2015: Favourites of Q2

Another quarter means another list, and it's just as fragmented and all over the place as ever; that's just part and parcel of doing a two man show. And hey, who wants a neatly uniform round-up of the ever-volatile musical landscape? I know for a fact I don't dig the new Jamie xx record, but //APEX's other half does enjoy it a fair bit, so in it goes. It gets even more interesting when our tastes do actually converge: a noise opus, future-shock abstractions and the Super Chef are all things we can agree on, somehow. So, without further ado, here's our collective favourites of April–July (in no particular order). Joe Sherwood


Lil Ugly Mane – THIRD SIDE OF TAPE
(Self-released)

Jim O'Rourke – Simple Songs
(Drag City)

Young Fathers – White Men Are Black Men Too
(Big Dada)

Jamie xx – In Colour
(Young Turks)

Holly Herndon – Platform
(RVNG Intl./4AD)

Young Thug – Barter 6
(300 Entertainment)

Everything Everything – Get to Heaven
(RCA)

Oneohtrix Point Never – Commissions II
(Warp)

Lower Dens – Escape From Evil
(Ribbon Music)

Prurient – Frozen Niagra Falls
(Profound Lore)

Kehlani – You Should Be Here
(Self-released)

Nosaj Thing – Fated
(Innovative Leisure)

In Media Res – リンキンパーク
(Exo Tapes)

JME – Integrity>
(Boy Better Know)

Dean Blunt – Babyfather
(Hyperdub)

Beat Detectives – Boogie Chillen / The Hills of Cypress
(Where to Now?)

A$AP Rocky – At.Long.Last.A$AP
(Polo Grounds)

Kamasi Washington – The Epic
(Brainfeeder)

iLoveMakonnen - Drink More Water 5
(Self-released)

Jenny Hval – Apocalypse, girl
(Sacred Bones)

2015: Favourites of Q1

Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

(Asthmatic Kitty)

Illinois-based Sufjan Stevens has always been a vivid storyteller, with each recognised album from 2003's chamber folk classic Michigan right through to the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy of the glitch pop world, The Age of Adz, in 2010 showcasing a different side to the singer-songwriter's alluring personality. However, despite seemingly lying low since his previous release in 2010, Stevens has reintroduced, if not reinvented, himself through Carrie & Lowell, which serves as a devastatingly heartbreaking insight into the trials and tribulations of Stevens' broken childhood by focusing more closely on his own repressed experiences rather than his views on the outside world and the ways in which his Christian upbringing have shaped these, as was the case on many of his earlier albums. Stevens sings "Fuck me, I'm falling apart" on the critically acclaimed 'No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross' which not only epitomises the despondent atmosphere of the album, but also highlights my exact feelings upon listening to 'Fourth of July', a track that tenderly addresses the death of Carrie, Sufjan's mother, before sombrely ending with the existential realisation that "we're all going to die"; Carrie & Lowell is a story of brutal honesty that wasn't curated with intent to portray a pretentious fantasy, nor to please the mind, and as Stevens said in an interview with Pitchfork, "this is not my art project; this is my life." Joe Gilbey

Viet Cong – Viet Cong 

(Jagjaguwar)

Mumdance & Logos – Proto

(Tectonic)

Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late 

(Cash Money)

Drake's cut the crap and reverted to the rapper he once was, the sole reason that he originally rose to fame; he's reinstated himself as a Young Money Cash Money Billionaire. If You're Reading This It's Too Late is a sterling example of how the rapper is fighting the public perception of the credibility of his music and contains nothing but minimalist "fuck everybody" production to drill home the point that he is still one of the biggest names in hip-hop, and with features from Lil Wayne and Travi$ Scott and a mention to the highly respected British grime artist Skepta in the mixtape's liner notes, it is clear to see that the Canadian is not alone in his push for supremacy. Drake has burnt Marvin's Room to the ground and has taken his sound to the streets, and has ultimately left everyone wondering what he and his 'woes' are able to achieve in the forthcoming months. Joe Gilbey

GFOTY – Cake Mix

(PC Music)

Matana Roberts – COIN COIN Chapter Three: river run thee

(Constellation)

Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly

(Interscope) 

To Pimp a Butterfly is already a cultural juggernaut and critical monolith, and with good reason; if there's one album this year that has felt like a genuine event, it's K. Dot's. A complex, multi-faceted odyssey of black power and Hood Politics, Butterfly has already established itself as a cornerstone of 2015 which, rather appropriately, has got the whole world talking. Joe Sherwood

Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love 

(Sub Pop)

Mount Eerie – Sauna

(P.W. Eleverum & Sun)

Dawn Richard – Blackheart 

(Our Dawn)

Pinkshinyultrablast – Everything Else Matters 

(Shelflife)

Father – Who's Gonna Get Fucked First?

