ENSEMBLE 1 - DELAY WORKS
Ensemble 1 is an avant rock duo from Brighton,
UK, specializing in the exploration of digital delay-based phrasal repetition
and heavy, cyclical rhythms. Guitarist Joe Potts and drummer/bassist/composer Tom Way
operate on the border line between math rock and prog metal, navigating a Venn
zone of intersection teeming with the fractal curlicues of minimalism and
durational elements of modern composition. Psychedelic swirls in the mixture tap
into an older echo guitar tradition, occasionally suggesting an unlikely aesthetic
union of Achim Reichel & Machines and Meshuggah. It’s an intoxicating mix
that’s hypnotic from beginning to end of the three, lengthy tracks - ranging
from nearly 10 minutes to over 23 – that comprise Delay Works, the duo’s
latest release on Halfmeltedbrain Records.
Opener ‘Distorted Fades’ is an invigorating statement
of intent, an avant-metal power drive enriched with the rotational propulsion of
6/8 time. Overlapping layers of extended technique suggest superimpositions in
an action movie, flashbacks into parallel worlds: phased cymbal strikes unleashing
organ-like harmonic haloes; multiplied string scrapes describing bomber jet
descents caught in an endless time loop.
With its seamlessly tapped licks, the self-explanatory
‘Drums and Delay Loops’ seems to blend the feel of Tony Levin’s Chapman Stick playing
from King Crimson’s Discipline/Beat period and Glenn Branca’s
guitar army approach to New York Minimalism. A deeper, historical tradition of analog
rather than digital echo guitar is also evoked; something like if Manuel
Gottsching had applied the proto-techno elements of E2-E4 to earlier
kosmiche releases such as the tape delay excursions of Inventions for
Electric Guitar. Ensemble 1 manages to blend humour with its heaviness. The
sculptural, compositional elements of this track suggest atompunk visions of
the future that border on the absurd. Each repetition and variation forming
a layer in a concentric grid, an interlocking segment in a process of serial
fabrication producing lightweight, yet durable components; an ambitious folly
of interplanetary engineering as impressive as it is impractical, like
3D-printing an express elevator to Mars.
A solo work for bass guitar performed by Way, ‘Submerged
Harmonics’ is the longest, and strangest track of the album. It emerges with
the murky dynamism of minimal techno of the 1990s Mille Plateaux/Chain
Reaction school, a churning seabed of elemental shapes. Metallic gong-like
tones of bass guitar harmonics recall Steve Reich’s explorations of the Balinese
gamelan tradition’s tonalities and Ingram Marshall’s sublimation of its quality
of suspended time, then take on a harsh density reminiscent of the astringent
layering of Fripp & Eno’s dark ambient prototype ‘An Index of Metals’. The distorted
flavors are gradually filtered out, leaving circular tintinnabulum that bring
us back to a peaceful state of aquatic contemplation. The cumulative effect of
this epic is exhilarating, almost exhausting, as is the best music in this echo-enriched
style of experimental rock. Delay Works
is a worthy addition to a noble tradition.
Delay Works is out through Halfmeltedbrain Records and available on Bandcamp:
https://ensemble1.bandcamp.com/album/delay-works
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