‘Cinematic’ is one of those words that gets vastly overused in electronic music reviews, but in the case of Deerhill and his debut album Spore Prints, it really is apt.
That’s not just because the Swiss producer’s day job is in film animation and special effects, for the likes of the James Bond franchise among others. How many other artists with albums out at the moment genuinely have an Oscar on their mantelpiece? It can’t be many. He’s also created a full length, computer-generated movie to match the album, up for free on YouTube right now.
How much more cinematic do you want?! But take all that away and the description still stands. The music he makes still paints vivid pictures in the mind, instantly evoking forbidding, icy tundra and atmospheres of sadness and melancholia, as well as the occasional upblast of euphoric, rushing happiness.
Released by veteran music journalist, DJ and podcaster Dave Jenkins’ 1 More Thing label, Spore Prints is also a suitably widescreen sweep of the electronic music landscape. Cutting his teeth in the land of drum & bass, contributing to Noisia’s Vision label among others, he takes his love of a gritty bass sound and edgy instrumentation transports it across the entire terrain. On ‘Polar’, he echoes the futuristic re-imagining of hip-hop beats via glitch culture and hyper processing that Autechre specialise in, adding just a hint of symphonic grandeur via some spectacular synths. Closing track ‘Beyond The Turning Point’, on the other hand, flips the same flavours into an irresistible house groove, sounding a bit like Daft Punk might have if they’d been brought up on Aphex weirdness rather than disco.
Label boss Mr Jenkins himself makes an appearance on the only vocal track, the superb ‘Don’t Stop’, his rich Welsh tones giving him the impressive air of a junglist Richard Burton as he urges us not to give in to the gremlins and “the monkeys on your back” that lurk inside all our mind. Other highlights? ‘Gateway Process’ veering between four to the floor power and splintered drum fragments, the title track’s garage meets breaks grooves with gloopy, phasing electronic accompaniment and the gnarly-edged floorfillers ‘Treeless Forest’ and ‘A Tale With Two Endings’.
All in all, it’s a proper all-rounder. It’s meditational enough to work at headphones or at home, but always lively enough to avoid even the vaguest sense of lethargy. And the academy award goes to…
Spore Prints is out now on 1 More Thing
