KIT CLAYTON
Lateral Forces (Surface Fault)
VFORM006CD
UPC: (0) 1753-34011-2 (9)
After last years Lateral Forces EP, Joshua Kit Clayton returns to the
U.K.'s Vertical Form with the Lateral Forces (Surface Fault) release. Based
on seismic activity seen worldwide over the period 1999 - 2001 the release
is, dare we say it, a concept album (without the guitar solos) that is
neither indulgent or overblown. Tight and focused, 21 Century music both in
theme and sonics, Joshua shows how electronic music can be abstract whilst
rooted in very real, everyday concerns.
Minimal but rich in texture and detail the album works to a conventional
narrative structure, but in an unconventional way. Starting with early
tremors and progressing through aftershocks, finally to peace and
resolution, the music depicts the emotional and physical effects of such
extreme environmental catastrophes through digital and analogue synthesis.
Sometimes edgy, often beautiful, Joshua creates a work of emotional
breadth and depth that is not just for the purists, nor limited just to
its subject matter. Made partially of field recordings from the San Francisco
Bay Area, close up sounds of water and rocks, sloshing and grinding,
processed and organized into Lateral Forces' idiosyncratic vision, Joshua
takes isolated tracks from the first EP that share an edgy, low, grinding
sound quality, tears them apart and then ties them together to create the
quake story. Hence the process of making the music mirrors the process of
the quake.
Crafted into a continuous 38 minute long piece (split into two parts for
the vinyl release) that can be enjoyed either as a complete listening
experience or equally as individual tracks the music works on many
different levels, with or without its narrative structure. The quality of
the music shines through and contains many of the classic hallmarks of Kit
Clayton's work, from his dub based soundscapes through to the rhythmically
sparser and more grainy of his compositions - the final effect is of a rich
time based collage still pushing back the boundaries in electronic music.
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