UK-based multi-instrumentalist / electronic producer Aaron Wheeler has built up a successful career composing music for TV in various countries, but this debut album as Laszlo ‘Radial Nerve’ marks the first time he’s released his own compositions independently. Throughout the eleven tracks collected here, there’s certainly an emphasis on virtuosic instrumental performances, with everything from dulcimer, whistle, mandolin and piano making an appearance, though in this case it’s counterbalanced by the integration of more jagged, glitchy electronics akin to the likes of Telefon Tel Aviv or even Matthew Herbert.
The fusion of the two styles here is certainly an impressively seamless one, with ‘NRV’ highlighting the aforementioned Herbert comparison as elegant piano melodies roll out over a glittering backdrop of treated samples, only for juddering, dancehall-tinged beats to suddenly lock in against fluid flamenco guitar textures and breezy vocal harmonies, the end result calling to mind a far more texturally intricate variant on Compost / Sonar Kollektiv nu-jazz more than anything else. ‘Saintonge’ meanwhile leans far closer to Cornelius’ eccentric colourful electronics, as bursts of synths and whirling samples dart back and forth over a playful backdrop of jazz-centred Fender Rhodes keys and crunching, pitch-shifted drum beats, before ‘Rhodesy’ takes things down into more contemplative downbeat pastures as sparse zapping rhythms glide against a soothing backdrop of warm bass and gently rolling keys, feathery traces of flamenco guitar trailing away at the very edges of the mix. While there’s the occasional veer into anodyne cafe-friendly soundtrack territory here; see ‘Bohemian Groove’s descent into infomercial-esque tepid synth-funk, for the most part this is strong, impressively crafted stuff.
Chris Downton
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