Alive and kicking with a vamped edge of something edging electro, Richard Bailey (a.k.a. Proem) has a way with beats that gives an
appropriate spirit to both timing and space. These tracks have a crafted feel, textural, assemblage-like. Though I would like to hear a continuous feed of the entire program, rather than snippet tracks, separated from the complexity of the whole. Though this concept does get challenged as the would-be single here, “Scapula” is a windy, radically upbeat piece that obviously sticks out from its precursors. This is a bouncy glitched-up bass barrel of a shooting match that curls in on itself towards the end too soon.
Having all the lively brazen brass it takes to keep the party flowing into dusk, but enough street savvy artfulness not to go into your typical rave
rant.
“Route1” nicely and clumsily trips over itself time and time again with staggered and hyper beats bumping heads with a lilting synth cascade
that spirals in and out. George Marinov (aka Esem) takes on the remixing deck when it comes to the fluffy patterned “Esem-ycialn-clandrol.” The rampant beats have been camouflaged by sweet, elapsing tonal flow that if they were a color would be a mutating pink, zipping up at its reverberating end.
“Slevoh” closes the proceedings with a funky, junky game on. Stealing a mellotron moment, and serving up chattering percussion, Proem proves that you cannot necessarily calculate all your beats per minute with a watch that is only in sync part time. His ready penchant for taking a deeper look at the more atonal side of these structures will only allow his sound to grow exponentially rather than drying up into the dust of repetitive formulas.
Songs for the City Bus is available on Coredump.
