laica

And there we were just mentioning Alrealon Musique in passing and along comes the labels latest release. Now we suspect we might owe apologies to the label, mainly due to the fact that we’ve kind of gotten a little lost with what we have and haven’t reviewed in recent times – we are certainly aware of a possible Rasplyn track that requires seeking out and a John 3:16 critique that currently sits stranded on a defunct hard drive. So while we sort out those matters the latest offering from Alrealon HQ is a download only release from Laica. The name ought to ring a bell to the more sharp eyed among since we mentioned this in brief passing last month whereupon we commented upon its distinct ability to somewhat marshal the subtropic territories more commonly explored by Justin Wiggan under his roadside picnic guise notwithstanding the fact that it was occasioned to survey landscapes once visited upon by the Radiophonic Workshop and a youthful Cabaret Voltaire. So with that in mind and the release considerably prepped, let me introduce you to ’environs’. comprised of two elongated suites, sonic sculpturer Dave Fleet, for it is he who is Laica, plots a trajectory into the distant realms of pop’s outer most posts. ’environs I’ is immersed in tidal swathes of leviathan like chamber drone waves that ominously prowl the inner space voids interspersed in birdsong cut upon an Aphex-ian matrix. Utilising cavernous textures and with the deft application of space Fleet crafts an aural palette that’s both serene and delicately trance like yet all the same etched in an undercutting disquiet, abstract electronica threaded from manipulated field recordings are applied in alternating cycles that free flow between natural sound habitats (what sounds like waterfalls and rain showers) and mechanoid dubtronics (wherein sounds come across like a slowed down misfiring ignition). If ‘I’ was mood and texture wise plugged into Aphex then ’II’ voyages the Autechre wave. Repeating the processes on the more minimalist minded ‘I’ the more weightier and hitherto more responsive and animated ‘environs II’ is heavily induced with a woozy dubbed out dreamscape. Possessed of something strangely tripping, these amorphous signatures dissolve, fragment, reform and dissipate into ghostly apparitions of their former selves, it’s a most alluring spectacle as though a variant of Wagon Christ strung out on chill pills barely managing to operate at murmur level, wire to the matrix hissing shards of industrial glitch and you get the sense of something in perpetual transition shedding its skin and morphing anew.