Ailie Ormston and Tim Fraser - It Changes

The latest from the ever reliable Bison imprint, the debut from Glasgow's Ailie Ormston and Tim Fraser, first pushed into the world as part of an audio-visual presentation at Counterflows in 2019. This is a CCA-related production and its art school origins speak loudly of its construction - be aware, this is smartly conceived business. The album title is a direct reference to Snoopy Come Home (i kid you not, Snoopy fans, of which i know there are many) and seeks to mirror some of the darker undercurrents of Charles M. Schulz's writing, while a sample of an extremely familiar N-Trance song operates as a submerged leitmotif throughout, reasons for which may or may not become more clear over repeated listens. That's all drawn together in what i can only understand as a post-Hype Williams kinda way, a confluence of MIDI strings, samples and disaffected vocals that suggest a very uncertain future standing right on our feet. The spirit of Coil, Micachu, and the aforementioned Inga Copeland/Dean Blunt axis rings clear, tick boxes of an extremely notable nature no doubt. And you know what, I can imagine this might be what you hear just before the world ends: not a whimper, not a bang, just an insect colony of information and anxiety breaking apart into clouds of sorrow-laden dust. Either way, certainly well worth a listen before it all ends...