Kinetica

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Paul Gough, aka Pimmon, is going places. After years of private experimentation, a flurry of public releases over the last year or so, across a varied selection of the smarter labels dealing with experimental electronic music (Meme, ERS, Static Caravan, Kraak), have seen his star rise in the world of, well, whatever name is flavour of the month for heavily-manipulated abstract electronic sounds. It's glitch, or microsound, or whatever. Actually it's just good music, relatively abstract (hence the nomenclature issues, no doubt), but a fine example of the rich range of expression available in this nameless, faceless music.

Kinetica comprises incredibly detailed soundscapes, and consquently demands carefully listening. Rough static-textured swathes of noise drift across minimal polyrhythmic grooves or loops, lending a strong sense of dynamics. Indeed the beautifully-named track "Buzz Like Blue Children" is almost anthemic in its all-encompassing, insistent drama. Other Pimmon releases might recall the likes of Fennesz, Hecker, and the Mego crew, but Kinetica ploughs the 'warmer' end of electronic music, with the pretty "Empanar:Redactar" being so 'up' as to almost recall Aspen or Susumu Yokota's more opaque moments, though with less regular form. For such abstract electronica, there's a sense of melody and atmosphere, "Lime Pow" almost recalling Joe Zawinul's classic tone poem "Arrival In New York".

"Circumlocation" is really very lovely, reminiscent of Nick Zammuto's work. Indeed, like Zammuto, Gough favours analogue elements in the production process. Whereas Zammuto starts with recordings of guitars and gongs and so on and then digitally manipulates, Pimmon starts digitally and then apparently arranges the material on analogue tape. Whilst this technique alone wouldn't guarantee results, Gough's musical nous ensures this electronica has richly emotive content often absent in these genre(s). A regular dose of deep listening gives hugely satisfying results.