Felix NEill

Released early last year in a hand-stamped, hand-numbered limited edition of 110 copies, Sub Loam (aka Thomas Shrubsole) offers up two long pieces of what he terms "landscape meditation and exploratory ambience".

The 15-minute opening first track plunges your ears into a hauntological realm populated by suggestive sound cues and vintage sonic constructions to trick the memory. Throughout there's a continuous stream of tape hiss, with warbling, organ-like tones and plenty of booming, shadowy bass echoing around the stereo field in such a way as to present the illusion that there's something creepy and peculiar going on directly behind you, or just out of your field of vision.

Following on from this, 'Grass And Soil, Rutted Track, A Mound Of Earth' proves even better, presenting a disfigured environmental soundscape that seems as if it's been committed to tape using the world's most unreliable and decrepit dictaphone. Fluctuations and rumbles in the consistency of the recordings add plenty of character, although the muddy, waterlogged sonorities still manage to come through, becoming less and less stable as we draw towards the end - something which results in overloaded, distorted noise and almost raygun-like pulsations.

A darkly analogue ambient release which gives us a glimpse into a compellingly mulchy and nocturnal universe.

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