Actress - Paint, Straw And Bubbles

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brett on Thu 01 Apr, 2010.

I've had high hopes for this fella since his super promising Hazyville album a year or two back so it's quite exciting that he seems to be revving up for a new one. The lead track here is probably the least immediate on the record when listening to it casually but there's a real depth to it. Every sound is meticulously detailed and highly unusual and the beat always falling slightly adrift from where you'd expect it to. There's definitely much more to it than initially meets the ear. Zomby's remix is the best thing I've heard him do in ages (which is saying something), rocking the township beat in a Mujava style while slopping his trademark gloop over the elements he took from the original.. It's hard to say exactly what that was since it's nigh-on unrecognisable. On the flip there's another really strong track, 'Maze (Long Version)', a dark, broody one which wouldn't sound at all out of place on one of those cold wavey compilations everyone's into at the moment, such is it's primitive electro goodness. Very classy!

A South Londoner’s imminent album Splazsh, and accompanied by one of Zomby’s
toughest
Paint is vintage Actress. Sticky and claustrophobic, but multi‐faceted and open‐
hearted,
and techno. Melodically, you might think of classical minimalism by way of the
Caribbean, and while its neurotically funky drum patterns nod to the
experimental fringe of Chicago house, the low‐end atmospherics betray the
music’s UK origins.
Zomby’s arresting remix invokes UK funky with a forthright, carnivalesque
house rhythm, re‐stringing the delicate melodies of the original into his own
inimitable, spidery, escalating computer‐funk.
Maze presents a different side to Actress, its pulsation and phasing summoning
1980s cold wave and early techno, or maybe John Carpenter, or Kraftwerk’s
Autobahn

5...according to kamikaze.

Actress has a new album, Splazsh, forthcoming on Honest Jons, and this 12" is the first taster of that. The lead track, 'Paint, Straw and Bubbles', will challenge every perception you have of what minimal techno could sound like, and his placement of sounds, and ability to progress a tune so effortlessly puts him ahead of most others playing this game right now. The Zomby mix is pretty cool too, playful, and a hearty kick to it as we've become accustomed to from Zomby. 'Maze' on the B-side of this is the winning tune for me here, though. Imagine everything you know of Actress' techniques, and apply that to a Radiophonic Workshop vs Kraftwerk minimal house creeper and you're somewhere close. A beautiful piece of work.

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!