Pendle Coven - Self Assessment

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brett on Thu 05 Mar, 2009.

I like a bit of Pendle Coven, me. If I'm not mistaken this is the first full-length they've done and it's very satisfactory, particularly for CD folks as it collects many of the best tracks from the twelves: 'Iamnoman', 'Uncivil Engineering' and totally stellar album closer 'Exigen' are all included, the latter being an unsurprising highlight with its super addictive, matter-of-fact bassline nailing down a rhythm augmented by an ever-increasing whirlwind of those icy dub techno synths we hear so much of these days. I'm a little bit miffed that the superb 'Phreak Dub' hasn't been included since I'm getting bored of having to visit their Myspace to hear it. Otherwise this is a tidy selection of Chain Reaction-style dubiness jazzed up with a variety of crisp beats from thumping 4/4 to the odd little hint of a break. Self Assessment's going to be a treat for fans of Wolfgang Voigt, Scion, Basic Channel and all that!

- two of the most prolific producers on modern love with a long awaited debut album
- DJ Miles, aka MLZ is one half of Pendle Coven
- includes 6 previously unreleased tracks and 5 tracks previously available on vinyl only - Mastered at Berlin’s Dubplates and Mastering
tracklisting:
01/. Aged Drone 02/. Iamnoman 03/. Unit 6 04/. Uncivil Engineering (CALM Mix) 05/. Optimal 06/. Modern Mode 07/. Chord Calculus 08/. Nice Moves
09/. MVO Chamber 10/. Golden Hadron 11/. Exigen
background:
Pendle Coven are Miles Whittaker and Gary Howell, two integral members of the Modern Love family, each with their own colourful and often elusive
recording history. Quietly working away in their fortified studio somewhere up North, Pendle have been amassing a substantial archive of material since
their debut release came out back in 2004. In the intervening years they have released seven EP’s for Modern Love before finally compiling this debut
album - ‘Self Asssessment’ .
self assessment:
Typified by an inability to rest on their laurels, Pendle have explored areas of Techno and electronic music as diverse as their interests, taking in
early-90’s style ‘ardkore, drone, Basic-Channelisms, Drexciyan electro and warehouse minimalism along the way. This album is compiled from a
number of tracks previously released on the ’£100 a metre’, ‘marriage of convenience’, ‘hex’ and ‘Iamnoman’ EP’s, and includes 6 previously
unreleased tracks from the archives, spanning the last 5 years.
The sound of ‘Self Assessment’ opens with the disembodied guitar treatment of ‘Aged Drone’, paving the way for the stripped menace of ‘Iamnoman’ -
the title track of their most recent vinyl-only release. From there we drop in on the staggered proto-dubstep of ‘Unit 6’’, an alternate string-driven version
of the airy stepper ‘Uncivil Engineering’, the classic padded bass techno of ‘Modern Mode’ and, finally, the towering chord crescendos of the
Berlin-inspired Exigen.