Album Review: Actress - Ghettoville

Actress
Ghettoville
Rating: Meh

Producer/musician Darren Cunningham, who performs under the Actress moniker, has slowly moved from the woozy techno of aptly named debut album Hazyville to almost danceable forms on 2012's R.I.P., seemingly setting the stage for perhaps more crossover appeal. Prior to the release of his fourth album, titled Ghettoville, Cunningham announced that this would be the end of his work under Actress, and even implied that this would be his last artistic record for good. Whether this is a true statement or just a marketing ploy, Cunningham's music appears to be a perfect amalgamation of his statements, a scorched earth policy record, taking his touchstones, techno, acid house, fragmented hip-hop, early Warp records IDM, and boiling them down to their bare essence. Ghettoville is an unrelentingly dour, bleak record, one that feels like all happiness and joy in making music has been leeched out. As a totemic statement of purpose and finality, it is a brilliant move, but in terms of it being an enjoyable listen, it is too clinical and exacting to gain much from it other than muted appreciation.

Cunningham starts Ghettoville off with essentially a big fuck you to casual listeners. "Forgiven" is 7+ minutes of almost painfully cold, drone techno. Its ice cold percussion slapping you in the face like a sheet of ice, while the samples are looped into a painfully repetitive black hole.



This approach to structure is mirrored throughout the record, from the burbling, lurching strains of "Towers;" to
what sounds like a sample of the bassline from Daft Punk's "Around The World" heard underwater on the blocky, murky "Skyline;"



while on tracks like "Rap," Cunningham distorts and twists a vocal sample into almost an incomprehensible mantra with a drugged down beat that never quite goes anywhere but further down a rabbit hole.



Tracks start and end with very little interior movement. Ideas are more like unformed sketches, drawn out to interminable lengths. Just when you think he has latched onto an interesting idea and might run with it, either the track abruptly ends or just settles into that one groove without going anywhere.

The only time a little light and levity are allowed in the mix are on tracks like "Birdcage" with it's almost danceable beat, fractured vocal samples, and watercolor keyboards; the delicate and playful keyboards shimmering through "Our;"



a thumping 4 to the floor beat elevates the almost cheerful "Gaze" with its house piano stabs and thick bassline;



while a funky, playful rhythm track takes over the track "Image" bumping up against ping ponging percussion and woozy synth textures.

But Ghettoville never quite breaks through the black grey clouds that permeate the whole record. Songs mostly edge along with bare, basic elements with little to no texture and movement, all bleak, oppressive atmosphere that over a lengthy 70 minute runtime can start to get to you. Ending track "Grey Over Blue" has a haunted grace to it, but like opener "Forgiven" it rarely moves outside its rigid confines, washing over you like a powerful wave of gloom, thrashing you against the shore, dragging you back into its cold depths.



Ghettoville is a polarizing record that basically seals the coffin so to speak on Actress' output. While there are some impressive pieces scattered throughout, and Cunningham's steadfast refusal to work on anything but his own terms is admirable, the record itself is that solemn, unwanted friend of a friend at a dinner party that does everything in his power to bring down a pleasurable evening with talk of homelessness, social inequity, and greed; that wet blanket that clouds everything. Ghettoville is a sobering, cooly distant experience that I can't say you will want to experience many times.

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.