Keef Baker - The Widnes Years
A glance at the band links on Keef Baker's webpage will reveal the antecedents of his new record, The Widnes Years: Tarmvred, Gridlock and Somatic Responses. Like all of these, Baker mingles smooth electronic melodies with percussive rhythms and blasts of supersaturated static, pushing his cinematic instrumental music into the realms of Industrial Cacophony and Rhythmic Noise.
"Bingo Hall Murders," as an opening salvo, sets the mood for the record, shattering the placid synth melody of the introduction with an agressive and noisy breakbeat. The gold-tone melody tries to sneak back into the limelight but the breakbeat is waiting for it, nail-studded bat in hand. Baker's sound is the difference between film school lighting and the Ridley & Tony Scott style of supersaturating the film stock. Everything is a touch sharper, more distinct, more finely edged. "Castrovalva" revolves around a digitized chorus, a rack of binary voices which is smashed and bludgeoned by a steam-driven noise machine. Baker creates a pre-Industrial agrarian hymn that is torn apart by the belching black machinery of the next century. "Calmed Robbery" is reminiscent of the early tracks of Gridlock's Trace, flowing between glistening ambience and ferocious breakcore, while managing to push the limits of both ends of the spectrum.
Much of the allure of Baker's work on The Widnes Years is his flexibility. It's not all noisy strum und drang; tracks like "Runt" explore more gentle melodic possibilities, creating spaces as airy and ethereal as the percussive demolition in other tracks is abrasive. "Reckless Engineering Through Diamonds" is a barely restrained drum explosion, the piano melodies struggling to keep a stage full of enthusiastic drummers from banging everything they can get a stick on. The elements nearly get away from Baker, but he reels them back in for a pastoral fanfare before finally unleashing the percussion to raise the roof of the auditorium. "Ernie Unwise" evolves from a few tones, a wash of sound that falls like the curtained light of the Aurora Borealis, and the subtle static edge of the percussion is like the sparks flying off distant meteorites as they ping against the troposphere.
The Widnes Years represents a shift in the direction of n5md, an opening of their doors to more abrasive material. Keef Baker straddles the line between rhythmic noise and ambient electronica, offering material that will delight both camps while opening their ears to the permutational possibilities of the cross-breeding of styles. Highly recommended, especially if you've got an itch for something outside of your normal comfort zone.
Keef Baker
n5md [2004]
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