Big Yawn - Burton Bell South Preston Garage (Research Records, 2020)

I don’t care how people make music, I just like it when they do. Technology provides us with tools to do stuff we could never have imagined from a desk in our house and that’s great and why not utilise it? But when electronic music incorporates live instruments I do tend to add more weight to it, maybe it’s growing up listening to guitar-based music or maybe its just personal taste. One of my favourite albums of all time is Cybotron’s Implosion (1980), which is made exceptional thanks to Gil Matthews’ drumming (and production, of course).

I didn’t know Big Yawn before I saw them perform live at PBS earlier this year. I really liked their set. Like anything, the live experience can never be captured in a studio, but I did also enjoy their album, No!. Their new EP, South Preston Garage - or S.P.G. - is out today, and is a collection of six cool instrumentals. There’s a definite drum n bass influence which appeals to me, but there’s a lot going on.

The live drums are crucial here, and it is in the processing that they’re unique. Samples and synths fill the spaces between and there is some serious know-how amongst these four humans. I kind of want to dance, but I mostly want to listen.

Fun Fact: S.P.G., or Special Patrol Group, is also the name of Vyvyan’s hamster in The Young Ones.

Mildlife - Phase II