Search Results for:

SACCADES

Saccades

Land Of The Hearth

    In 2017, Nicholas Wood introduced the Saccades project with a self-titled debut album, showcasing a departure from The KVB's somber atmospherics and monumental soundscapes, embracing a stripped-back, psychedelic guitar-driven sound. The subsequent release, "Flowing Fades," in April 2021, saw Wood reincorporate synths into his compositions, drawing inspiration from a diverse range of influences including J.G. Ballard, Serge Gainsbourg, 80s dream pop, and yacht-rock. To support the album, Wood embarked on Saccades' inaugural live tour in the summer of 2021, performing a selection of dates throughout the UK, before shifting focus to their next record.

    "Land of the Hearth," Saccades' latest offering, takes its name from a passage by Jonathon Meades and signals a transition for Nicholas Wood, moving away from The KVB's nocturnal soundscapes and industrial beats, and embracing a more Balearic sensibility. The album boasts a sun-kissed, dreamlike quality, occasionally nodding to the uplifting vibes of house music.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Nearly Dreaming
    2. One Day Soon
    3. Cross Street
    4. Neighbours Pool
    5. Some Regrets
    6. New Star Line
    7. Land Of The Hearth
    8. Faint Echoes
    9. Little Whites
    10. Dowsing
    11. Solstice 

    Rian Treanor + Ocen James

    Saccades

      In 2018, Rian Treanor left his home in Rotherham, UK, and headed to Kampala for a residency at Nyege Nyege's villa studio. The mind-expanding experience inspired his critically acclaimed 2020 full-length "File Under UK Metaplasm", but that wasn't the end of the story. Treanor also spent time working alongside Acholi fiddle player Ocen James, developing an improvisation-heavy collaboration that would push both musicians' idiosyncrasies into completely new places.

      Treanor wanted this collaboration to be as tactile and reactive as a live performance with traditional instruments, so he set about working on a digital process that would synchronize with James' approach. Using physical modeling techniques, Treanor created an instrument that explored the tunings and sounds of the a'dungu, an arched harp, and the nah or nag. With Ocen playing his rigi rigi, a single string violin, they intuitively experimented with the spectral properties of sound, using texture and acoustic contours as their structural framework. They were able to develop a sound together that was unconventionally rooted in traditional Ugandan culture, but shuttled into different dimensions of noise, computer music and radical UK rave.

      "Saccades" is the buffer between two vastly different sonic universes, united in respect and sprightly curiosity. Treanor's hyperactive computer-controlled rhythms are immediately identifiable on opening track 'Bunga Bule', but the sound palette is distinct: it's more flexible and less digital. James' expressionistic fiddle strokes are a revelation, contorted into hoarse squeals and rough vibrations that rub and flex off Treanor's tin can shuffle. The fertile back and forth continues through the ruff DSP tumble of 'As It Happens', before James cracks open the melodic core of his instrument on 'The Dead Centre', allowing Treanor to dispense with rhythm and meet his fiddle strokes with heavenly drones.

      Each track steps down a different avenue for the two artists, from the nightmarish microtonal twang of 'Memory Pressure' to the 4AM inverted sci-fi club pressure of 'Naasaccade' and the folky dancefloor swing of 'Rigi Rigi'. And when the album closes on a cacophonous remix from Vienna laptop noise pioneers Farmers Manual it's an unexpected gift that makes perfect sense. "Saccades" is a cross-cultural collaboration that swerves simplicity but refuses to over-complicate itself - it's about interaction, improvisation and passion.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Bunga Bule
      2. As It Happens
      3. The Dead Centre
      4. Agoya
      5. Memory Pressure
      6. Naassaccade
      7. Rigi Rigi
      8. Tiyo Ki
      9. Casascade
      10. Remo Rom (Farmers Manual Remix)

      Saccades

      Flowing Fades

        As with all Fuzz Club releases this is for Indies only. ‘Flowing Fades’, the second Saccades album from The KVB’s Nicholas Wood, is due for release April 9th on Fuzz Club Records. Where Wood’s work in The KVB (Invada Records) trades in minimalist postpunk/coldwave, the Manchester-based artist’s solo material under the Saccades moniker is an exercise in escapist psychedelic pop. On ‘Flowing Fades’ we find a world of blissed-out synths, languid carefree guitars, dreamy vocals and influences that range from J.G. Ballard and Serge Gainsbourg to 80s dream pop and yacht-rock. “I began to properly work on this album after returning from The KVB’s North American Tour in late 2019, my head filled with new inspiration for this project and a clear idea on how this album should sound”, Wood remembers: “I wanted to create something soothing and immersive. Music for escapism, which can be listened to at sunrise or sunset. Even though it’s lighter and mellower than my usual output, I feel like there are strong hints of melancholia in there too, reflecting the world in which it was created.” With the bulk of the album written whilst Wood was cooped up in his apartment over lockdown, the album inevitably reflects the social unrest that was unfolding outside - touching on everything from lockdown paranoia and fractured relationships to missing life on the road.

        TRACK LISTING

        1) Islands Past
        2) On Your Mind
        3) All Divided Selves
        4) Like Everyday
        5) Tonight We Can Expect The Same
        6) Breezy
        7) Day Dreamer
        8) Older Than Tomorrow
        9) Heat
        10) Endless Spring
        11) Flowing Fades
        12) Lady Blue


        Just In

        123 NEW ITEMS

        Latest Pre-Sales

        177 NEW ITEMS

        E-newsletter —
        Sign up
        Back to top