The producer known as ACTRESS and his r&b concrète

This drifts along very nicely, I like the deep bass sound. BoC vibes is otm!

this is awesome

I agree!

To me it sounds extremely Flying Lotus, and also maybe like he got some Korg Volcas? The synth textures feel very familiar to me (and I use a lot of Volcas). Also its more like a 22 minute beat tape than an album, but none of these are bad things, I'm into it.

Although some of these beats wear out their welcome by the time they hit 2 min, as opposed to his murky & detailed tracks that feel like they could go on forever.

Actress is less sprawl-prone than FL. His tracks come across as self-enclosed, gnomic fragments ('hedgehogs', per Fr. Schlegel) more so than FL's comparatively maximalist approach. I'm also tempted to argue that Actress is paradoxically closer to the core Warp aesthetic than FL.

True, FlyLo packs a lot into his 2 min tracks.

On the plus side I'm currently listening to AZD again, what an album.

i hear shake shakir in the newest actress but shake has just generally been on my mind so idk

lol at the emails from actress with subject lines looking like straight up spam

anybody call the phone number?

i did there was some music
meh

Karma & Desire strikes me as his piano album, and in some ways his vocal album as well, with feats. by Zsela, Sampha, Aura T-09 and Christel Well. He gets more out of this spartan palette than when he's collaborating with a full orchestra as on LAGEOS. There's also plenty of overtly electronic material that hearkens back to the work for which he's best known, so the the risk of monotony is averted throughout. At first pass, this has got to be one of his best releases so far.

Also, 'Public Life', a bona fide solo piano piece performed by Vanessa Benelli Mosell, is better than anything on Drukqs imo.

ohhhhhh my god

on one level seems like a straight-up gorgeous nighttime house record, on another seems like one of his most formally ambitious and realized projects

2020: year of the dance full-length for people who love doing it wrong

Yeah, I love when he convincingly reminds you that you don't have to choose.

xp

in a year that was less stacked this would be my aoty easy. maybe it is

ok wow this is something else

Oh my actual goodness this is unreal

This is superb. It'll sound daft, but it's making me miss London so much - London at night, black streets in the rain, the blind foreheads of houses, the promise of solace behind every door.

I hesitate to invoke the B word but a lot of the stuff he's doing with claustral atmospheres and the slurring of voices is kinda Burial-adjacent.

I was just thinking that. Album feels like a cross between Drukqs and Burial. And it's fantastic.

this is great, much better than the last mixtape, it feels so singular and uncompromising

Actress is my favourite artist recording name ever, I think. I find it compellingly blank and suggestive at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovr3Zh28ZtQ

This is classic Actress but very much a headphones album (or at least a solitary/nighttime album), I made the mistake of putting it on during morning coffee time while my partner was around and it sounded really dumb in that context. :(

i listened to this over the weekend after first listens of a few other things and 1) i enjoyed it, 2) i was impressed by it, 3) i thought 'this is hipster music that will probably not go over great in a social context'

Haha.

'Gliding Squares' is the least Actress-y track on here but it's lovely.

mornings have been pretty grey here so this record's been suiting them perfectly

the short film works very well imo

though it's a hipster film that will probably not go over great in a social context

thanks for the tip y’all. fall has pushed into my part of the world and the drizzle started about halfway through this new album. perfect for this evening.

So this is simply magnificent. Eine kleine nachtmusik alright, dropping in and out of clubs at night-time but never getting to the dance floor because you're vaguely distressed, slightly melancholy. And you want to get down! Instead of dancing the euphoria mixed with said melancholy in your head. Superb use of volume differences, subtle shifts in tempo, from 4/4 to the loneliness of a Burial runner.

this is fantastic

lbi otm - except there's a lot of straight-up floor music here too that makes me miss dancing to hot/sexy/cool music so gd much

damn lbi nailed it

sorry you don't like me

I love the exchange between nakchivan and missingNO that kicks off this thread!

Incredible album, "Save" has been running through my head all day (or some meager echo of it, memory can't really capture it).

I've been asked to produce the new Lighthouse Family album.

— AZD (@ctress_a) October 8, 2021

The thing about Actress is that his music is always mixed almost entirely in mono.

I realise it's an aesthetic, but I find it really hard to listen to.

I find his music far more challenging than, say, Autechre

Was gonna say that I feel exactly the opposite. I haven’t listened to a lot of Autechre tho, and this thread made me realize I’m only familiar with about half of Actress’ work. I also appreciate the sort of aimless quality of some of his music, which some here seem to regard as a weakness of his style.

wow i got weird on this thread, sorry! i'm still not a huge actress fan but like small doses. generally still think there is more style than substance and i don't find it challenging at all really.

lol i was being unreasonably combative myself, i do like you map <3

hey, thanks brad! i like you too. :)

I love the exchange between nakchivan and missingNO that kicks off this thread!

― the article don, Saturday, 7 November 2020 17:33 (eleven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

i didn't love it at all, it was needlessly hectoring on nakchivan's part (which was apparently their thing despite being a beloved poster so more fool me i guess) and caused several days of psychological torment (yeah, i'm a weak one fr). obv my opinion and the way in which i stated it was shit but idk it did feel a little unsafe there for a minute as a neurodiverse person who has faced a lifetime of bullying (yah i know you don't really gaf about us beyond boilerplate please don't kys platitudes lol but still seems relevant) ... anyway i wish i hadn't stumbled upon this thread in the archives and wish i had never ever posted on this website but what are you gonna do (mods, pls do me a favour and delete/ban my account, ty)

probably my favorite musician of the decade. thick smoke always hanging in the air

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

Actress & Mount Kimbie - 'AZD SURF'

Not really into Mount Kimbie but this is very nice

probably my favorite musician of the decade

After working on my ballots for the 2010s poll I think I agree with you