Cassette
Latest collection of vertiginous Sebaldian psycho-electronics from Rory Salter's Malvern Brume alias, housed in typically adventurous packaging by the folks at Kashual Plastik. We last heard Salter on that Sprigs tape a few weeks back, and while The Whorls bears little aesthetic resemblance to the folksy wholesomeness of that record, you might consider these five tracks an urban midnight counterpart to the countryside detail of Before I Glare Up... Malvern Brume is city music, the static, drone and digital interference of a busied world suspended in sonic amber, trapped at the end of the night, a few splinters of the coming dawn passing through it. Not so much time dilated as in its own twilight zone. Like The Sprigs music, it feels tied to place, expressive of a wider world or narrative, whether fantastical or not. Psychogeography seems to provide a framework for much of Salter's music, sound through the filter of real and imagined environments and spaces. London - the inner city - now, yes, but its own parallel synecdoche world aside of/within it. As such, The Whorls is often claustrophobic and shadowy, uniquely rich in imagery and scene for what is mostly wordless music. At first i thought Salter had a painterly touch, but actually i think he's more authorial, guiding a narrative, building a universe. Don't be misled by its blurred edges, this is laser focused music making or a rare sort.