(Awful)

Jam City – Dream a Garden

(Night Slugs)

If Classical Curves jolted UK's dance continuum in a new direction, Jam City's follow up record bears witness to a complete stylistic about-turn. Caustic textures, drifting guitar and RnB-indebted vocals all propel Jack Latham's sound into newfound realms of song-centricity. While everyone else is still catching up to Jam City's first album, Dream a Garden elevates Latham to another plane entirely, and it's gonna be a while before we see anything else quite like it. Joe Sherwood

DJ Nigga Fox – Noite E Dia

(Príncipe)

OG Maco – 15

(Quality Control)

Teresa Winter – Oh Tina, No Tina

(Reckno)

Teresa Winter's new tape for Reckno is a rough diamond if ever there was one, all crumbling samples and bedroom pop reverie. Oh Tina, No Tina floats with the best of 'em, a veritable fever dream of melting plastic and broken tape machines; H-pop hardly needed a revival, but Teresa Winter nonetheless gives it a refreshing boot up the jacksie. Joe Sherwood

Björk – Vulcinura 

(One Little Indian)

Rae Sremmurd – Sremmlife

(Ear Drummer)

Susanne Sundfør – Ten Love Songs 

(Warner)

Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside 

(Tan Cressida)

This quarter has been an absolute milestone for hip-hop with eagerly awaited releases not only dropping left, right and centre, but also delivering the hard-hitting, dynamic content that had been promised by artists varying from the Wu-Tang veteran Ghostface Killah as a result of his collaborative project alongside BADBADNOTGOOD to the hedonistic up-and-comers from the south, Rae Sremmurd. Earl Sweatshirt's latest album I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside is another that certainly doesn't disappoint, with Odd Future's protege taking a more mature approach to his lyricism on grown up tracks such as 'Grief' whilst maintaining the gritty darkness that distinguishes the promising 21 year old from the rest, and more than justifies his self-entitlement of being "a hard act to follow". Joe Gilbey

2014: Favourites of Q2

Where does time go? 2014 is already half-way through, and having honoured the best albums of (roughly) January-March, we're back to honour the best albums of (roughly) April-June - this time, however, we decided to actually quantify why we like these albums so damn much rather than just straight up list them. As ever, expect a nice grab-bag of styles and sounds, from alien grime to dusty jazz-hop with a gangster rap edge; terrifying doom metal to shimmering psych-folk, and so on.

Shout-out time; many great releases from Q1 slipped through the cracks initially, along with the sleeper hits we didn't realise we liked so much until after the list was finalised. These include Isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo, New Balance's Formes De Viure, Kassem Mosse's Workshop 19, Sun Araw's Belomancie, Ana Caprix's For Seven Nights This Island Is Ours, Ekoplekz's Unfidelity, Migos' No Label 2, Magic Eye's Babylon and Kevin Gates' By Any Means.

More shout-out time; the past three months have been particularly kind to us, so here are a load of releases that barely missed the cut from Q2: BADBADNOTGOOD's III, Foodman's DRUM DESU, Valerio Tricoli's Miseri Lares, Traxman's Da Mind of Traxman Vol. 2, Life Sim's This Life, Gobby's Wakng Thrst For Seeping Banhee, Fear of Men's Loom, Dynooo's These Flaws Are Mine To War With, GFOTY's Secret Mix, Lil B's Hoop Life, Klara Lewis' Ett, Fushitsusha's Nothing Changes..., Mac DeMarco's Salad Days. Every single album mentioned above is worth checking out along with our top 20, and who knows, maybe they'll grow on us in the coming months.

2014: Favourite Tracks/EPs So Far

6 months have passed in what is already shaping up to be an outstanding year in the world of music. As a new age of musicians begin to leave their mark on the face of the industry, whether it be the future garage sounds of Jamie xx or through hypermodern UK grime as demonstrated by Serious Thugs, it is evident that the underground scene is thriving more than ever. As is usually the case, it has been immensely difficult for both myself and Joe Sherwood to keep the list's maximum at 15 tracks, and so considerable mentions must be given to Swans' "Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture", Hannah Diamond's "Attachment" and "Slave To The Rhythm" by the late Michael Jackson to name a few. We'll be releasing our list of albums with a short review for each very shortly so keep on checking back for that. Until then, enjoy our favourite tracks and EPs of the year thus far, complete with a Soundcloud playlist for each of us (tracks not on Soundcloud are linked to YouTube/Spotify).

