Forest Swords - Engravings

Label: Tri Angle

While obviously grounded in the aural domain, some music is so imagistic that one cannot help but find listening a visual experience. On certain albums, each song will soundtrack imaginary films, as melodies and rhythms engage the cinema of your inner eye as well as your ear. Matthew Barnes’ astonishing debut EP as Forest Swords, Dagger Paths, was just such a record. Drawing liberally from distinct pools of influences; dub, rock, Eastern melodies and even RnB, it was not Barnes’ corralling of genres which impressed the listener – it was the mesmerising power of that music to evoke atmospheres, images and moods. The sound of Forest Swords was strikingly original: clattering percussion and deep dubby basslines conjured hazy atmospheres which bordered on the mystical, as powerful guitar riffs coursed through the terrain; resulting in a sound that felt ancient, powerful and seductive.

After three years of radio silence (he has been missed), Barnes finally returns for Forest Swords’ first LP, Engravings. This fittingly marks his entry to the Tri Angle stable, whose reputation for experimental long players, atmospheric but always pop-aware, precedes them. Do not expect a grand departure: Engravings is in every way a continuation of the Forest Swords sound, a deeper exploration of the project’s meditative terrain, delivering and even exceeding the promise so evident in those early releases. While this may disappoint the few hoping for a dramatic stylistic shift, the majority will not fail to be humbled by the depth and power of Forest Swords’ first full-length statement.

Thor's Stone

Indeed, while on first listen these songs may sound similar to Dagger Paths, this is mostly due to Barnes’ establishment of a remarkably distinct sound, which he plies here in a dazzling array of iterations. Each track is a rich tapestry of sound, offering new ground for the listener to chart and explore over repeated listens, revealing hidden depths. Yet this is not opaque music – the mist has cleared somewhat since those early EPs, and there is a new clarity to the arrangements as Barnes refines rather than piling on layers, drawing out the essential hooks and grooves in each distillation.

The music of Forest Swords comes pre-aged and organic, the simmering atmospherics and hefty lope of Ljoss introducing the sound that the album will continue to explore. As the song wears on, the ambient sounds are tied brilliantly to a chunky guitar riff in trademark style, showing Barnes’ talent for marrying vital experimental atmospheres and arresting melodic hooks. Follow-up Thor’s Stone is another strong example, where a mesmeric Eastern melody comes out of nowhere to dominate the distorted vocals and rattling drumhits of the track’s second half.

The Weight of Gold

While the conflation of referenced genres is difficult to unpick, some of the album’s strongest songs veer closer to established forms. Sinuous dubwise basslines underpin the syrup-thick atmospherics of Irby Tremor, only to be cannibalised by haunting synth sirens and sudden squalls of distorted melody.  Meanwhile a greater interest in vocal manipulation can be found on the likes of Anneka’s Battle, as the singer’s voice is twisted elegantly around some of the album’s more delicate guitar-work, before surrendering to a whirring synth which brings the track to its hypnotic conclusion. There are clearer traces of electronic manipulation than were present in earlier works, such as the numerous canny intros and outros which take the form of staccato vocal manipulations, fluidly serving as both mood-setters and palette-cleansers between the main courses. Late entry Gathering is in fact composed of these stop-start vocal samples, the liquid keys of its latter half making for one of the album’s most bewitchingly transcendent moments.

An album so rich in detail and mystique is sure to draw different listeners to different highlights, but a pair of melodic crescendos make for some of the album’s most nakedly beautiful moments. There’s a trace of the eternal in the beautiful piano loop that makes up the core of An Hour, an RnB-infused number with ghostly vocals that you’ll want to return to. It is earlier, however, amidst the angular percussion of Onward where Engravings achieves what is, for this reviewer, its prime moment of sublime inspiration. Building over a soft, lingering guitar melody, the gasping percussion and sluggish basslines disappear, giving way to the rise of an astonishingly moving string section, distorted as if heard from a tinny radio yet sacrificing none of its emotional power. The percussion builds anew, a fevered march, atavistic in its yearning and unstoppably propulsive – and then it’s gone. A single moment like this in an hour of music would make for something very special indeed, but Engravings is full of these strokes of inspiration, the engaged listener need only enter the forest and seek them.

