Sort\Lave is worth the wait and very worth the time to stop and listen to intently as it is the work of a proven master of electronic music—ranging from wildly wandering tracks to brilliant modular-ambient pieces.
Did you hear that? That ripple through the dorkosphere? As if a million voices stopped mid-sentence as they mansplained their latest modules to a semi-sleeping listener, their hands clutching a cable posted above a banana jack? Yes. That’s right: Richard Devine, the godfather of glitch, the maestro of modulars, the despot of digitalia has emerged after six years with a new album. Sort\Lave (Timesig / Planet Mu) is out on Venetian Snares’ own imprint which is absolutely, insanely fitting. Devine has stated he sought to create the album out of time, so to speak, so that each track is less a linear progression and more of a snapshot of a particular mood or form in practice. Sort\Lave ranges from wildly wandering tracks to brilliant modular-ambient pieces. And now for the breakdown:
“Microscopium Recurse” opens with noise like a semi-sentient factory robot having a meltdown as it learns to cope with consciousness. “Revsic” contains subtle beats providing an underpinning to simmering, hissing tones and reverberating pings as it lopes and springs across the soundbed not unlike recent works by Autechre (comparisons to Rochdale’s own are only fair as the two acts have been in the spotlight for roughly the same time and operate in the same vaunted, oft-imitated, next level realm of sound design and composition.) “Oustrue” opens with a waft of modular noodling and scraping before a thudding, driving beat emerges to take hold and push the listener into a realm of short, stabbing notes and sweeping pads. “k-0” opens with a slow drone before bouncing, stuttering drums move in as generated accents and sounds sweep across the stereo field. The funky beat of “Astra” adds a little play to what can often be a cerebral style of music, allowing a tempo for subtle pads to sweep and swirl into hearing, as the track builds into the album’s first sighting of the closest thing to melody yet. “Sentik Pin” is a cyberpunk chase scene without the visuals, pressing along at a steady clip with deep bass thuds and foreboding, reverb-drenched tones swiping in and out of range as the track swells in form and feeling, giving one the unnerving sense of time running out when more time is needed. “Brux” rolls in on very subtle drum programming, as rippling, grinding tones imply great oily machines grinding out molded, eldritch forms for the robot uprising. The very funky drums on “Anemap” bring the album up out of subterranean realms to a darkened, crepuscular surface where pads waft up, out and away from the listener towards the dark of deep space; the track is one of the few with melody and more traditional composition structure which is a refreshing change of pace among the more meditative, thought form driven pieces on the album. “Pngtrk” might not sound out of place on the latest Autechre which is not a bad thing; Devine is a master at what he does and draws out a coherent driven piece of music from his machines here. “Opaque Ke” opens with a drone and burbling bass as glassy digital tones and drums step in to play, creating a rhythmic workout of icy, creeping drama. “Eylansec” works the noisy, digital elements of Devine’s arsenal to their fullest capacity. The album closes with “Takara,” a simple and elegant ambient piece perfectly ending the album.
Sort\Lave is worth the wait and very worth the time to stop and listen to intently as it is the work of a proven master of electronic music.
Sort\Lave is available on Timesig / Planet Mu.
