West-London based Douglas Benford, better known as Si-Cut.db,
is an extremely busy man. Not only has he, since the
late eighties, released an impressive number of records
under a variety of aliases, but he is also the founder
of Sprawl, a monthly club event that aims at providing
decent exposure to unknown artists from all over the
world, and Sprawl Imprint, his record label.
From his early releases as Mediaform and Radial Blend,
to his most recent work as Si-Cut.db, Benford has explored
a variety of musical forms, from house-infused electronica
to dub. He has also collaborated with a wide range of
artists, including Robin Rimbaud, better known as Scanner,
Doug Martin, Sarah Cracknell, of St Etienne fame, and,
most prominently, with Ben D. Edwards, aka Benge,
for their Tennis project.
Founder of the Suburbs Of Hell label in 1987, on which
he released his early records, Benford has since spawned
Sprawl Imprint and released albums from the likes of
Freeform and Puppy,
and was also responsible for Hmm, a collection
of hymns revisited by an impressive number of electronic
musicians. With influences ranging from Brian Eno to
Talking Heads and Wire to Krautrock, it is no surprise
that his music has gone through a number of evolutions,
often demonstrated through various incarnations.
Find Some Shade, Douglas’s latest album,
started as an EP for Highpoint Lowlife, on which Benford
planned to collect of few unreleased tracks, but with
the inclusion of a handful of new compositions, the
project soon became a full-length album in which he
investigates his own musical scope as Si-Cut.db. Find
Some Shades combines minimalist techno, dub and
digitally processed noises into melodic constructions.
The album kicks off with Papercuts, a rather
subdued composition on which Benford builds a beat-less
dub structure over a blanket of noise, a process partially
echoed in Draft later on. Fortune Meadow,
which follows, is close to the sonic realm of early
Pole productions, with its
infectious dub-infused bass line driving the track.
Although present all along, processed noises remain
relatively discreet, only waxing and waning in the background.
Later on, Bluster appears more straightforward,
with it’s bouncy melody remaining firmly stuck
between the rhythmic section and waves of plush sounds.
This is Si-Cut.db at its most dance floor friendly.
Reverse Self Help, Station/Return
and Nearness are far more introvert and complex,
yet Benford retains once again the essence of his music
by injecting some elements of spatial dub, but it is
on the stunning Draft, Glad/e and
Secret Rockets, which closes the album, that
Benford affirms his musical identity with the most strength.
All three tracks are incredibly complex, with sonic
details scattered all over them. Of the three, Glad/e
is the most melodic, and Benford give this track a very
melancholic touch by injecting sharp shots of bandoneon.
Draft and Secret Rockets, two definite
highlights here, show Benford at his most intricate
and creative. More than on the rest of the album, the
soundscapes seem to constantly change and evolve, with
melodies fighting to remain clearly defined while the
man constantly threatens the fragile balance in the
backgrounds.
Only a few weeks prior to the release of this new Si-Cut.db
record, Bip-Hop released the second in their Reciprocess
series, presenting the collaborative work of Benford
with Full Swing mastermind Stephan Mathieu. The series
was originally initiated by Bip-Hop label boss Philippe
Petit to document the working process of two artists
collaborating with each other, and the musical reciprocability
between them. The idea was taken further as not only
each album sees two artists, often coming from different
musical backgrounds, working together, but the series
is also a collaboration between Bip-Hop and Northern
Ireland’s Fällt.
Of the thirteen tracks featured on Reciprocess 2,
seven were written by both musicians while Benford took
care of four more and Mathieu contributed two extra
tracks. If Benford’s solo efforts remain generally
close to his usual realm, the rest of the album is closer
to Mathieu’s minimalist approach. Intricate and
more introvert than Find Some Shade, Reciprocess
2 provides however some interesting moments. If
Und.And and Don’t.Ask, which
open this album, are intriguing in the way they seem
static, yet develop imperceptibly, tracks such as Jfm.Gen,
Cond.Verge and Novecento.Avocado give
an interesting insight into the different musical world
in which these two musicians evolve. If Benford injects
some elements of dub in these compositions, they evolve
to involve Mathieu’s intense digital processing.
Often though, the pair voluntarily reject the notion
of melody to focus on atmospheres and create challenging
sonic constructions which vary for deep sensorial moments
(Wissen.Sch.Nitt, Divpops.Stage) to
more opened and accessible compositions (Cond.Verge,
Novecento Avocado).
As far apart these two albums might be, Douglas Benford
provides a common sonic thread, if exploited in two
very different ways. His collaboration with Stephan
Mathieu demonstates once again how easily he can adapt
his musical persona to a new context, yet it is through
his solo work, when he is totally in control of the
direction of a project, that he appears the most at
ease. Find Some Shade might be partly built
around previously unreleased compositions, but it is
very consistent all the way through and provides an
interesting insight into the Benford’s work.
Find Some Shade 4.3/5 Reciprocess Vol. 2 3.7/5
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