Realismo

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For the initiated, Pablo's Eye are a Brussels-based collective of musicians and artists, formed in 1989 and loosely led by composer and art director Axel Libeert. Their projects have been many and various, from music for the Barcelona Olympics to Europe-wide ad campaigns, but their chief CD releases to date have been the densely layered sound collage piece You Love Chinese Food (Extreme Records, 1995) and its follow-up, 1998's distinctly dubbier all she wants grows blue (Swim Records). Despite the huge difference in these two records, they had a clear common denominator: craftsmanship. This new release, a mini album, was originally conceived as a collaboration between PE and design team V23, whose celebrated work has most famously graced 4AD sleeves since the early 80s. The idea was that V23 would design nine different covers for each letter of the group's name, then screen print these onto pages of 1950s atlases. (For those of you not lucky enough to track down one of these lovely, but limited, artifacts, worry not - there's a regular digi-pak edition.) On PE's side, they've composed 7 instrumentals: loops and edits from jam sessions then seriously fucked with in the studio. The pieces are as far removed from 'grows blue' as it was from 'Chinese Food', though demonstrate an equal level of care and attention. Each grooves along in a lazily funky way, occasionally edging towards d'n'b but never going all the way; over the top, oddly uncomfortable or eerie textures float and niggle at an otherwise blissful mood. This album is by no means a major work, but as a little side project, it's elegant and thoroughly engaging.