Sheffield-born and raised, multi-instrumentalist / producer Dean Dennis certainly has something of an extensive musical back history. After forming his first jazz-funk oriented band back in 1980, Dennis joined seminal Sheffield art / industrial band Clock DVA whilst still in his teens, a union that saw him spend the next several years recording and touring with them throughout Europe and the US as their bassist. After Clock DVA split in the mid eighties, the remaining members continued to record as experimental collective The Anti Group, a period that also saw Dennis tour as part of the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet – predictably, he describes his time with the former Gun Club singer as “punishing and debauched.’
While Clock DVA briefly regrouped in the early nineties with a more electro-EBM based direction, by this time Dennis had grown far more preoccupied with his burgeoning Sector alter ego, a dark techno / house-based incarnation taking in collaborations with Sheffield contemporaries such as Robert Gordon and DJ Mink. In comparison to Sector, under which name he continues to release 12″s on labels such as Instinct and Adam X’ Sonic Groove, Dennis describes this latest project Nohno as being a “more open project as compared to the more restricted dance-oriented format of Sector’ and being a change in direction in that it takes many directions and explores many different styles. This eight track mini-album “Metropolis’ represents the first opportunity for listeners to check out Dennis’ Nohno project, as well as the first release for new UK-based electronic label Out To Lunch Recordings, and is described by Dennis as being conceptually based around “the drifters and dreamers, the neurotic and fearless, the heroes and the heroines of the inner city.’
Opening track “Latin Americana’ begins this collection with one of its most intriguing offerings, in a piece of deep, dark and atmospheric electronic-jazz fusion that pits a growling double-bass line reminiscent of On-U-Sound’ dubby excursions against relentless, hollow-sounding percussion rhythms, the entire effect resulting in a industrial-tinged spyjazz excursion that certainly sends all the right chills up the spine; particularly when the eerily disembodied Latin radio samples start to flit through the mix. While it’s certainly an impressive opening, the effect is slightly diminished by the choice of track that follows. While “Octopus’ certainly provides a more than serviceable tech-house wander spiked with acid 303s, it can’ but feel slightly pedestrian in light of the far more adventurous and unpredictable offerings that surround it, the same being true to a certain extent of the similarly dancefloor-based “Train Home.’
By comparison, the downbeat jazz-tinged “Falling Angels’ easily manages to conjure up far more intrigue and atmosphere, sending a lulling double-bass riff sauntering beneath a slowly cycling background of stretched out hi-hat samples and blurred-out sounding tones, resulting in easily one of the most hypnotic offerings here. Some of this collection’ most impressive moments are saved right for the very end and involve the use of subtly-placed vocal samples, with the title track placing shuffling jazz rhythms, delicate piano keys and wandering double-bass against disembodied-sounding spoken word samples of Henry Miller and Orson Welles – in one instance Welles gravely intones “Whatever it is you want, I can’ deliver it to you”, in an outtake from his infamous attempt at reading a radio commercial for frozen fish. Ironically, the same diverse genre explorations that lend “Metropolis’ some of its greatest strengths also serve to generate a slight lack of focus, but on the whole, this is an intriguing and atmospheric jazz-influenced debut offering from Dennis under his Nohno persona that points towards interesting sounds ahead.
Chris Downton.
