CRAY – DIGEST 54 (cassette by SicSic Tapes)
'Digest
54' is a stellar and somewhat interstellar tape from Ross Healy's Cray
project -- one which consistently supplies variegated textures and
timbres, as well as an eye for the dramatic. Healy's pedigree as a
leftfield electronic musician (including his time in EBM act This
Digital Ocean, and a solo 2001 album for legendary weirdo-electro
outpost BiP_HOp Records) comes through in the way these tracks grip you
by the nether-regions and tug you in. Here he's laid down a collection
of sound experiments, each side a fertile bed of treats sketched out by
synthesizers. The beeps and burbles include Warp-like chords (“Delva,”
“Heek”), slack zone-out audioscapes (“Corrupt,” “Un8d”), and the sultry
tones of R2D2 hopped up on goofballs (“Premble”). “Ugly Martian,”
meanwhile, takes the album crown with its walloping eighties crime-wave
bass loop. The moments that draw into the background are pushed into the
periphery mainly by the fast grip of the tape's more
toe-curling
contingent; but these less immediate tracks are still, generally,
worthy kicks at the can: the curious combination of liquid synth-slosh
and throbbing powerline-glow on “Dabuda,” the dreary neon orbs that
populate “Basquiat,” and so forth. There's a lot to process here, so
much so that one is tempted to fault Healy for this record's disjointed
structure. He skitters from idea to idea, seemingly out of a compulsion
to document each of his distinct approaches to sound. Perhaps we can pin
this on Healy's background in electronic music: listen to some of the
stuff Rephlex was putting out a decade or so ago, and you'll encounter
the same sense of things being thrown at the wall to see what sticks.
But the key, as always, is the fact that Healy doesn't just smear turds
on his canvas -- these tracks are legitimate sound-niblets, each with
something compelling to share. Only eighty copies of this tape exist on
this planet, so you're advised to act fast. (MT)
Address: http://www.sicsic.de
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