Mixtape Roundup, Volume 1

After the success of Joe Sherwood's 'Cassette Roundup' series, I figured that I had also better host a set of reviews for my own series that is based on my primarily-rap-orientated personal taste, because let's be honest, who doesn't like a mixtape or two?

The way in which hip-hop has functioned as a genre has transformed dramatically over recent years due to the introduction of the internet and the wider advertisement that artists are able to get as a consequence of this, and although mixtapes have been knockin' about since the 70s, the birth of the internet mixtape was a pivotal point for the music industry due to its easy accessibility. I am here to make this an even easier journey for you by bringing the hottest mixtapes straight to your screens on a regular basis, and I've even thrown in a couple of links and what not because I'm just that nice a guy.

Enjoy.


Big Narstie What's The Story? Brixton Glory (Dice Recordings, 2014)

Whether it's his vibrant vocabulary of London slang or his comically nonchalant approach to slating the week's latest singles for FACT magazine, there has always been something undeniably lovable about MC and founder of the Base Defence League, Big Narstie, and his latest EP, What's The Story? Brixton Glory, is testament to his charming presence in the UK grime scene. Sure the beats aren't exceptional, and there are some more than questionable sample choices such as 'Clocks' by Coldplay and of course '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' by Oasis, the track by which the entire mixtape is based around, but Uncle Pain continues to have no difficulty in persuading avid grime enthusiasts nationwide that he is in fact one of the founding fathers of this generation of grime; his energetic vibes and tongue-in-cheek bars are qualities to be admired by any emerging young rapper. A word of advice: make sure that you take as much as possible from the experience of listening to Big Narstie, and whatever you do, do not fuck up the base.




CyHi The Prynce Black Hystori Project (G.O.O.D. Music, 2014)

In a recent interview with Complex, Cydel Young revealed that his inspiration for Black Hystori Project was actually his nephew's school teacher who claimed that he wasn't 'monumental' enough to be considered for a report in black history month at the school. So, to retaliate to this claim, CyHi got on the phone to his close friend Kanye West and began to work on his own project that would cover historic milestones that changed the way in which blacks were seen in society with an inevitable G.O.O.D. Music spin on things. Not a bad way to prove a point, huh?

Of course, the influence of West is almost inescapably obvious, especially on tracks such as 'Mandela' whereby CyHi refers to himself as being "Muhammad to the rap game", similar to Kanye's God complex personality that shines through particularly strongly on his controversially titled Yeezus. However, this powerful lyricism is more than fitting considering the strong nature of the thematic imagery as Young schools the listener about the uprising of black community figures such as Desmond Tutu (the first black Archbishop of Cape Town) that contributed to the resolution of apartheid in South Africa, all over TEC BEATZ and Sekou Muhammed's hard-hitting drum loops.

Black Hystori Project is easily CyHi The Prynce's greatest work as of yet, and with Hardway Musical scheduled to be released later this year, I shall be eagerly waiting to see whether it lives up to the high expectations set by his latest tape.

Cassette Roundup, Volume 2

C L E A N E R S Real Raga Shit Vol. 1 (Bootleg Tapes, 2014)

A triumph of style and substance. Despite making it into our favourite albums of 2014's first quarter list a few days ago, I don't think either of us has really managed to attest to the brilliance of Real Raga Shit Vol. 1. It's an interesting proposition from the outset, with what its release on Bootleg Tapes (quite possibly my favourite label around right now), two intriguingly named side-long tracks, and some fancy artwork to boot, but the music contained within is the real star attraction here. In a similar vein to much of Bootleg's catalogue, the C L E A N E R S tape is a haphazard meeting of samples from entirely disparate sources, from Coltrane's "I Love You" to the most obvious Casablanca quote, with an undercurrent of tape hiss and analogue noise throughout. This approach to sound really shouldn't work, but by sheer dexterity and intuition, C L E A N E R S pulls it off with a very large degree of panache, connecting the dots between the least likely of entities and making it sound fantastic in the process. 

