It takes an audacious figure to attempt to marry the aural experience with the sensation of taste. Renowned chef and ‘molecular’ gastronome Heston Blumenthal did it by serving an iPod playing the sounds of the ocean alongside a curiously plated seafood dish. Matthew Herbert was perhaps more politically motivated during his two-years-in-the-making Plat du Jour, but still acutely aware of the link between the senses. On Gourmet Scavenger, Omelette Records attempts to do something similar, on the surface at least, with this selection of sixteen tracks from Australian and international artists.
The opening refrains of Niceface’s lead track ‘Entrée’ play heavily on culinary imagery – requisite cutlery clanging and deliciously ambient slurping included – but this is where the kitchen inspiration appears to end. Fortunately, this judiciously ordered collection has a quirky, off-kilter element that continues to rear its head on more than one occasion, beyond the obvious gastronomic inspiration. Take the undercurrent of vocal samples that pervades several of these tracks – for instance, ‘The Tune’ from Wax Tailor plays on a cheeky refrain of “I can’t get that tune out of my head” and in turn makes this very line oddly self-referential.
Traversing a range of genre variants such as hip-hop, breakbeat and folk-twinged experimental electronica, Gourmet Scavenger delivers on its premise by piecing together what really should be wildly differing sounds and making them sound coherent. Of particular note is Spoonbill’s remix of Frank Riggio’s ‘In Extremis’, an all-out delight with its swirling strings and almost discordant melodic elements that weave in and out of the main beat. ‘Blossoms’ by Welcome Dear Friend takes the Matthew Herbert allusion slightly more literally, complete with micro-sampling and Dani Siciliano-esque vocals thrown in the mix. Sensient’s offering signals a defiant change in direction from the collection’s more playful first half – heavier bass, omnipresent glitch and deeper reverb leading the transition into a slightly anti-climactic, but incredibly pleasant album coda.
Alexandra Savvides
