#dabyre

I remember catching an RMBA interview with Illum Sphere a while back where referring to his double A-side Birthday / h808er, he mentioned that for him creating music was more about achieving an artistic and aesthetic balance than churning out functional, dance floor bangers or trend referencing jams. Listening to Ghosts of Then and Now there's the same nuanced attention to weighting that gave the potentially lopsided tracks of the aforementioned release their peculiar, left field charm and which sustains a pensive equilibrium throughout Ghosts. Heavily informed by Ghostly International beatsmith, Dabyre, there's a swung, mpc2000 undercurrent that opens up a ton of space in these productions that allows Illum the maneuvering room to build his particular sense of balance. Moving from the elegiac vocal samples of At Night, The Road and Love Theme From Foreverness to the 8-bit creep of Sleeprunner and One Letter From Death the tracks hint at something between Manchester and LA, Andy Stott and Brainfeeder, a place where the ghosts of the post-industrial city and the ghosts in the machine come together. With accompanying artwork (by Silvia Grav) doubtless nudging my interpretation there seems to be something eerie going on here and as Lights Out/In Shinjuku plays out with the sounds of a departing train and closer Embryonic concludes offering an ambivalent and lustral reconciliation there's the beguiling sense of balance that follows visitation.

You can stream the whole LP here via Pitchfork here until the 10th, with the full release scheduled on Ninja Tune for the same date.

Dabrye - Hyped-up plus tax

Dabyre - Hyped-Up Plus Tax