Wah Wah Wino acolytes will recognise the name Sli Town Crier as a key feature/contributor to their KWALK project from 2022, and they now step out on their own for a debut long player of wide-ranging sounds that bears a few hallmarks of that first introduction. Label main man Morgan Buckley takes on a kind of curatorial role, piecing it together from what we’re told is a substantial collection of archival material, lending Auditions a mixtape-like feel, a little like the Who’s the Technician? LP Wino issued last year, but also similar to those early Black Dog communiques on Warp (ala Bytes) or even the KLF’s Chill Out. Auditions cycles through prism-shattering kaleidoscopic techno, kraut-y Border Community ebullience, Rhodes-y deep house mutations, breakbeat flexes and ambient IDM in ways that gives strong evidence of a highly restless mind with an effortless means of shifting though the gears. Wino are as reluctant as ever to give away any secrets, but whoever Sli Town Crier is, they’re more than worthy of the limelight they're likely to shun. As usual, the mystery only adds to the experience and Wino keep rolling along as if the best in the game (if not, who else).
FFO: Boards of Canada, Holden, Plaid, The Black Dog
