Album Review - Actress: R.I.P.

Actress
R.I.P.
Rating: Grrrr

Instrumental electronic records are always difficult to review. Basically, you have to come up with words and phrases to describe something that can, at times, be indescribable. So much of what I hear has an emotional tie to me, that attempting to express those emotions can be an impossible task. There is a :15 section of Black Dog Productions' single "Jauqq" that is the most beautiful piece of electronic music I have ever heard. For me, there is no other combination of sounds that can simultaneously make me weep and smile at the same time. And if it were any longer than 15 seconds I think the spell would be broken. I don't share that song with most people because most that hear it think it's just ok, but not some transcendent experience. That personal connection is what makes it for me, and attempting to describe that feeling to someone is a futile task. There is a moment deep inside Actress' (a.k.a. Darren J. Cunningham) new album R.I.P. that finds me in a similar situation, where a convergence of sounds makes me stop what I am doing and almost slip into a state of semi-consciousness. The track "N.E.W." just has the right layers of sounds that wind around one another and calm my being. It is a stunning moment on a record that simultaneously challenges you and warmly invites you into its home.



Actress has slowly edged away from more traditional dance floor ready tracks into more amorphous territory. There are echoes here of works from Oneohtrix Point Never, Boards of Canada, and some of Pantha Du Prince's pointillistic touches. Frequently, the tracks border on ambient, featuring beatless swathes of undulating atmospherics broken only by underpinnings of white noise and harsh buzzes. There is an underlying menace to these tracks. Even the softer, more fragile tracks have dark corners and edges. The music box twinkle of "Jardin" cajoles and skips along on its charming melody while a skittering, bug-like presence dances and flickers underneath.



Other tracks are outright hostile, like the sinister "Serpent" which combines nervous, repetitive synth bites with a layer of droning strings over a pulsing beat. Somber guitar notes and additional industrial clanging add to the mood.



Which bleeds into "Shadow From Tartarus," which continues the haunted house dance floor vibe, complete with off-kilter keyboard scales and a dense low end of rumbling bass and drums.



R.I.P. is sometimes mind-bogglingly diverse and on the first few listens there doesn't seem to be anything tying the tracks together, or providing some measurable sense of flow. I think this is conscious decision on Actress' part to prevent the listener from becoming complacent and letting the music slip into the background. R.I.P. constantly shifts focus, maintaining your attention. This approach makes you listen more intently to each track individually, but allowing them all to fall back down into a cohesive collection. The almost mini-suite of pseudo-House tracks of "Jardin," "Serpent," and "Shadow From Tartarus," is blunted into "Tree of Knowledge," a difficult, glitchy track where the synths sound like they are fighting against the power going out.



The first three opening tracks bound off one another with sparkling, bright synth washes with "Ascending" barely hinting at a subterranean beat, and "Holy Water" bubbling and gurgling into the harsh thrust of "Marble Plexus" which feels like the soundtrack to some dark subway ride.



Indeed, the tracks here could easily haunt some reworking of Blade Runner. The rough edges to the tracks evoke decaying cities and people in despair. If it wasn't for the beautiful melodies that appear in and out of the gloom, an oppressive air would hang overhead. And when Actress actually delivers a 4 to the floor banger, like the frenetic "The Lord's Graffiti," you are even more grateful for the reminder that you are alive and well.



There are only a few tracks that didn't particularly catch my attention. "Raven" almost buries any semblance of melody in white noise, the pretty, shimmering "Glint" barely lasts half a minute and feels more like a sketch than an actual completed track, and closer "IWAAD" mistakes throb for purpose. But even those slight faults cannot negatively impact the effect some his sounds have on me. There is an innate sense of emotion and connection I have with this record, as if it has taken all these years for these perfect combinations of notes, as in "N.E.W.," to reach me and let me know all is right in the world. R.I.P. is a beautifully constructed record that is easily one of the standout electronic albums of the year.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.