Though trumpeter/composer/producer Ben Neill has been deeply influenced by both the electronic "Fourth World" music of Jon Hassell (who also re-emerged in 2009) and Miles Davis'
dark voodoo groove science of the 1970s, the student has taken his
findings further than his aesthetic mentors. The difference is in how
completely Neill has steeped himself in electronic music -- period. His
"mutantrumptet" is named so because it is actually a hybrid between a
trumpet, a sampler, and a drum machine; it contains multiple bells.
Since he began releasing records in 1991, he has paid careful attention
to emerging technologies, rhythms, and the direction of electronic and
dance music worldwide. Night Science is his first album in
seven years. Much has changed in the electronic music scene, and the
sonic narrative here reflects that he's right on top of it. This set
employs his current fascination with dubstep and grime, two forms that
emerged from the U.K. during the middle part of this decade and
continue their innovative developments with artists such as Burial, Benga, Skream, Milanese, and Russian artist Blasta,
to name a few. Dubstep comes out of the U.K.'s garage scene in the
early aughts. It relies on a 2-step rhythm, using both snare sounds and
a heavy reliance on digital basslines that are mutant cousins to analog
dub-style reggae. Usually recorded at 140 bpm or thereabouts, it
distinguishes itself from drum'n'bass and even 2-step garage with
deeply -- sometimes wildly -- syncopated beats and even half-time
rhythms. The snare plays a key role in dubstep: it is -- usually --
allowed one beat per bar, usually on the three, with more reliance
placed on the bassline to create the forward pace of the rhythm.
Neill also get something else about dubstep: its darker-edged, even
sinister sounds -- and he employs that to his advantage here in spades.
Check out "Menace Ultimo," with the forceful bassline, layers of
ambient sound, and an overload of wow and flutter before the drums even
enter. The melodic component on the darkly heavy, utterly rhythmic
tracks and textured atmospheres is a background distorted trumpet
sound, flitting through the mix at its fringes; keyboards establish
broken melodies or fragments thereof, and the half-time snare rhythms
break and pop just under that bassline. "After Image" begins with a
shard-like melody from a piano and the trumpet, but it gets shoved to
the margin with other blips and beats that insistently take center
stage. Since the melody doesn't completely disappear, it becomes a
tense, taut soundscape that is suggestive rather than a statement.
"Alpha Dub" contains more traditional elements of dub, but as much as
those EFX harbor the tune's bottom, they drop out entirely in places
and are replaced with passages of layered keyboard sounds, a muted
trumpet bell, and open, distorted basslines crisscrossing with the
snares and "trad" bass sounds in a soundclash. While the sonics of all
these tracks have very thick threads holding them together that create
a futurist dread narrative, improvisation does have its place as well.
What's most remarkable, of course, is that all of this noise comes from
a single instrument. Neill had his mutantrumptet redesigned back in
2004, but this is the first time he's recorded with it. The album is
certainly as nocturnal as its title, but this isn't background music.
It's forward-sounding and wildly beat-conscious; it's a creation that
looks at rhythm, jazz, African funk, grime, and dubstep with fresh ears
and a bold compositional sensibility that extends both soundworld
science and electronic music to a horizon that extends as far as the
ear -- and the imagination -- can hear. |
