ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Skinny · 2016-04-10T16:39:05-04:00

I understand I'm posting this about two and a half hours too soon, but I can't guarantee I'll get the time to actually post it tomorrow. Better early than late, I suppose. OK, my pick is an album I mentioned in my listening log a while back, and it's an album I find myself returning to quite a bit and finding more and more that I appreciate. Gonna basically copy what I said in that other thread about it, albeit with a couple of minor edits (things that have occurred to me across repeated listens). Sophia Loizou - Singulacra My 2016 chart is in desperate need of an update, and this one will be landing very near the top of the the pile. I guess this album shares a kinship with other recent releases such as Four Tet's Beautiful Rewind, the past few Burial EPs, and Shape Worship's A City Remembrancer (and, to a lesser extent, Millie & Andrea's Drop the Vowels, and even some of the stuff Dean Blunt has done over the past few years) in that it uses tropes from early-'90s British hardcore and pirate radio, yet utilises them and puts them together in ways that deliberately obfuscate their origins, in the process creating a yearning and romanticised version of the music it pays tribute to. This is an album that merges a very foggy, grey, melancholy, distinctly British atmosphere with a much more mischievous bent, full of flickering, lighthearted nods to early jungle. Rolling sub-bass and fragments of breakbeats snake in and out of a dense, almost sleepy layer of reverb and static, recalling Burial if deconstructed even further, and managing to conjure that same sense of human longing that Bevan's music so often does. Whilst this is heavy, gloomy stuff, Loizou makes sure the listener never strays too far from the party, and there's significant joy to be had in waiting to see how a particularly hazy, gargling drone is going to be transformed into a brash (if always tasteful) piece of rave nostalgia, be it through sweeping, overwhelmingly gorgeous strings, or through bitcrushed pads skittering away and forming into familiar, welcome drum'n'bass patterns. Her bass-heavy, oceanic drone isn't necessarily anything new, and neither is her desire to connect with the music of UK dancefloors gone by, but the way in which she melds the two feels unique and genuinely exciting, whilst also feeling very current in its abstracting of more straightforward strands of dance music. It's hypnotic, and at its very best it brings to mind the fragmented memories of half-hearing music drift through asbestos-riddled ceilings into balcony smoking areas. It's not necessarily my favourite album of the year (although it isn't far off), but it is a record that I feel could definitely appeal to a fairly broad cross-section of users here, and one that I feel hasn't received the acknowledgement it deserves, either here or more generally across the internet. Label: Kathexis (which was, to my surprise, also home to previous ALC pick Douve by Ehnahre) For fans of: Burial, Four Tet, Shackleton, Millie & Andrea, Goldie, Massive Attack, kode9 Best listened to: at night, alone, glowstick and whistle in hand, preferably in a haze of hash smoke Stream it: over yonder Enjoy, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, positive or otherwise.

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Allabaster

Skinny wrote:

Yes and yes. I felt this was much more focused and purposeful, not to mention the fact that it displayed a much more refined, nuanced approach to sound design.

The answer I hoped for, thank you sir. It will garner my attention imminently.

mickilennial The Most Trusted Name in News Profile
Detroit

A really solid piece that I felt more at home with when the more ambient movements were in play that reminded me of all of the reasons why I liked Orbital’s music, though that comparison might be obtuse considering I am not as well read in electronic music as some others. My favorite tracks were “The Voices of Time”, “Artificial Infinite”, and “Genesis 92: The Awakening”. Given that this is from someone who has only spent one listen on the record so far I’m not sure how much weight it has but these tracks were the most interesting and least monotonous for me – I’ll be spending more time with this album, but for the present these are my thoughts. Great choice.

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