In Place of Language is a truly exciting record. In a time where much of electronic music harks back to the past, two trailblazers have combined to produce an EP that is firmly set on the future.
An audio world that seamlessly connects the disparate
To most people, “The Summer of Love” belongs to 1967. For those who lived through Britain’s acid house explosion of 1988–89, the phrase evokes an entirely different kind of cultural uprising. By the late 1980s, acid house had eclipsed synth wave in the United Kingdom with a rag-tag bunch of knob jerkers leading the thousands that flocked to illegal raves across the island. Fast forward almost forty years and two of the disruptors of this heady time have joined forces for a very special 12”.
Graham Massey, of 808 State fame, and Brian Dougans, better known as Humanoid, were pivotal in the proliferation of club music. Their respective hits, like “Pacific State” and “Stakker,” transformed dance music and can still set floors alight. Now, these giants are joining forces and reimagining the sounds of those halcyon days with In Place of Language.
“Optica” is a seven-minute statement of intent. Rhythms adopt an eastern tone, smoky rinses and warbling bars are worried by a guttural tribal chant. These elements bend as an acid line descends; spectral melodies of colder electro transforming into warm Summer strings. Genre boundaries melt, the conventions and limits of style are rewritten. “Vasco” opens with looming industrial drums before morphing into a two-stepping machine romp as the carnival wheel turns and darker, more sinister, moods encroach. The ground is not so much unstable, but not there. Avenues turn to alleyways and then to open countryside as Massey and Dougans map an audio world that seamlessly connects the disparate.
Forty years in the making ::
Mise‑en‑scène techno, “Raid” finds the listener cheek-by-jowl with sweaty revellers in the middle of the floor. Heavy drums and an attacking 303 are further fortified by inverted siren blasts and belligerent key stabs, this full body thrust finds some moments of latent mellowness. “Ruby Chan” closes. A brief and intimate encounter, brassy jazz tones are folded in on themselves while skittery percussion tries to find its footing.
In Place of Language is a truly exciting record. In a time where much of electronic music harks back to the past, two trailblazers have combined to produce an EP that is firmly set on the future. Wandering and weaving through a city of sound, Massey and Dougans guide the listener through recognizable echoes and unheard wonders. Forty years in the making, this collaboration speaks a new musical language that once again stretches the imagination.
In Place of Language is available on De:tuned. [Bandcamp]
