DEAS, CAM - Time Exercises

Time Exercises is a complex study in amorphous polymetric rhythms by UK artist Cam Deas for The Death of Rave. His first LP composed solely for modular synths and computer, Cams follow-up to the acclaimed String Studies (ALT 018LP, 2014) marks a headlong tilt from acoustic to electronic spheres with a staggering effect resulting from meticulous research and process. It sounds as advanced as Xenakis or Roland Kayn superstructures, with the rhythmic displacement of Fis or Autechre, and with a grasp of slippery, mind-bending timbral dissonance comparable to Coil and Rashad Becker records. Cams six Time Exercises form both a bold break with -- and an extension of -- the avant, folk, blues, and outernational traditions that hes worked to deconstruct and fluidly syncretize over the past decade. In the past four years hes stepped away from the guitar as a compositional tool, turning to electronic hardware in a focused effort to consolidate myriad tunings and meters with a precision that had previously eluded him in the acoustic sphere. Severed from the tactility and sentimentality of instrumental inflection, Cams disembodied music plays out a thrilling dramaturgy and syntax of alien dissonance and disorienting rhythmic resolution. Harmonic shapes as densely widescreen as those in Roland Kayns Cybernetic Music (1995) roil in unfathomable fever dream space, where massed batteries of synthetic percussion swarm like an orchestra of Cut Hands in viscous formation, and where polychromatic mentasm figures converge like cenobites laying siege to Rashad Beckers utopia. On Time Exercises Cam articulates a synthetic musical language that speaks to the listener in myriad, quantum tongues awaiting to be deciphered by keen ears everywhere. Its an outstanding record for lovers of forward-looking but deeply rooted electronic music. Master and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy. - The Death Of Rave.