(02.01.07) Late in 2005 Scotland’s Benbecula label released a boxset of no less than 13 albums from a wide range of artists they thought had something to offer the listening public. Such was the success of this incredibly limited set, Benbecula decided to make it into an ongoing monthly series designed to provide a fast-track method for artists to release material that might not normally see the light of day. Releases are chosen from local and established artists alike and consist of anything from demos, outtakes, sessions and new material, all with customised artwork produced in the true indie tradition.
One such release is Surroundings by Talkingmakesnosense, otherwise known as Scotland’s Dominic Dixon who is also the drummer for Genaro, another local Scottish group who made their debut with an album in the aforementioned Minerals boxset. Having started out using home made percussion and then the guitar, Dixon has since progressed to experimenting with computers, analogue tape and acoustic and electronic instruments. He takes the warm drifting textures created with electronic instruments and mixes them with acoustic and electric guitar and found sounds to create his own brand of expressive ambient music. The combination is one that creates a contemplative mood that is both compassionate and evocative.
“And It Rained” is reminiscent (probably unintentionally) of Jose
Gonzalez’s wonderful “Heartbeats” – the track from that TV ad with the mass of multi-coloured bouncing balls – but with added sonic texture in the form of sweeping electronic waves as its backdrop. This structure is repeated, again to great effect on, the gentle acoustic guitar and heartbeat rhythm of “For the Sake of This.” Patriotically, “Brushed” contains what sounds like digitally enhanced bagpipes to provide a new aspect to the existing reverberating guitar and slightly deranged marching drums. The end result, however, is actually much better than it sounds on paper. Dixon’s music creates a sense of introspection but at the same time offers a buoyant air of optimism. Occasionally he also experiments with drone based electronic and electric guitar textures similar to that refined by Yellow 6, providing more meditative hypnotic tones evident in tracks such as “Temperature Fluctuations.” The appropriately named “Slow Fog, Ice Cracks” takes this idea in a slightly different direction by combining swathes of fluid tones with the digital rendering of what could be a struggle to traverse a frozen landscape. One of the noisier tracks on the album, if “noisier” is really the right word in this context, is the album closer “Blackhill Transmitter,” a track that explores feverish layered metallic guitar over resonant echoing texture that gradually dissipates towards the album’s close. Somewhere deep in the mix are some sampled voices, probably in subtle homage to the Glasgow area TV transmitter in the title.
Surroundings is a beautifully ambient album that utilises mainly drones and tonal experimentation alongside traditional acoustic guitar to create a warm flowing album with plenty of emotive qualities. Another good Minerals Series release by the team at Benbecula.
Surroundings is out now on Benbecula.
