(12.07.05) It only takes a minute of “Paper Cuts,” the opening track of Detritus’
new record, for it to be clear that Dave Dando-Moore has accomplished
a brilliant bit of synergy. Origin, his second record for Ad
Noiseam after 2003’s Endogenous, takes all the dirty and
subterranean drum and bass which swamped that first record and raises
over this foundation a cathedral of orchestral melodies.
There is irony in his name: detritus is the crap left behind by
others who no longer have need for the garbage which they have
discarded. Endogenous was filled with the decaying sound of
the remnants of society: old bits of noise and static, the lumbering
rhythm of ancient pistons, the mournful wail of an abandoned machine.
Origin, though, is filled with life, filled with organic
arrangements of symphonic strings as if Dando-Moore has grown things
in his ruddy soil over the last two years and the resulting record is
the fruit of his scrap yard garden.
A heartbeat pumps through “Dead Daffodils,” a relentless thunder which
trails sparks behind it as it roars up a snow-covered mountain for the
rarified air at the peak where crystalline melodies swoop like arctic
winds. “Dil Wyn” circles — theme and variation — around a grand
piano, responding to the elegiac notes of the instrument with a
counterpart of heavy rhythm and symphonic interpretation. “Tinsel”
rises out of wind and steam, the soundtrack of man and nature making
noise together as wind courses through a factory setting while the
percussion section (on loan from the orchestra who are busy with the
other tracks) creates a rolling polyrhythm from the assembled
machinery. “Embedded” builds a rousing polyphony from a sidewindering
drum and bass rhythm and a pastoral adagio of strings and
synthesizers, while voice-over narration makes “Fable” seem like the
fluttering heartbeat of a spectral séance.
Origin is Dando-Moore’s refutation of the shallow and servile
muck which passes for intelligent music these days. In Detritus, you
can hear the collision of Scorn’s monolithic sub-sonic rumble and
Craig Armstrong’s evocative string arrangements. You can dance to it,
yes, but you can find all manner of beauty in the work as well. Very
recommended.
Origin is out now on Ad Noiseam.
