permalink

I love this record. Keep coming back to it.

Hutton dressed as Lahm (LocalGarda), Sunday, 20 January 2013 20:32 (4 months ago) Permalink

new 12" "silver cloud" is some beautiful sinister fuzzed out fucked-up mutant techno

clouds, Friday, 25 January 2013 23:51 (3 months ago) Permalink

is it as good as the la dusseldorf track of the same name

moët plaudit (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Friday, 25 January 2013 23:56 (3 months ago) Permalink

Yeah this is great - nice to have some longer tracks from him.

toby, Saturday, 26 January 2013 06:54 (3 months ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

"voodoo posse chronic illusion" is so so good

keef qua keef (Jordan), Friday, 15 February 2013 15:50 (3 months ago) Permalink

yep

a new afx album would be nice but actress is kinda supplanting the old 90s greats imo

polski smak (clouds), Friday, 15 February 2013 16:00 (3 months ago) Permalink

still unsure how I've listened to and enjoyed this dude's music for over two years but only found out a few weeks ago that he played professionally for West Brom

Julian-Joachim Roedelius (DJ Mencap), Friday, 15 February 2013 16:19 (3 months ago) Permalink

"voodoo posse chronic illusion" is so so good

― keef qua keef (Jordan), Friday, February 15, 2013 3:50 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

absolutely addicted to this at the moment

Number None, Friday, 15 February 2013 18:11 (3 months ago) Permalink

Even more intriguingly, it’s known that Cunningham was previously a footballer due to embark on a career with West Bromwich Albion, before injury forced him to retire from the sport at the age of 19 (a “crushing decision to make,” he says). What business, our inner snob demands to know, could a one-time professional hoofer of balls have making music as obtuse, as formally brilliant as this?

had no idea about this, rmde at the pleb who wrote that anyway

every soulless meta poster is a ✰ (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Saturday, 16 February 2013 03:03 (3 months ago) Permalink

Remixes of Legowelt: https://soundcloud.com/clone-nl/legowelt-elementz-of-houz

Chewshabadoo, Saturday, 16 February 2013 03:06 (3 months ago) Permalink

his boiler room mix is still my all time favorite dj mix

the late great, Saturday, 16 February 2013 03:29 (3 months ago) Permalink


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.