Actress is the alias of London electronic artist Darren Cunningham. His
previous album ‘Splazsh’ was credited as one of the stronger experimental
albums of 2010. His debut album 'Hazyville' was released in 2008 to an
astonishing amount of praise from the electronic, hip-hop and r&b community
because if its string influences and mixed beats which separated itself from
any record of the time. R.I.P. sounds like a mix between Global Communication
and Tangerine Dream, with a little bit of Flying Lotus poked in there.
Discussion is brewing on whether Actress is changing his direction. His
debut was filled with hop-hop aesthetics and he never left the listener in the
open with the 'techno' beats. Splazsh took his direction towards more standard
forms of electronic music, with a huge emphasis on abstract glitch-hop beats.
This time around he's become ambient. The low fidelity nature of Splazsh took
old Casio keyboards and turned them into deep electronic sounds, you don’t get
this on R.I.P. This album has been toned down and stripped apart of the lo-fi
instrumentation and been replaced with soundscapes and powerful synthesizers.
The self-titled opening track has a very heavy bass line and a whirling soundscape
which plays tricks in my mind with the powerful dark and gloomy
instrumentation. 'Ascending' is like a hazy Four Tet track with a very distinct
glitch rhythm. It’s hard to call this a beat, but the volume knob has been
clearly pulled to follow the 4/4 beat in terms of glitch music. Think of Aphex
Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85 -92, with stripped back reverb.
This music sounds like nothing else out there, it really does. It can fit
into the same classification as modern ambient artists and the influx of
'microhouse' musicians such as Nicolas Jaar's latest album and The Field's From
Here We Go Sublime. The whole album transcends into one genre shift and
instrumental rollercoaster of synth noise and gorgeous ambience. 'Holy Water'
takes the 8-bit music to a calmer level with the instrumentation sounding like
a waterfall as the whooshing synth drone in the background keeps the track up
in the air. 'Marble Plexus' has a very dissonant texture. The distortion in the
foreground is met with dreamy synth hooks in the background, this is the
recurring theme on this album, with Actress taking full effect of his ability
to create dynamic structures within a two/three minute timeframe.
'Uriel’s Black Harp' continues the background ambience and the foreground
synthesizer instrumentation which is basically horrifying soundscapes with an
oriental feel. 'Jardin' takes it a step further with the slow build up and
repetitive bass riff. It’s a six minute track of the same riff mixed with a
stark light distortion that reminds me of a fly, and the beautiful keyboard
melodies. The track ends with a background burst of sporadic noise which is extremely
minimal; this leads into the exciting 'Serpent'. The dark 'chasing' imagery is
portrayed on this track, with a Burial-esque string synthesizer melody with the
obscure beat and odd distorted fly sounds again. This is one of the most
experimental tracks on the album; it’s also the one with a solid beat.
Noises cannot describe the powerful 'Shadow From Tartarus'. After a false
start, the distortion and melody take shape in the sense of a Simian Mobile
Disco electro-house tune. The track does shape up with a reverberated keyboard
section which sounds gloomy and futuristic. It’s a huge difference to the older
Actress material, and a change many fans will be welcoming. More futuristic sounds
close this track off with a vast amount of delay and reverb. 'Tree of
Knowledge' adds greatly to the atmosphere with its heavy bass drones. 'Raven'
is one of the strongest tracks on the album with its standard beat mixed with
the ever exciting ambience and dark, creepy loud synthesized bass riff. 'Glint'
only takes the listener through a voyage of pure space imagery and modulated
reverb leading into the killer Burial-esque 'Caves of Paradise'. The vocal
simulation and the hazy soundscapes create this vivid atmosphere which has been
straightened out by the reverberated and very loud bass riff once again. The
instrumentation here is spectacular as the 'wooden' beat rings hard on the
right side.
'The Lord’s Graffiti' is like a modern rave instrumental without sentimental
value. The bass sounds great, as does the percussion, but the real standout is
the eerie synthesizer drone that takes place and increases vigorously as the
track grows. 'N.E.W.' introduces an ever darker sound, with a Steve Reich foot
in the door here. The amount of reverb used on the synthesizers here is insane,
with a very samey bass riff which Actress has used in a similar fashion. The
distorted instrumentation fades and allows the listener so much space to get
lost within. This track, and many others on this album are very spacious.
'IWAAD' has the beat which bakes your body move. The dance track has a
killer syth riff and an exciting array of percussion which takes place mostly
on the left speaker at different periods of the track, off beat. The track
builds with some ambience and distorted soundscapes come into the foreground
which sound very trance like. This track is one of the happiest and most fun on
the album. It’s a perfect end to the album in my opinion. The album is extremely
spacious and tracks have been placed perfectly, with the harder, louder dance
tracks featuring every 3/4 tracks and ambient based tracks being used as
transportation between the more abrasive tracks. It’s a magnificent piece of
music that has been laid out like nothing before it. The dark instrumentation
is memorable and the offbeat rhythms make a mark that cannot be undone. The
powerful tracks work with the slower ambient pieces and Actress never fails to
leave the listener bored on this album. It's an album of contrasting genres and
cannot be simply classified as 'electronic music' because Actress garners a
broad range of material within his instrumentals. This has top quality
production and has genius ideas; Actress certainly has created an album for the
modern stay at home electronic fans.
~Eddie
8.6
