Kirk Barley - Marionette

Having presented the excellent Flaer debut LP as their maiden offering a few months back, Odda Recordings continue their auspicious introduction with the release of producer/composer Kirk Barley's second LP under his own name, Marionette. The more informed amongst you might already know Barley for his work in other contexts, be that recording as Bambooman for Accidental, performing at a host of experimental festivals or alongside Jan Jellinek and Andy Stott. All roads seem to have eventually led to Marionette, a record that feels like a confluence, of sorts, of those other creative experiences. It makes sense on Odda, too. As with the Flaer record, we're once again exploring the rural outposts of Britain's hinterlands (if that's what you can credibly call Yorkshire?), forgoing mod. composition for bucolic electronics that split the difference between Hassell and Boards of Canada, and venture serenely into the weird and the eerie. There's a feeling of gently probing, quiet experimentation that grows increasingly inviting as the record progresses, coaxing you into its spooky vortex, the babble of circuits, found sounds and ancient vinyl crackle hitting peak inner-world-gazing on closing highlight, 'Gate'. Pastoral psychedelia of the kind Britain - perhaps even England - seems to channel so well.