Electronic Sound May 2015 (Regular Edition) | Page 31
we now find ourselves – one where the
very term “dubstep” is largely redundant,
and where noses are gleefully thumbed
at the restrictions of either the 4/4
format of the dancefloor or indeed any
real notion of genre.
From such fertile soil springs ALSO. The
project began four years ago with the
‘Lipsmacker’ EP, credited to Appleblim
& Al Tourettes. Since then, the pair
have reconvened as ALSO to refine and
recalibrate their sound, releasing two EPs
with a third on the way – all of which
are compiled on this album, along with a
new track, ‘Blyford Bass’.
ALSO
ALSO
R&S
Bass men Appleblim and Second Storey
break beats, boundaries, the mould,
everything…
Though you may be unfamiliar with
ALSO, the chances are you’ll have come
across the two chaps whose initials make
up the name, Appleblim (Laurie Osborne)
and Second Storey (Alec Storey). See
what they did there?
Befitting its creators’ penchant for
zipped-up jackets and flat-peaked
baseball caps, there’s no shortage of
restless, shuffling beats and boinging
bass here. Many a breakbeat was harmed
in its production. Beyond that, however,
the bets are off. Techno, house, bass,
broken beat – all tags apply as every
track shimmers with idiosyncrasy – each
one like the curveball tune thrown in
to shake up a DJ set. And such is the
stylistic breadth that it could shake up
almost any DJ set, from the dark arches
of London to the big rigs of Ibiza.
Hardly a surprise then, when the
arpeggiated chords of the first track,
As Al Tourettes, Storey releases largely
‘Arpegmonger’, put you in mind of
experimental excursions into whatever
electronic genre takes his fancy, while in
his Second Storey guise he delivered a
much-fancied IDM album on label du jour
Houndstooth last year. Bristolian Osborne,
meanwhile, comes from a dubstep
background. A resident DJ at genre hub
FWD>>, he ran the revered Skull Disco
label with Shackleton, where he issued
a series of collaborative EPs, including
‘Soundboy’s Bones Get Buried In The
Dirt’, ‘Soundboy’s Ashes Get Chopped Up
And Snorted’ and ‘Soundboy’s Ashes Get
Hacked Up And Spat Out In Disgust’.
Skull Disco closed in 2008, sadly before
the phlegm of Soundboy’s ashes could be
licked up by the dog. But the label was
instrumental in suggesting new paths for
dubstep, signposting the future in which
something Sasha might use as a palette
cleanser, while the aquatic wash of
‘Formation’ evokes a kind of comedown
euphoria. Indeed, the best tracks here
have an otherworldly sense quite at odds
with their urban roots. They explode into
psychedelic, intergalactic splinters that
recall the highs of house, both deep and
progressive.
‘Sid’s Conundrum’, for example, is a
rumbling, scattershot beast of a thing
that builds and peaks before building
again. Elsewhere, in keeping with the
album’s genre-busting, grid-destroying
qualities, there’s a loose, jammed feel to
proceedings which is especially evident
in the lengthy ‘Rant Check Parts 1 &
2’. When even the more predictable
offerings such as ‘Dive Prophets’ and
‘Blyford Bass’ offer up secret moments of
surprise and beauty, you know you’re in
the presence of something rather special.
True, by conjoining three EPs, Osborne
and Storey forego a cohesiveness that
might have propelled the album from
very good to great, but if they can
maintain this kind of form – and if
they can resist doing a Beta Band and
sacrificing the quality of their three EPs
on the altar of a tepid follow-up – then
we’re in for a treat.
ANDREW HOLMES