Snorkel’s latest album release, Past Still Present Tense delivers dubwise experimentalism, free improv, avant-funk, and post-Krautrock propulsion, driven by the London-based collective’s sonic explorations.
Across its four sides of deep grooves, improvisation, warped electronics, rare instruments, and shifting moods, Snorkel’s third album charts the collective’s evolution across multiple lineups – part retrospective, part glimpse of what lies ahead Past Still Present Tense, the new double album by Snorkel, is in certain respects a retrospective collection. However, as reflected in its title, the group regard the release as a statement about where they are now and the sound of what is next to come. This latest release spans multiple incarnations of the group, drawing from various modes of improvising, recording, editing, and playing to capture their evolving sound and pushes beyond the sound of previous releases. The personnel on this collection includes Frank Byng [This Is Not This Heat, Prescott, Daniel O'Sullivan], Ben Cowen [7-Hurtz, Vibration Black Finger], Roberto Sassi [Abstract Concrete, Heckle Chamber], Ralph Cumbers [aka Bass Clef], Charles Stuart [Grace Jones, The Fish Police], Tom Marriott [Pest, Fedka The Irritant] and maverick producer 129. Nick Doyne-Ditmas [Pinski Zoo, Monkey Puzzle Trio] guests on a couple of tracks. The album pays homage to the experimental past – to Krautrock, dub, free improv, post-punk, avant funk and afrobeat. However, in its propulsive momentum, its singular flow of fresh sonic permutations, it’s an album constantly moving fast forward to the future NOW. Over its four sides it covers a vast range of inventiveness, varying in mood from the playful to the ominous. Its sheer singularity is reflected in some of the more esoteric instrumental credits: Arp Axxe, Juno 106, Micromoog, Moog Rogue, unprepared guitar, Gyil (Ghanaian xylophone), Dark Star, Microkorg, Farfisa Bravo. “Night Flight” ignites the album. Frank Byng lays down a percussive intonation, while around him fellow players – including Ben Cowen, Ralph Cumbers, and “129” – sound growling sheets of Moog, analogue patterns, alien wah-wah. Lights flash on and off everywhere, a joyful urgency of sirens, as if aliens have crashed a space station and instigated an interplanetary rave. ‘Ogotemmeli' bears faint tinges of Gamelan but that is superseded by hectic, dubwise electronic chatter , and textural guitar (Roberto Sassi), frenetic, treated trombone (Tom Marriott), and cackling synths (Charles Stuart). Its relentless bass riff, a reminder of Can circa "Mother Upduff’ – pumping, deceptive in its simplicity. ‘Rattled and Snaked’ features ping-pong, primitive dub effects reminiscent of early Cabaret Voltaire and This Heat, especially the latter’s track ’24 Track Loop’ but from that jumping off point, ‘Rattled and Snaked’ splinters off at multiple tangents, electro-rhythmical possibilities, uncharted sound realms. ‘Black Wave Breaks’ sees a shift of mood – solemn Moog/electric reed organ bass line (Charles Stuart), exploratory, arcing Adrian Belew-esque guitar (Roberto Sassi) and breaking over horizon after horizon as its electronic synergy intensifies. Side two is relentlessly upbeat, breakneck at times. ‘Sirene' is like some alien, future variant on jazz-funk, ‘Word Repellent' is driven by a deep, throbbing pulsation, like giant bellows, triggering an aquarium of variegated responses, from treated trombone to tiny curlicues of electronics. ‘Snacking’s menagerie of noises, all playful and elastic, evokes feeding time at a zoo on Saturn, while ‘Bruised Crews’ is an agile series of electronic and percussive, interactions, sparkling, cackling, spitting, dribbling electricity. 'Flash Flood’ is practically self-descriptive, in its torrential, driving, every which way energy, faintly reminding of Konono Nº1's Congotronics. There’s an ostensibly funky element to side three. ‘All Before And After All’ sets forth in the manner of some 80s avant-R&B 12 inch, by Bill Laswell’s Material perhaps, before settling into something altogether elegant and ornamental. ‘High’ bears intimations of DAF in its brutally stark electronic patterning before spreading into a more maximal, eventful dubscape. ‘Eat Your Head Out’ starts out like a rereading of Ike & Tina Turner’s "Nutbush City Limits" before transmogrifying, as is Snorkel’s wont, into a mass of wires, treated vocals and flailing limbs. But there’s a transcendent beauty about Snorkel, as on ‘My Friend Electric’, a veritable dance beneath grand chandeliers of dub and the glassy progressions of ‘Clouded Chords’. Side four and ‘Ground Swell’ signals a shift in mood, more drawn out, alert, the lights dimmed, a distressed signal emitted at irregular intervals. ‘No One Home’ is dominated by a buzzing, bassy riff and indistinct vocal hollering, the track cumulatively adorned with an array of additions, fragments of electronics. ‘Leaving Jet Trails…’ is as close as Snorkel approximate to ambient, casting long Moog shadows and analogue beams, before the percussion clicks into a more motorik gear as the track builds in scale and grandiloquence. Finally, ‘The Wasp Factory’ alights at a near stillness, a glistening, unoccupied vastness, like the surface of an undiscovered moon. Where might Snorkel proceed next? Past Still Present Tense presents 360 degrees of possibilities. They have already staked a celestial claim to the far future, all of their own. Released in conjunction with Archaeon - archaeonmusic.co.uk. |
CREDITS
Frank Byng – drums, percussion, sampler, synths, voice
Ben Cowen – keyboards, synths, samplers, electronics, piano Tom Marriott – trombone, effects Roberto Sassi – guitar Ralph Cumbers – modular synth, electronics, trombone, bass, sampler, synths Charles Stuart – vocals, keyboards, synths, drum machine, melodica, percussion 129 – sampler, electronics, guitar + Nick Doyne-Ditmas – electric bass (D1, D2) Recorded at Snorkel Studios, London by Paul Richardson and Frank Byng and at Fish Factory Studios, London by Antonio Feola (A1, B3, C2-4, D1-4) Produced and mixed by Frank Byng and Snorkel Mastered by Alex Bonney Photograph by Pete Saville Artwork by Raimund Wong 
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