Object Ten is a compilation of exclusive tracks by various artists and the tenth release on Objects Forever, the label run by London drone pop band The Leaf Library. The album features original pieces by new and established artists alike, including friends and collaborators past and future, as well as band members’ own side projects. The music showcases a breadth of styles, ranging from the weary pop of fellow Walthamstow band Firestations, to the celestial drones of Tiki Erie, from cracked acoustic recordings and loops to heavy, skulking electronics and space rock.
Begun as an outlet for the band’s Monument series of CDR releases, the label has so far focused on immediate family with albums from drummer Lewis and guitarist Matt, as well as the collaborative lockdown field recording project ‘Quiet House’. For the tenth release (and with a radio show of the same name to complement it) it seemed only fitting to broaden the horizon and promote some of the great music in the band’s orbit (and further afield) – a mixtape of their current favourites, alongside personal projects that expand the band’s sound.
Artists involved include anrimeal, the recording project of Ana Rita de Melo Alves, a singer and producer from Porto, who contributes the bathroom dada of 'Brush My Teeth'; producer Kristen Gallerneaux from Detroit (who previously released as Yaki_Pony on Metaphysical Powers); the dark electro pop of Pallas Athene (AKA Breanna Johnston); and Emily Mary Barnett and Bobby Barry as the percussion/electronics duo, Far Rainbow.
The Leaf Library themselves are represented by ‘Kite Beach’, a collaborative track with Japanese electronic musician Teruyuki Kurihara (Mille Plateaux/Blue Tapes), while various members’ side projects are also included. Melinda Bronstein opens the album with 'Still/Time', the first music under her own name and a preview of her forthcoming album for the label, while drummer Lewis Young contributes both the gauzy pop of Beneather's 'Maid of Eritrea' and the astral sludge riffage of Boa Resa's 'Sky Burial'. Bronstein and Young are also a part of witchy post rock trio Zonate Tooth, who contribute the spacey organ psychedelia of 'Unfold'.
Bassist Gareth Jones’ (other) band Wintergreen give us the expansive and tongue-twisting ‘The Lats Of Bikeness’, while guitarist Simon Nelson takes another trip as The Nameless Book for the brooding synth workout of ‘Hbashi Hashi’. Guitarist Matt Ashton makes an appearance as Basic Design, on a track with German spoken word artist Wolfram Wire. A long-planned collaboration, the pair first met during Matt’s tenure with Peel favourites Saloon in 1999. The lightly industrial kosmiche ‘Hey No One’ is the result.
The compilation is finished by ‘Hola (reprise)’, a minimal masterwork of slowly building electronics from the band’s saxophonist and arranger (and occasional Steven Adams And The French Drops drummer) Daniel Fordham, the first track under his own name.
1. Melinda Bronstein - Still/Time 03:23
2. Firestations - How Do We Start? 04:24
3. anrimeal - Brush My Teeth 03:12
4. Tiki Erie - It's Our Cathedral 05:00
5. Far Rainbow - Kitty Kitty 07:29
6. Pallas Athene - Gimme Gimme 03:14
7. The Leaf Library + Teruyuki Kurihara - Kite Beach 04:08
8. Beneather - Maid Of Eritrea 04:06
9. Wintergreen - The Lats Of Bikeness 04:50
10. Kristen Gallerneaux - Are You An Animal Or Are You A Person? 05:13
11. Boa Resa - Sky Burial 07:28
12. Basic Design + Wolfram Wire - Hey No One 06:28
13. The Nameless Book - Hbashi Hashi 03:55
14. Zonate Tooth - Unfold 05:53
15. Daniel Fordham - Hola (reprise) 10:45
