The producer known as ACTRESS and his r&b concrète

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I like this album a lot but it might be more fair to call it a beat tape

the late great, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link

His entire footballing career could have been one slow slide down the pyramid from West Brom and it would still have been more exciting than his music.

Matt DC, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link

or your posting

the late great, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:33 (six years ago) link

fuck excitement

a but (brimstead), Thursday, 20 April 2017 00:19 (six years ago) link

liking this a lot more than ghettoville so far

clouds, Thursday, 20 April 2017 14:50 (six years ago) link

I like it a lot and think it does justice to the "r&b concrète" Nakh description in thread title.

calzino, Thursday, 20 April 2017 14:55 (six years ago) link

I cant even remember what Sweet Exorcist sounded like, but a lot of this is vibing listening to them on a tape walkman in the early 90's.

calzino, Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:07 (six years ago) link

One of my favourite Actress collabs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1KLmphseFs

Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 21 April 2017 23:12 (six years ago) link

New album is pretty great I think.

This might be a bit of a shot in the dark, but if any Glasgow posters were thinking of going to see him at the Art School this coming Saturday, I have a ticket but can't make it, so post here or Ilxmail me if you want it.

off-site man days (Mr Andy M), Sunday, 30 April 2017 22:07 (six years ago) link

You would get the bonus prize of hanging out with ilxor paolo for the evening.

Event details here for anyone interested:
https://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?946991

off-site man days (Mr Andy M), Sunday, 30 April 2017 22:09 (six years ago) link

HIYA! my email is scottjamesramage at googlemail dot com

boxedjoy, Monday, 1 May 2017 01:32 (six years ago) link

Just sent you an email :)

paolo, Monday, 1 May 2017 09:29 (six years ago) link

one month passes...

Why is "senorita" from his 1st album only 2 minutes, should have been 10 minutes or something, arrgh. Some other tracks too.

Bregoni, Friday, 23 June 2017 09:20 (six years ago) link

I was disappointed by his new AZD I must say, too straight forward. But I saw it on the record store yesterday day and almost bought it.

Bregoni, Friday, 23 June 2017 09:23 (six years ago) link

one month passes...

His latest album is beautiful and I cant stop listening to it and not enough people are talking about it

Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Tuesday, 8 August 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link

AZD?

the late great, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 21:10 (six years ago) link

I agree, I'm a big fan of Actress generally but it took me a long time to listen to this for whatever reason. I think there's something that happens in all popular music but seems amplified in electronic/techno, where the novelty of a new sound or approach wears of very quickly. So AZD is a perfectly elegant and beautiful expression, but it doesn't have that shock of the new. It's definitely been overlooked/underheard.

Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Tuesday, 8 August 2017 21:18 (six years ago) link

I'm not well versed in Actress but definitely found AZD approachable while still esoteric, so A+ here

Week of Wonders (Ross), Wednesday, 9 August 2017 00:41 (six years ago) link

AZD has been growing on me. Hearing it the car has helped me appreciate its innate strangeness a lot more.

NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 15:00 (six years ago) link

there is an early Warp feel to this in places that reminds me of listening to Sweet Exorcist when I was a kid. I can understand it not getting universal love, but I have a lot of time for Actress's thing.

calzino, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 15:43 (six years ago) link

It's been growing on me as well, since I wrote here earlier. Guess I had to listen to it in one long stretch, not the detailed listen, to appreciate it.

Bregoni, Friday, 18 August 2017 08:02 (six years ago) link

nine months pass...

