John Burton, aka Leafcutter John, born in West Yorkshire,
originally wanted to be a painter, and studied at Norwich
School Of Art. Burton was also a songwriter, spending
his spare time composing folk songs on a guitar. Then
one day, he bought a PC, to type his university assignments.
That’s when he discovered the possibilities of electronic
music. That was four years ago…
At the time, Burton didn’t own any electronic music records,
but, fortunately, some of his friends did. A crash course
in contemporary artists and different forms of music later,
he was ready to release a first EP, Concourse, then, a
few months later, an album, on Mike Paradinas’ very own
label, Planet Mu. From the intro of the first track of
Microcontact, you know you’ve stumbled across
something unusual. Heavily relying on machines, Burton
relies even more on the inspiration he gets from environmental
noises and acoustic sounds recorded in all sorts of different
places or situation, or during sonic workshops he organises
in art galleries. When asked about people who inspire
him, Burton cites Chasm, Main or Richard D James, as well
as Pierre Henry, Karlheinz Stockhausen or Pierre Schaeffer.
And, listening to Microcontact, the analogy between
Leafcutter John and the musique concrète movement
is quite obvious. If not as remote as the music produced
by any of these composers, Burton’s creations remain quite
difficult to apprehend, even when he flirts with more
conventional electro, as on track 9, or when traces of
his past as a folk musician can be found on track 5. However,
his deconstructed structures are strangely appealing.
Sometimes similar to Autechre’s
work (track 1, track 6), Microcontact has more
connections with Mike Dred’s and Peter Green’s 1998 Virtual
Farmer, in that, while it introduces a very abstract
concept, the intensity of the atmospheres captured is
still very much intact after the treatments are applied.
Like Virtual Farmer, Microcontact is
very much a human record, which interacts with the outside
world as much as it does with its own, exposing in the
process Burton as a very creative musician, attentive
to his environment and to what he can do with it.
Microcontact is a very unusual record, even by
today’s standard. While not completely unique nor uniquely
original, this album is refreshing and challenging enough
to put it above the rest, and to isolate Leafcutter John
as an exceptional creator.
5/5 |
