Best of 2020
WOE favourites A Colourful Storm return with two long-form stunners from Brunnen off-shoot/affiliates Beequeen, a Dutch duo who've been studiously wiling away in the margins since the late 80s. As you might deduce from the Brunnen connection, Beequeen favour a particularly otherly form of electronic experimentation, drawing on ambient & fourth world tropes, alongside post-industrial neo-folk, various field recordings and non-western musics. Apparently written between 1988 and the present day (which is literally their entire lifespan), the two pieces presented on Winter actually play like a series of complimenting vignettes concertinaed & collaged into a larger whole, which allows for a compelling wander around the Beequeen muse. In some sense, it makes you wonder if this is a particularly avant way of presenting a 'best of', given the music dates from now back to their inception, and that it touches so many different points along the way. In this presentation, the palimpsest sound of Hassell feels an obvious touchstone, and a little Francis Bebey in moments, though the autodidactic post-industrial 'tribal ambience' of O Yuki Conjugate's In Dark Water might be more illustrative of the overall aesthetic genesis. Fans of recent Brannten Schnure & Ben Bertrand records might be well advised to dive in here, also. Brilliant stuff.
