now that the output recordings label is no more, i have gone through a major awakening about the label.

typical - i only discover the stuff i missed out on, when it’s too bloody late.

subsequently, i have been scouring the racks to make sure i have everything i need.

not the ultra collectable vinyl stuff, but the common cd releases. well i say common, even the releases on cd are not always that easy to track down.

so far in  my quest, the label has thrown up some serious long term playlist albums, dk7, soft verge, 7 hurtz, and for those suicide vs sigue sigue sputnik moments, dead combo, but out of them all, this album by conceptual artist march21 is the one that stops me in my tracks.

this album, along with this years ep, fightsounds, is for me a current pile killer.

something about the widescreen sparseness, the clean but fractured digital sonics, the monotonic spoken, and often layered, vocals, make for a compelling listen.

march21, (aka jeremy straw), builds the late night music out of a consistent palette of sounds - simple low-sling paranoid drum patterns, laid back slide guitar, fat ambient analogue synths and very little else really, other than the biggest bass rattling production tricks this side of massive attack, giving the album a solid flow.

things start off with the epic eight and half minutes of klf-like track trancenation. a corny track title it may be, but the underlying throbbing drone and lonely slide guitar set the whole tone off perfectly, as the song twists and morphs, so does the mood in very beautiful subtle ways.

basically, if you dont like this opener, you may as well call it quits there and then as the rest of the album doesn’t stray too far from this template.

the opener is followed by probably the most straightforward song on the album, all sleepers, in which jeremy intones, ‘do you believe in rock and roll’ to the most delicate combination of clicky beats and speaker threatening bleeps, slow motion gothic horror soundscapes never sounded so addictive. the fact that the softly spoken-sung lyrics refer to acts of physical violence makes the track all the more unsettling.

wonderful.

if this all sounds a smooth monochromatic listen then you are right.

sort of.

just as you allow the album to lull you into a nightmarish coma, in the middle of the spacious album highlight, the theme for tonight, is a huge mass of swirling machine noise that disgards the state of slumber, and reinvorgorates the energy levels, for those with heart conditions this experiment should be signposted, as it still makes me jump out of my skin, giving a serious jolt to the previously relaxed nervous system. thankfully, album closer, asthmatic, restores the balance and brings things to a calm understated finish.

so, as you can see, despite the fact this album was released a few years ago, it has completely dominated my current state.

and word is that despite the record label problems, circlesquare hope to release more music in the future, here’s one person ready and waiting for that time.