cassette
Another imperious set from the masters of dystopic ambience and a return to the creative process that served them so well on the first two volumes of this increasingly vital series. Andrew Hulme and Roger Horberry have been working together for four decades now, but for various circumstantial and geographic challenges, these last two collections have seen them produce in isolation of one another. Not that you'd really know. Those 40 years were not for nothing, as they share an intuitive understanding of the other's approach, in perfect symbiosis. There are some perceptible differences to their styles, Hulme a little darker hued, Horberry floating around the aquatic dub stylings of Porter Ricks and the Mille Plateaux universe. As a whole, it's a real force. They've long been known to label their music 'dirty ambient', what they explain in the press release here as "a jibe at what is sometimes a hideously manicured genre" (amen!) and one that embraces mistakes and imperfections. I was reminded this week that it was Sakamoto that claimed every mistake was a gift, and it's a mantra that holds true based on the evidence of these 80 minutes. What the mistakes might actually be i can't rightly discern, but what is apparent is how human and emotionally evocative OYC continue to be, always a remarkable achievement given how minimal their compositions often are. And this is perhaps the duo at their most spare and minimalist, making a little go a long way. If anything, they're somehow improving with age, finding new subtly different avenues of exploration while still holding true to the OYC vision of post-industrial, storm-cloud-forming, slow moving menace. Said it before, say it again: a British institution, as good as anyone else in the field.
