DECAL - 404 Not Found

Alan O’Boyle and Dennis McNulty started working together in late 1993, when they ran a club, Ultramack, in Dublin for a while. Mainly comprising of live performances of the duo and their friends, the club also presented projections created by Dennis. Less than a year later, the pair released their first album as Decal on their own label. Distributed on a very small scale didn’t stop the band from being spotted by Andrew Weatherall and Nina Walsh’s Sabrettes label, for which they released an EP. They followed with releases on Leaf, Language Records and many others, as well as a second album, Lo-Lite, for Ultramack in 1997. A handful of EPs later, the band is back, this time on Planet-Mu.
Having ditched their early electro and Detroit techno inspirations, the duo offers with 404 Not Found a much more subtle abstract ambient piece of work. Not neglecting their keyboards and samplers, Decal incorporate acoustic elements, giving their music a more mature feel. The album opens with the intimate and nostalgic Moylough. Entirely played on the piano, this track sets the atmosphere for the rest of the record. Somewhere Worth Living continues on the same confidential mode, but the piano is replaced by an acoustic guitar weaving a gentle melody on analog sounds, highlighting the multiple facets of Decal’s compositions. The pace is generally slow, almost narcotic at times, as on the heavily sedated Slowly. Evoking some experimental post-rock, and consisting of almost nothing else than live drums and fat sounds, the track seems to drift away constantly, avoiding any unnecessary contact with life as we know it. In contrast, Plan A appears almost cheerful with its guitars and electronic sounds flirting with each other and building melodies in parallel. Sometimes, Decal seem to reacquaint themselves with their human nature, and introduce either vocals, as on Waiting (All Along) or Sunburn, which could well have been attributed to Red House Painters, wouldn’t it be for the intense electronic background, or more open atmospheres, on Plan A or Carpenter, the later being vaguely reminiscent of Boards Of Canada or Arovane. Not all the tracks denote such a deep and dark ambient mood, but the pair seems willing to deflect any remotely consistent elements of reality, privileging ever-changing states of abstract unconsciousness instead.
Despite its extremely ambient atmosphere, 404 Not Found remains a beautiful rewarding experience. This new album by Decal reveals itself rather slowly, but offers some amazing soundscapes and challenges the mind into semi-conscious states.