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Actress DJ-Kicks !K7

05.05.15

Great idea this. Ghettoville may have been brilliant, and obviously nobody real bumps Silver Cloud when the sun’s out, but Darren Cunningham’s recent output has been as bleak as Kafka on the final comedown. As such, it’s nice to see the Werkdiscs boss use the space on offer in a mix comp to, in relative terms, lighten up a bit. Even today when you give RIP or Splaszh a listen, you can hear the guy obsessing over every last built-from-scratch synth squeak, or every bitcrushed sample. So getting him to just stick some records on and not fuss too much about the beat-matching sounds like something we all needed.

It’s predictably eclectic stuff, with affiliate Greg Beato opening things up under his Breaker moniker, before moving through crystalised synthscapes, overdriven drum workouts and ruminative techno, courtesy of names as varied as ambient trance producer Lorenzo Senni, Simbiosi, and Mark Fell. Cunningham manages to consolidate a wealth of influences and styles into a coherent offering that doesn’t once come off too contrived.

As usually happens on the DJ-Kicks series, the selector throws in an exclusive. Cunningham’s is called Bird Matrix, reportedly the first thing he banged out on a new studio setup he put together not long after finishing the last LP. It’s lovely, its warm synth washes and lurching rhythms cleverly situating Ghettoville’s hooded-murkery beneath RIP’s heavenly lights in the sky.