Fresh from compiling Scribble’s Antipodean odd waves, Strangelove recruits Irish dub-tech and musical polyglot t-woc for an LP of soundsystem pressure. Pantangle germinated after an artist’s residency in county Leitrim, yielding six tracks that trace the furthest edges of digital reggae. The music here centres around a palette of steel drums and FM synthesis bolstered by a battery of effects and mixing board wizardry.
The wandering bassline on ‘Kasioso’ ambles over the percolating ticks and fizz of drum machines while woozy dub chords, representational FM synth sounds and steel drum hits are punched in and out. t-woc feeds the steel drums through delays, creating a kaleidoscopic swirl of metallic pings and spiralling echoes that recall the psychedelic haze of Sherwood’s On-U studios. It’s the album’s spaciest track and fits perfectly as a young bud amongst the outernational abstraction of Strangelove’s archival catalogue, which strings together a continuum of visionary oddballs.
Pantangle will be released on Strangelove on 25th June.
