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Shell Company & Older Brother tap into the Mancunian continuum to deliver heavy sounds for heavy times on 'Shards', their debut release on Numbers.

Born from voice notes sent between Manchester, London and Lisbon, the release took shape remotely before being recorded inside Manchester’s The White Hotel, then refined in the sonic labs of Numbers and La Chunky in Glasgow.

Set across one night, 'Shards' is the fragments of the never ending process of breakdown and placing pieces back together. Along four tracks, the voices of Shell Company (Rosabella Allen) and Older Brother begin far apart, then argue, reflect and collide, trying to find the ground they stand on, with the music laid by brothers Rob and Chris Banks. The two voices work both together and against each other, rendering images that could only exist in limbo: running taps, cans on the floor, and crumbling walls.

Shell Company & Older Brother say of the release —

“Shards is a scream that sings softly. A record that shifts between confusion and sense, hopelessness and hope. Despite moments of intense and perfect connection, the shards rarely fit. Shards is a record not about giving up, but giving in. A recording of the victory that comes from surrendering to float, all because 'it will all make sense one day'. Shards is about love that begins and ends with broken pieces."

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Anything that's recorded in cult Manchester night spot The White Hotel is sure to cause a bit of intrigue with all the weirdos here at Picc HQ. Industrial-dubwise movements with introverted spoken work elements and a smothering darkness. Check!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Shard
A2. 4U (Luv Thing)
B1. 10am
B2. In The Silence It Only Gets Louder

Debut album by FFT, the result of three years of focused writing and programming by the London-based producer, ‘Clear’ is deeply psychedelic, defined by a mature sense of melody and structures crafted at a monumental scale.

Though FFT has previously released a handful of tracks under various names, it wasn’t until 2017’s ‘FFT1’ EP on the Uncertainty Principle label that his production talents began to fuse into a distinct and personal style, especially evident in FFT’s ‘Regional/Loss’ EP on The Trilogy Tapes in 2019, multiple releases on Bruk Records and 2021’s ‘Disturb Roqe’ also released on Numbers. Through it all, FFT has mastered a complex sense of mood catalyzed by sound itself: He builds patches and presets from scratch, and feels these synths and software have their own objectives and reactions, creating a kind of compositional feedback loop.The result is an album that brings to mind a collision of electronic pioneers like Delia Derbyshire and Bernard Parmegiani, 2000’s braindance, the Maximized wares of an OPN or Objekt and the rough rhythmatics of SND or Mika Vainio

The layering of sonic elements and intentions is starkly audible across these nine tracks. They can be seismically concussive and grandiose, but granular and fluid - echoing the Icelandic volcanic eruption that features in the artwork photography by George Cowan. ‘Clear (Eight-Circuit Mix)’sets a euphoric tone immediately accelerated by the jagged sounds and vocal textures of ‘Redeemer’. ‘3 Sided’ channels hyper-urbanity from its almost entirely analogue palette, and by contrast ‘Disturb Roqe 2’ is bracingly digital, gyrating in random cycles between clustered percussion, metallic splinters of audio and artificial vocal tics.

Opening side two, ‘You’ve Changed’ adheres to a more abrasive core, while ‘Heal’ and ‘Heal (Alt Mix)’evolved out of linked pieces in FFT’s live sets that grew into complete tracks in the months before Covid-19. The significant intensity of ‘Heal’ in particular was refined during strobe-heavy live performances and is the album at its most turbulent, the claustrophobia interrupted by dazzling arpeggios. The overall impact of 'Clear' is cinematic and precise, marking the arrival of an impressive electronic musician who is not new but has come into his own as a fully developed artist


STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Crystalline, multidimensional soundscapes here from modern electronica artist FFT whose DSP-painted sonic canvasses take us into visionary, 5th world realms.

TRACK LISTING

1. Clear (Eight-Circuit Mix)
2. Redeemer
3. 3 Sided
4. Disturb Roqe 2
5. Clear
6. You’ve Changed
7. Heal
8. Heal (Alt Mix)
9. Ashley Hill


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