Actress At Juno Download

Review: Darren Cunningham returns to the business of releasing records for the first time since his superlative 2010 long player, Splazsh. Releasing on Instra:mental's NonPlus for the second time, almost a year to the day since his first release on the imprint, Actress drops two tracks of his idiosyncratic brand of his muggy electronica. The thick compression and hazy, undulating Detroit chords on "Harrier ATTK" sees Cunningham once again succeed in creating a dense soundscape in which deft samples and effects-laden instrumentation throb and pulse almost of their own accord. "Gershwin" is by comparison more sketch-like in quality, shorter in length with fuzzy, muffled electro drum programming flung around with reckless abandon beneath dreamy yet distorted and sometimes overbearing synths. For anyone who is a certified Actress fan, this is a no brainer - for the rest of you, we suggest you indulge in this pronto and discover what the fuss is about.

Review: "It's like painting with buttons and sliders... Melting and dripping, seeping yourself liquid into the machinery." So said Darren Cunningham when discussing the creation of R.I.P, his long awaited follow up to Splazsh. It's a compelling image that works in practice too. R.I.P creates microcosmic sound worlds within each track: "Holy Water" for instance tumbles in on itself in a melange of shimmering sinewave droplets, while the pitchshifted waves of "Tree Of Knowledge" seem to inhale and exhale like a living being, crumpling inwards on itself to repeat the same motion ad infinitum. And although it uses much the same, occasionally abrasive sonic building blocks as Cunningham's been developing for many years, the pastoral tones of "Uriel's Black Harp" and the Alva Noto styles of "Jardin" make R.I.P a surprisingly graceful album. It may not be techno as many will know it, but Cunningham has never made techno in the traditional sense anyway - and it's clear on listening to R.I.P that he's only just beginning to realise the musical forms that have been swarming inside his brain for years.

Review: There's something heart warming about the faulty connection glitches and dusty electronics of a Darren Cunningham production. "Voodoo Posse Chronic Illusion" from the Silver Clouds EP is one such example. Noises which would normally sound out of place sit ever-eloquently between plucked harp strings, reverberating bells and wood block percussion. "Floating In Ecstasy" sounds like something that could soundtrack a scene of a staggering ghoul bearing down on a cornered victim, while "Silver Cloud Dream Come True" features a drum pattern that jitters intermittently between varied glockenspiel chimes. As a taster for Ghettoville, his presumed Hazyville follow-up due on Werk soon, it's got us very excited indeed.

Review: Darren Cunningham's 2008 debut Hazyville was a wonderful journey though a myriad of disparate influences, from Detroit techno to glitchy electronica and dubstep. Here we see the Werk Discs chief revisit some of those influences but also tread new ground with his follow up LP, Splazsh. It's a startling journey: every track on here is worth listening to, digesting, and listening to again. "Lost" is one of the more tender moments on the album, with a female vocal draped over a rolling synth line and metallic snare. "Bubble Butts & Equation" would be the perfect theme song should the world come to as sudden and messy end, while "Always Human" has the squelchy leftfield techno sound of Anthony Shake Shakir. "Maze" is one of the album's true highlights, a stunningly simple piece that shows how beautiful electronic music can be when stripped back to its bare bones, while the broken beat of "Purrple Splazsh" once again shows Cunningham's deft touch with sampling. Even the weird, experimental tracks toward the end are deliciously rich and textured, including the superbly titled "Supreme Cunnilingus". With so many ideas crammed into 14 songs it's a wonder Cunningham has ended up with such a perfect little album, but on Splazsh that is not the case. This could only have been made in 2010 and that, above all else, it what makes Splazsh so special. One for the ages.