Sydney-based musicians Marcus Whale and Tom Smith are already well known for their own separate musical output, with Whale working as Scissor Lock and part of the Collarbones partnership, while Smith continues to direct the artist-run Serial Space whilst also releasing music as Cleptoclectics. Apparently inspired by the duo’s one-off collaborative live performance at 2013’s Room40 curated ‘Imaginary Landscapes’ event, the four tracks that make up this EP ‘Localities’ see them offering up a journey through landscapes they know exist, but which remain unseen by them. ‘Lugarno’ kicks things off gently at first with gauzy synth trails phasing into focus against ringing bells, but it isn’t long before a relentless thumping kick drum pulse begins to build into a wall of thundering tribal polyrhythms, the entire track galloping along at a afrobeat-esque pace against zapping analogue synth squeals, before finally taking things out into more contemplative jazz-shuffle territory.
If the aforementioned track offers up a suitably epic and widescreen opening to this collection, ‘Edensor’ sees whispering snare tones tracing a path over icy ambient synths and swelling organ chords as the entire track gradually bleeds out into a hypnotic rush of distorted harmonic tones, only for more sharp-focus synth tones to suddenly take things off into a psychedelic droning outro section. ‘Panania’ meanwhile arguably represents this EP’s centrepiece, spending its nine minutes shifting from an opening wash of blurred, trailing synths and manipulated vocals into a juddering ride through thudding MPC-punched kicks and rattling polyrhythms that’s easily the most rolling and bass-heavy track on offer here, the pitched-up vocal loops circling against evil cyborgian sub-bass before everything blurs out into a haze. All up, ‘Localities’ is an impressive and evocative collection that sees Whale and Smith’s collaboration bearing great fruit. ‘Localities’ is released on cassette, with a download also available.
