Slice Repair is an appropriate title for the debut solo album by Lugano Fell, aka James Taylor of tech-house duo Swayzak. The album revels in strange sonic constructions and confusing juxtapositions, incongruous elements patched togther but with all seams disguised, melded surgically together into hybrid organic forms. At times we’re in Coil territory, cold breath fogging up buzzing feedback sleet; at others a more abstract Chain Reaction, throbbing grey haze beating arhythmically against stuttered sine tones.
Lawrence English of Room40 did the mastering, making for a crisp and immediate sound, even in the album’s most intentionally opaque moments. ‘Caniculaire’ cycles patterns of liquid plinks over a dull bass groan, while ‘Malpenza’ smacks slabs of white noise into each other, measuring the outcome. ‘Preform Naple’ features the clank of lonesome glass baubles, rapidly escalating into a Ryoji Ikeda-esque data roar, while the final, measured ‘Two Hundred Clocks and a Metre’ chops guitar notes into a stew of Christopher Willits dazzle. Oddly placed between organic drone, industrial whine and binary glitch, Slice Repair is a difficult album to categorise, rich in auditory mystery, if not wholly satisfying musically.
Joshua Meggitt
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