Giulio Erasmus – Second Attempt

Former Duds & Handle contributor, Guilio Erasmus, ventures out on his own for this debut long player for German imprint Mangle. Erasmus' musical priors aren't as informative as his familial connections - being the son of Factory & Hacienda co-founder Alan Erasmus is no insignificant association and Second Attempt does some real justice to those credentials, an artful configuring of dub-inclined post-punk experimentalism that speaks to that rich Manchester heritage. If there's a Factory act most channeled here, it's perhaps Ike Yard, reflecting a shared interest in deconstructed electronics and metallic percussion, then passed through a lo-fi dub filter that could easily share a side or two with General Strike or even the blown-out dystopia of Liverpool's mythical Windows Things are breaking down here, and they're not being put apart exactly as you'd imagine. The production is of the murky variety and the song structures winding and open-ended, a combination that's a crucial part of the experience, not dissimilar to European underground contemporaries/outsiders, CIA Debutante and Nina Harker. Erasmus is ticking a lot of the right boxes here, the points of reference near flawless, but Second Attempt doesn't simply play as as an exercise in refined tastes - the work is too freeform and explorative for it to be anything other than a reflection of Erasmus' obvious investigative nature. Better still is just how replayable the whole thing is, the strange array of motifs and answerphone vocal melodies addictive and compelling. When you carry this surname around and make music of this kind, comparisons to former glories are probably inevitable, but Second Attempt greatest success is how confident it ultimately sounds, a reflection of an artist well in tune with their own voice. Well worth tuning into that same frequency yourself.