One of Manchester’s most curious new properties, Joe Beedles debuts under his own name on Superpang after a standout turn in the WEȽ∝KER duo for Conditional
Firming up his organismic conception of electro-acoustic and computer music styles, ‘Exigent Set’ yields Beedles’ most impressive, accomplished work across seven parts that explore psychoacoustic, spatial and rhythmic themes with a playful, even mischievous, and perception-baiting quality. Precedents for his aesthetics clearly range from the likes of Autechre to Hecker and Marcus Schmickler, but Beedles distinguishes his work by dint of its expressively curdled tonal palette and a sort of spongiform sensuality that absorbs us deep in its folds and evinces a fine spectra of interstitial emotions perhaps best compared with Rashad Becker’s traditional music for notional species.
Appearing to splice acoustic, if processed, instrumentation into his sheer synthetic textures, Beedles follows his nose for an engrossing sort of world building between the hyperchamber folk of ‘I-frame’ and the brain-combing strokes of ‘I-bowout.’ Knotted rhythms execute crafty mathematical functions in the acoustic convolutions of ’Clarry,’ and otoacoustic tones work their magick underlined by sweeping subbass in ‘transvection study (B mix),’ while his grasp of asymmetric funk comes into play on ‘zimm32,’ with nosedrip Shepard tones flush the pharynx into what sounds like recursively compressed Gábor Lázár piece on ‘vuls.’
May 14, 2021