Review of Every Action [12k1027]

Phosphor (DE)

It was the end of the nineties when Motion released a split EP with Matmos on Fat Cat Records and an album entitled Pictures, offering a tonal and melodic content. Motion, being London-based Chris Coode continued to develop his sound after this debut release on his own imprint. This development between 1999 and now can be found on Motion’s third full-length release on one of the most interesting microsound labels worldwide, Taylor Dupree’s 12k. Coode crafts his sound by sampling, processing, resampling, reprocessing back and forth, slightly changing the track during each step. This explains for the tiny details interwoven in the music, lovely hiss in the background and miniscule ticks in between melodic flickering. Coode plays with his small pieces around. Several tracks have been built upon sharp sounds that prick like needles, or microsound clicks, whereas other pieces feature gliding or sudden shifts of music. This means that Chris Coode’s music appears very dynamic and rich in detail. Though warm melodies, a handful of droning and barely-changing tones can be found on this release as well. As of the eighth track entitled “Lazy Audio”, things change slightly. The music starts to have the effects of ping-pong balls, the refined and skittering textures have disappeared to give way to more atmospheric and slightly rougher sound experiments. These grainy timestretches can be considered just as interesting, giving Every Action an extra dimension. Another lovely release in the excellent 12k series.

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