Texture has always been one of the primary concerns of Actress (aka Darren Cunningham), his music melding peculiar samples with decayed dancefloor sounds to create abstract, R&B concrète

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/actress-london-contemporary-orchestra

ogmor, Thursday, 7 June 2018 19:41 (five years ago) link

tried this album a few times.
didn't really do much for me.
but its possible I was not in the right place for it.

mark e, Thursday, 7 June 2018 19:44 (five years ago) link

that levantis "romantic psychology" record is flipin spiffy. a cold damp cave / ceremonial robes

massaman gai, Thursday, 7 June 2018 19:48 (five years ago) link

ahh .. i should clarify, I meant the actress vs LCO album that's due out soon.

mark e, Thursday, 7 June 2018 19:55 (five years ago) link

it's not so different from the new oneohtrix, but still has that more subdued/poised, soupy actress quality that I find makes it very listenable

ogmor, Thursday, 7 June 2018 20:21 (five years ago) link

ah man i LOVED the vs LCO single, looking forward to the album

brimstead, Thursday, 7 June 2018 21:26 (five years ago) link

wasn't really feeling AZD apart from "blue window", for some reason!

brimstead, Thursday, 7 June 2018 21:27 (five years ago) link

in the realm of 21st c. electronica even 'texture' doesn't seem adequate enough to describe the vibes actress is involved in.. it's more like "physicality" and "sensation".. really hard, high level lysergic interactions with textures and stuff.. idk ymmv

brimstead, Thursday, 7 June 2018 21:55 (five years ago) link

Someone ordered a London Contemporary Orchestra

paolo, Friday, 8 June 2018 14:02 (five years ago) link

Possibly while high

paolo, Friday, 8 June 2018 14:02 (five years ago) link

'Faure in Chrome' from AZD does a better job of incorporating orchestral textures than most of LAGEOS, I'm afraid.

pomenitul, Friday, 8 June 2018 14:09 (five years ago) link

ten months pass...

revisiting splazsh today, jesus christ "hubble"

jolene club remix (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 April 2019 13:14 (five years ago) link

jesus christ the whole record really, i definitely loved it at the time but it's even better than i remembered, broken and perverse but also pretty straightforwardly funky and danceable, fractured techno swaddled in vast atmospheres + disintegrated vocal samples, and then at the end it gets kinda ugly and violent! love it

jolene club remix (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 April 2019 14:03 (five years ago) link

Actress rules. I'll never not look forward to new material by him.

pomenitul, Thursday, 11 April 2019 14:06 (five years ago) link

def one of the best artists of the decade

american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 April 2019 14:09 (five years ago) link

Absolutely, total hero

brimstead, Thursday, 11 April 2019 22:50 (five years ago) link

yeah agree

Dan S, Thursday, 11 April 2019 23:02 (five years ago) link

i was disappointed by r.i.p at the time, idk, maybe bc of the absence of vocals and it being less apparently danceable, it felt like a collection of inwardly-turned idm fragments to me. i am discovering, to my regret, that this was an extremely surface-level reading!!! "raven" and "shadow from tartarus" and "caves of paradise" are amazing and i don't even know what "jardin" is

american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 13 April 2019 01:40 (five years ago) link

I like the description of it as "a twilight interzone between rest and wakefulness"

Dan S, Saturday, 13 April 2019 01:51 (five years ago) link

(from the Wire end of year 2012)

Dan S, Saturday, 13 April 2019 01:53 (five years ago) link

feels in retrospect like R.I.P was a peak along with Splazsh

Dan S, Saturday, 13 April 2019 02:08 (five years ago) link

although Hazyville, Ghettoville, and AZD were all pretty much equally amazing

Dan S, Saturday, 13 April 2019 02:09 (five years ago) link

R.I.P. and Ghettoville are both amazing

brimstead, Saturday, 13 April 2019 03:12 (five years ago) link

splazsh and ghettoville are my favorites

the late great, Saturday, 13 April 2019 03:22 (five years ago) link

also he is an amazing DJ

the late great, Saturday, 13 April 2019 03:22 (five years ago) link

This could either be something special or a complete mess:

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/131511-actress-x-stockhausen-sin-x-ii-2019

Zeuhl Idol (Matt #2), Saturday, 13 April 2019 08:39 (five years ago) link

ghettoville is my favorite, absolutely scraped out

american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 14 April 2019 13:54 (five years ago) link

feel like i could put any track from it on a mix with early godflesh and no one would blink

american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 14 April 2019 13:56 (five years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo0BniC5oco

american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 14 April 2019 15:04 (five years ago) link


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