9/10

Pole – Waldegeschichten

Wipfel

Wurzel

Wipfel Dub

Stefan Betke has always assumed a shadowy figure beyond the music that he has produced, but his importance in the electronic scene is not to be underestimated. Spanning thirteen years of dub experimentation, his releases have evolved slowly and consistently, reconstructing dub ideas in new minimal and techno settings. Outside of his releases, his creation with Barbara Preisinger of the sadly defunct ~scape label has brought us other brilliant releases from the likes of Deadbeat, Frivolous, John Tejada and many others. So where can Betke take us on this, his first release as Pole for two years?

The answer is necessarily unsurprising. Just as his previous releases ignored the latest trends and buzzwords to focus instead on phenomenal precision and a keen rhythmic sensibility, here the devil is once more in the details. At first there isn’t too much to set Waldegeschichten (‘Forest Lore’) apart from his back catalogue, we hear the same dub echoes in micro-edited techno landscapes with an unmatched sense of space in his compositions. But listen more closely (as his music forces you to) and the differences emerge. Wipfel start typically with a locked loop and atmospheric hiss, but over its eight minute runtime evolves into an unexpectedly busy and rich composition, with delayed organ keys casting a dubby groove over loose percussion. It’s hard to keep track of all the disparate elements here before the track is already in full swing; a gorgeously lush and fantastically detailed slice of micro-dub/techno/whatever.

In another unsurprising but immensely welcome stroke, Pole keeps up a supreme level of consistency throughout. So much so, in fact, that it’s difficult to pick a favourite between the two full tracks here. Wurzel is a far more spacious and downbeat affair, the beat sometimes slipping away entirely before lulling you back into its sparse hypnotic groove. Every sound here is treated to the tiniest alterations to complement the whole fluidly, and Pole’s attention to detail constantly amazes in the richness of every note on this release. The third cut, Wipfel Dub, is not quite essential but is a warm and (obviously) more dub-centric edit of the original, with the delays and echoes taken up a notch and given more space to breathe.

Waldegeschichten is Pole doing what Pole does best; acutely nuanced cuts of dub techno that are fantastically rich and constantly contemporary. But here his compositions are richer and more rhythmic than ever, and it’s an incredibly welcome return for Betke. For some, four years out would be too long away from the scene, but it’s clearly not the case here and I’ll certainly be waiting with keen anticipation for his next LP due out in early 2012.

8/10

Playlist #1 – Stoner Mix

Too often in music you come across artists who've made one excellent track and a bunch of less impressive stuff, or other tracks that are just more of the same, but worse.

So the other thing I'm gonna do this weekend besides remixes is give you a little playlist, of which I have quite a few planned – and this time I'm going for a chilled out groove; so there'll be Trip-Hop aplenty, with some electro, dub and reggae thrown in.

Not all of these artists only have one good song, some of them have great albums as well. But I figured people reading this probably already know most of the albums I review, so here's a little taster of some other stuff you may or may not wanna get your teeth into. 

So here you go:

Tracklist:

Tricky – Overcome

Classic trip hop, breathy track with a pulse.

Death In Vegas – Dirge

Some fine trip hop, a haunting female vocal overlaid with strong beats and a great build to the end.

Cut Chemist – The Garden

More of an electro track, still very chilled out from a skilled producer.

Fugees – How Many Mics

Laid back hip-hop from the 90s.

Gonjasufi – Change

Lush and trippy track with an echoey beat and Gonjasufi's distinctive vocals.

Wax Tailor – Que Sera

Great trip-hop with a fantastic sample (which you should recognise) from cool French producer.

///▲▲▲\\\ - Spit Shine

Lo-fi trippy witch house (it's pronounced 'Horse Macgyver', apparently)

King Midas Sound – Cool Out

Great track, quiet, chilled and dangerous from The Bug producer.

Alpha and Omega – Who Is the Ruler

Great dub, was included and remastered by Diplo in a recent mix.

Massive Attack – Karmacoma

You might recognise bits of this, Tricky (the first artist in the list) sings and writes the vocals, lyrics which he used again in his track Overcome. Either way, two very different and very good takes on the same lyrics.

Deadboy – Brock Lee Riddim

(Unfortunately I can't find this track on youtube, but here is a link to it on Spotify)

Really nice dubby track, a little less laid back but a great reggae sample.