Actress – “R.I.P.” – [Honest Jon’s]

Thee Opinataur   6/6/2012   A Library, CD

DJ/Producer Darren Cunningham is out of South London and has been painstaking in creating otherworldly beats. Preparation for this album consisted of indulging in Milton and smoking lots of weed. R.I.P. in its entirety will take the listener on a euphoric journey they will never regret only if they are willing to expand their 4/4 techno mind. Actress is a masterful manipulator of sound and space and doesnt take any shortcuts as his unadulterated artistry shines through. Tracks 1-3 are beatless and filled with floating synth, fuzzy ambience, punctuated with tinkling water drops in an uncoordinated structure. Not until track 4 can you begin to dance through a minimalistic foggy rhythm. Track 8-digital chops, unsteady looped buzzing with distorted distant bass. Track 9 churning fuzzed bass opening peppered with a spacey dissonance. Track 10 night gives way to pre-dawn as predator lurks in slow mo lo-fi drunkenness. Tracks11-12 journey across a purgatorial landscape. Track 13 & 15- best dance beats, extraterrestrial techno.