Description:	Highpoint Lowlife recs (Marcia Blaine School For Girls)
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Electronica / IDM
	Label:	Highpoint Lowlife
	Price:	£10.09
	Availability:	Dispatched within 2-5 days (on average).

4
...according to our Clinton on 27 November 2006.

Nice electronica time. This week vying for the coveted title 'Nice Electronica Record of the Week' is The Village Orchestra with 'Et in Arcadia Ego' on Highpoint Lowlife Records. This is one of the fellers from Marcia Blaine School For Girls. The CD has hints of the more electronic side of Durutti Column as well as bits of Plaid. The general feeling though is of tightly controlled blissed out electronica with interesting cut up sounds and beats that edge towards the techno side of things. A sound that renders the Boomkat description of "the sound of Squarepusher being dragged through a cheap assed Miami titty bar" laughably useless.

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What their label says...

The Village Orchestra is the solo project of Ruaridh Law, best known as one third of Glasgow electronic dunces, the Marcia Blaine School For Girls (Awkward Silence, Static Caravan, Benbecula, Dalriada).

Ruaridh describes The Village Orchestra as being “like an allotment or garden shed”, a place where he can relax and escape from the work and volume of his many other projects, which include Accrual (a collaboration with Alasdair Satchel on Static Caravan) and Rose And Sandy (with Production Unit from Marcia Blaine, focussing more on the cross-section of sound and visuals; on Stuff Records).

Having previously released material for Stuff Records, and on Highpoint Lowlife’s own collection of Scottish Electronica, Some Paths Lead Back Again, (‘this widely appealing and beautiful freakshow gives its music the light of day that it deserves.’ Rock Sound), Et In Arcadia Ego is The Village Orchestra’s debut full length, pulling together various electronic strands and delivering an album of exhilarating and uncompromising originality. From billowing textural ambience, the album builds ever more intensely, almost hypnotic in effect, layering subtle melodies, sparse manipulated vocal whispers, classical composition and exhaustingly detailed percussion and breaks.

For influences, think Philip Glass, Coil, Desormais, Speedy J, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Carl Craig, The Bug – throw these inspirations in a blender and you are somewhere to understanding where this sound emanates from.

In addition to working on a follow up, The Village Orchestra has two other releases appearing on compilations soon - Stuff05 on Stuff Records, and on Square Roots (a new Glasgow label focussing on dancehall and dub influenced electronics). Ruaridh is also presently finishing the Marcia Blaine School For Girls album, scheduled for release on Highpoint Lowlife in Spring 2006, more Accrual drone based work, and a DVD label release as Rose And Sandy, an audio/visual project based around the city of Glasgow.