Actress ★★★★
Statik
SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND. DL/LP
Calming collection of cerebral alt-techno and skewed ambient.
England’s Football Association is much criticised, but a grant gifted to former West Bromwich Albion player Darren Cunningham helped launch a new career that has seen him become one of electronic music’s most forward-thinking, essential artists. His tenth album as Actress is a beautifully poised collection of deep, off-kilter, quasi techno and smudged ambient. Wave after wave of soporific beats and hypnotic soundscapes act as aural tranquillisers, a tone set by the incongruously titled, soft-focus opener Hell. Here, an almost imperceptible salvo of white noise is gradually punctured by skewed, staccato beats, fragments of elegant melody and Aphex-like acid squelch. From this point, Actress expertly meanders from pitch-shifting slo-mo 4/4 (Rainlines) to ambient (Ray) and on to gentle reggaeton (Dolphin Spray). If the title suggests an artist standing still, the music within is anything but. It’s a transportive and frequently bewitching experience.