Many artists can boast of having been featured in one
form or another on the legendary John Peel’s Radio
1 show, but Ascoltare’s Dave Henson goes a step
further by actually featuring, on the opening track,
a recording of the man himself describing Ascoltare
as ‘Textual melodic electronica’. Endorsements
surely don’t come much bigger than this, and Henson
is right to brag about it.
Twenty-seven year old Dave Henson hails from Cambridge,
where he formed post-rock outfit Gwei-Lo, a band often
compared to Mogwai, with whom he released just one album
and a seven inch on Bella Union. Completing the transition
between traditional rock structures and electronica,
he returns with his first album as Ascoltare (pronounce
‘as-colt-are-ay). First album to be released on
newly formed Tripel Records, which also counts Animals
On Wheels man Andrew Coleman on its roster, Visceral
Vendor is a complex yet playful collection of offbeat
electronica, arid glitches and orchestral and acoustic
manifestations. If Henson brushes off easy comparisons
to the likes of Aphex
Twin or Autechre,
it is really because his music has very little to do
with theirs. There might be some elements of influences
here and there, but Visceral Vendor is the
work of a truly single-minded musician. Henson refuses
to stick to just one atmospheric terrain, enjoying instead
ripping apart defined structures and crossing boundaries
as he pleases. There are flavours of folk, pop, industrial,
electro-acoustic and musique concrete colliding with
more common electronic formations all along, bringing
together pianos and glitches, white noises and found
sounds into dramatic little sonic vignettes. This album
often develops in totally unpredictable ways, from the
busy environment of the stunning opener, Headacres,
on which plucked strings and saturated bass converse
audaciously, and the delicate bandoneon/sine wave construction
of Kitchen Promises to the deeply abstract
Pachinko, on which Henson confronts abrasions
and white noise before throwing in a disconcertingly
baroque piano and voice interlude or the piano/glitch
formation of Solemn Jets. Visceral Vendor
is extremely complex, yet Henson approaches his composition
which such candour that it becomes completely charming
and entertaining.
With this first solo album as Ascoltare, Henson explores
a wide range of atmospheres and soundscapes, emotions
and textures, and challenges preconceptions almost constantly,
allowing his music to develop freely through extremely
original soundscapes. Somewhere between child-like innocent
and obsessive behaviour, Visceral Vendor is
the work of a truly individual artist.
4.2/5 |
