Believe the hype. Face it; this is one of the more anticipated records that have come out in a while, so a lot of people are going to pick it up on the basis of a few scattered compilation tracks and EPs. That’s testament enough to Richard Devine’s brilliance.
Lipswitch is his first full-length release, and while it’s (only?) 38 minutes, it may be one of the most exhilarating trips you’ll take. Dizzying, complex –but always totally focused and in control, Devine is master craftsman working with experimental electronics today.
Lipswitch is right at home on Schematic. It’s exclusively computer created, so any hopes with regard to analog warmth are null and void; what you’ve got here is cold, sterile and precise. Devine worked on a film score recently, so the precision required of that has filtered into these 8 tracks. Each piece is filled with layers upon layers of metallic buzzes, clanks and thumps. But, more importantly, all of the sounds amount to more than disorienting filler; they fit into a coherent whole and drive the tracks above and beyond Bladerunner territory. Devine cites electroacoustic music as an influence, and that’s readily apparent here. The sheer density of the music brings to mind Stockhausen or the empreintes DIGITALes crew.
In the same way, this isn’t something that I can listen to very often. It’s overwhelming in a last-20-minutes-of-Requiem for a Dream kind of way.
Review by: Nirav Soni
