Rob of ((Cave)) recordings brings together two fellow home label endeavorers by inviting a split between House of Alchemy’s Adam Richards (aka Chapels) and Notice Recordings’ Evan Lindorff-Ellery. It’s been some time since we last saw Chapels despite Richards’ consistent output through the last year, and even accounting for this oversight, “We Are the Sum Total of our Data” feels like an all-new incarnation of the Chapels project: a multi-part program of mostly unaffected field-recordings, Richards swings an organic dark ambience through authentic setting and lo-fi capture which induces the natural drone in the energy fields he presents; the gothic abstractions of his earlier work have aged into a less figurative, more cynical, more brutal realism full with everyday, gut feelings of worry and dread – wandering, threatening, alienating. Lindorff-Ellery, in his time away from Dense Reduction, comes with the solo mix “The Apartment Piece”: unlike Richards’ singular scenes, this side offers immediate layers of accumulation – clattering adjustments, unwanted details, fade-ups; droning hum, ticking contrast, whips of ostinato feedback – in other words, causes and effects. The sounds suggest so much activity, but exclude any clear image of that activity. Less contrast than comparison, the two sides of the split tie-together the bitter vacancy of a world carrying on with you. Cassettes come in heavy inserts, art by Lindorff-Ellery.
((Cave)) Recordings cassette
$5
HERE