Felix NEill

Making a smart move to Honest Jon's, Actress offers his first brand new material (discounting remixes) since his landmark 'Hazyville' album dropped in 2008. The move signifies a subtle but essential development in his sound, preparing the ground for a hugely promising album with two mindblowing tracks backed with a Zomby remix. 'Paint, Straw And Bubbles' seemingly untethers his Detroit dream from terra firma, percolating his ethereal sound through a system of camouflaging filters until the joins dissolve and we're left with a remarkable feat of intangible spatial dynamics viewed with an incredibly unique depth perception. It's electro-acoustic mind-dance music for Afro-futurist stoners. The near absence of any bass only enhances the weightlessness of the track, creating that heady sensation of an overcast day between pressure systems when everything doesn't feel quite as it should. Meanwhile, bringing us crashing back to earth, Zomby fires the reverse-Funky thrust with his remix, adding a bobbling bassline and strutting syncopations with perfunctory gasps to ready the 'floor. But for many, we reckon 'Maze (Long Version)' is going to become a serious anthem. Here, Actress looks to early 80's synth wave and the cold industrial pulse of groups like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, pinpointing the influences of Detroit music from Model 500 and Shake which in turn so heavily informed his sonic outlook. This is an extraordinary record, eliciting sensations that can't be ignored. Stone cold ESSENTIAL.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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