Like some kind of psilocybin-fueled Max Cooper locked in a studio for months fed on nothing but an intravenous drip of hybrid Plaid / Lone / Space Dimension Controller melodics and accompanied by a highly capable but heavily tripping 1970s prog-rock drummer.
As purveyors of a finely crafted aesthetic in sound and visuals, the Wigflex label is a bona fide example of quirky UK based underground talent and originality. From label founder Spam Chop’s frankly awesome artwork to releases inhabiting a uniquely bizarre niche somewhere between techno, UK bass and melodious beauty, Wigflex deserves recognition beyond the Manchester and Nottingham scenes from which it has grown.
That’s not to say this isn’t already happening and this, their first full length release from Morris Cowan, will only bolster things further. Cowan’s criminally underrated style, as exhibited on the Zaubernuss released Circa, combines high class production skills alongside genius melodic progressions and psychedelic dance floor leanings.
Six Degrees moves things into further progressive territory, not in a prog-house way I hasten to add but rather the application of grandiose prog-rock stylings to a melange that Cowan describes as ‘psych prog-rock made on computers.’ The result is a tricky to classify yet dazzling display of technical virtuosity and long form wig outs—like some kind of psilocybin-fueled Max Cooper locked in a studio for months fed on nothing but an intravenous drip of hybrid Plaid / Lone / Space Dimension Controller melodics and accompanied by a highly capable but heavily tripping 1970s prog-rock drummer.
Tracks such as “…in Sevens” and “At Sixes” mutate and twist across their respective eight and ten minutes taking in hallucinatory cerebral synth work and wonderfully wayward structural and rhythmic shifts. All this underpinned by militaristic rolling percussion so intricately put together that I had to write to the producer and question whether a live drummer really was involved in the process. Nope—all programmed one shot hits of live drums and a phenomenal example of how, in the right hands, digital becomes organic.
A reflective moment comes where “Forum” combines heartfelt pads with epic strident melodies and barely a sniff of percussion making me wonder how good a full ‘ambient’ release might be from Cowan.
In the meantime, feast your ears on this thoroughly excellent and original release—all power to Wigflex.
Six Degrees is available on Wigflex. [Release page]
