BODDY, IAN/CHRIS CARTER 
280204
CD
CAGED

AMBIENT (SYNTH)

Chris Carter is very well known for his pioneering work in Throbbing Gristle as well as one half of the duo Chris & Cosey, and now, on his first collaboration with synth veteran, Ian Boddy the duo take you on 7 cosmic excursions through a stunning panorama filled with the vast empty echoes of lost, imagined cities, with a travelling time of nearly 58 minutes. But don't think for a moment that this is merely a collection of anonymous, ephemeral drifts and drones. Together they have produced a music of startling muscularity which fuses their concerns with form, timbre and space, forging a sound which appeals to the heart as much as the head. Stripped back to the sparse essence of accessible dance-savvy electronica, the pair have imbued on 'Caged' with a dense undercurrent of proto-dub, which will thump you in the chest and rattle your windowpanes. The sense of forward momentum quite literally carries the listener in a fast-moving aural travelogue where break beats slip and slide across time and space, tendrils of melody are twisted, subverted and converted into a kind of digital morse where the flotsam and jetsam of ghost-notes are swept in on an intense sonic tidal wave. 'Caged' plays around with chance and paradox - where a whisper becomes a crescendo, a beat becomes a tone, where everything is transmuted and nothing stands still.

Well, you can definitely say that this is space music for sure! This 7 track cosmic journeys transports us though the cosmos for nearly an hour. Each phase of the trip ranges from five to ten minutes, and the first one: ‘Concussed’ starts out as slowly rhythmic with synth music overlays, but gradually follows a minimal path to take the listener right out into the uncharted regions of deep space. It’s dark but not unpleasant, atmospheric but in a totally relaxed state, spacious in the sense that there is as much to take in from the spaces as much as the actual music itself. Track 6, the title track, returns to the undulating rhythmic path, as does the closing ten minutes of ‘Under-Dub’, but overall this is one seriously cosmic, dark, minimalist, almost gothic synth music album. With not a tune in sight, other titles like ‘Coriolis’ & ‘Sub-Aura’ follow an unusual and occasionally eerie path, but both are quite hypnotic and peaceful at the same time, making for an album totally unlike any other cosmic album around right now. Just to offer you another perspective on ‘Caged’, here’s a few extracts from a ‘Wire’ review: “The grid may be linear, but the mood is dank and windblown, flinty and waywardly British” – “It unearths moods beyond most modern plagiarists” – “Catch the way the bassline comes in on the opener 'Concussed' - red sun splitting grey clouds - seamlessly interlacing drift/tone and beaten tracks” – “Subterranean drip and echo, percussion like midnight syntax tapped out on pipes - an unnerving, claustrophobic soundtrack for that Harry Lime moment when all your shadows catch up with you." You really do have to credit to Boddy & Carter for following such an adventurous musical path with this DiN release.

Weight: 150.00 g