pub - process the wise

NEWSFLASH - Pub re-opens! Given the, ahem, 'Current Climate', I'm half surprised the reclusive Scottish producer hasn't returned as Luxury Flats... But here we are with the first new Pub music in over 15 years and a time capsule-like capturing of all that made those early noughties records such classic texts. Which means, in short, ebullient, square wave mastery with an undercurrent of bucolic melancholia - bucolia, then, perhaps? So yes, comparisons to early Aphex still persist, and there's more than trace elements of the bedroom pastoralism of Skam-era Boards of Canada, but Pub does it as well as any and since those other two aren't doing it exactly like that anymore, there's a hole to be filled. What makes Process the Wise so endearing, though, is how it retains the youthful charm of those first works, the romanticised sound of the teenage self exploring the town alone at night - Callahan's Teenage Spaceship, sewn to its own fantasy digital sky... The reality is, most likely, a touch more prosaic, but the Pub appeal lies in the world building escapism, the ability to construct idealised spaces beyond the drudge. So defined is the aesthetic that Process the Wise could quite easily have come from any point in the Pub creative arc, and I can't really think of much higher praise.