Cassette
This is the debut (and, perhaps, solitary) release by a cross-continental, site-based project comprising Keelyn Szederkenyi (Toronto) and Mathew Spisbah (Naarm/Melbourne).
For anyone "familiar with the lore" of AST (forgive me dignity, for I have sinned) will know that Spisbah is an integral hand in the kitchen.
As Oil, he is responsible for two of my favourite releases on the label, Untitled (2016) and Clench (2017), as well as cameos on various comps.
I've been waiting 9 years for The Son to return, so it's all open arms for Kesin.
Spisbah and Keelyn connected at a residency in Aulus in the south of France, conjuring a kind of ambient-pop music that you see here as Kesin. One [slightly deranged] descriptor for what they do is 'horny ambient'.
I guess what I mean by this, is there is a feeling of sultriness amidst the oft-isolating realm of creaking abstract music, one that only a voice amidst the shadows can help conjure.
I'm also trying to point to what I hear as the playfulness of Kesin - while it's 5 tracks may sound austere on first glean, I find there is a kind of unexpected fluidity in them that can only be achieved by being open to experience, not being rigid in expectation.
While clocking in at a brief 16 minutes, there is a great deal to absorb here. On their own, Spisbah's accompaniment, built from synthesised piano, jagged percussion, courtside squeaking, et al would be enough to hold the gaze, but with Szederkenyi's smoke-wisp exhalations, they become something far more singular and enticing as a point of reflection.
I can't really speak any better to the process involved in this release than Spisbah himself.
Take it away, bruv ~
"I wanted to find a point of difference with this first release in a while... something that reflected the softness, introspection and wall-staring you end up doing more as you get older.
The grimy carnage of making glute-clenching noise beats is still somewhere within these songs, but it's in the hold, not the catharsis anymore".