EQ Why ChiTokyo Mixtape (Orange Milk, 2014)

Footworking is resolutely a location-centric genre, with many of its finest practitioners hailing from Chicago, but outsider contributions to the movement are not only preventing footwork from falling into an easily- replicable template, but they are also providing some of the most worthwhile contributions to it. This calendar year has already seen a few shining examples, such as Thug Entrancer's Death After Life and Foodman's hamakko EP, but one of the best "outsider" efforts thus far comes from an actual Chicagoan. EQ Why - a cheeky dig at RP Boo? - merges the malleable styling of Chi-town footwork/juke with the weird and wonderful Japanese take on the scene, and appropriately calls it the ChiTokyo Mixtape. Essentially, the tape is an hour of primo footworking, which bridges the gap between two rather different modi operandi, and thankfully never takes itself too seriously. If you've ever found yourself enjoying the likes of DJ Rashad or DJ Spinn, as well as the warped worlds of Paisley Parks and Foodman, then ChiTokyo Mixtape might just be your calling.
 

Magic Eye Babylon (Not Not Fun, 2014)

Reverb and distortion have been getting a bad press as of late, and it's totally understandable; it's the go-to method of distraction to mask lazy songwriting, or to obscure lyricists who have nothing worthwhile to say (I'm looking squarely at YOU, Perfect Pussy). Thankfully, Magic Eye utilise these effects to a particularly artful degree on their latest release, Babylon. The album came about after a distasteful experience at an "overly pro studio", which left the resulting recording "grit-less and dried out"; mercifully, upon hearing the opener "Japan" it would appear that the grit and earthiness has been well-and-truly reinstated, and the tape retains this beautifully lo-fi aesthetic throughout. It amounts to an exploration of the limits and boundaries of the humble cassette tape, in all of its noisy, scorched glory.

2014: Favourites of Q1

We're just about 3 months into 2014, and the year is already shaping up tremendously well. As such, myself and Joe have decided to offload our favourites of this first quarter (as well as a couple of last-ditch efforts from December), with the second and third to follow before the overall year-end list. It's never easy to mash each of our respective tastes into one comprehensive guide, but at least it makes for an interesting list; it's actually quite heartening to see the likes of C L E A N E R S slot alongside Real Estate, or for Sicko Mobb to cosy up next to Have a Nice Life. As ever, there are a few honorable mentions to be made: Live at the Cairo High Cinema Institute (EEK), 37 Minute Workout (Russell Haswell), What's The Story? Brixton Glory (Big Narstie), Divine Ecstasy (Supreme Cuts), Beyoncé (Beyoncé), Lay-By Lullaby (Janek Schaefer) and Oxymoron (ScHoolboy Q). So, in no particular order, here is a rough idea of where we're at with 2014...

BRITs 2014: The //APEX Winners

Following on from yesterday's hypothetical //APEX nominations for this year's BRIT Awards, we would now like to reveal our winners (sponsored by MasterCard of course). Some difficult decisions had to be made, but myself and Mr Gilbey are confident that our ruthlessly democratic method of selection - some 10 minutes deliberating on a Facebook chat - has returned the correct results for the blog's widely-flung taste.

BRITs 2014: //APEX's Shortlist

Almost a year has passed since the 2013 BRIT Awards whereby Emeli Sande and Ben Howard surprisingly picked up two awards each over the night, and so we can only speculate what this year will give us considering the nature of the nominees. Household names such as David Bowie, Ellie Goulding and Arctic Monkeys have all been shortlisted for various categories including British Group and the "prestigious" British Album of the Year award, but are these nominations testament to the greatest pieces of musical art that have been released in the UK over the past year? With Jake Bugg losing that original novelty that shone through in his eponymous debut album through his latest release, Shangri La, and Tom Odell receiving a hefty 0/10 from Mark Beaumont of NME who then went on to say "I wish I could say there’s a place in Hell reserved for Tom Odell", it can be quite easily argued that the British Male Solo Artist, and all of the other categories for that matter, are severely flawed. For this reason, Joe Sherwood and I have decided to collaborate in order to create an alternative set of nominations for each BRITs category for those who we feel are most deserving of the title.

2013: Joe Gilbey's Favourite Tracks

As Joe Sherwood said on his own 'Favourite Tracks of 2013' list, although one may be led to believe that an end of year tracks list should primarily consist of tracks produced by those on the same person's albums list, there is far more to the process than that. An album is usually written with all of the tracks on it in mind, and so the finished product gives off a vibe that is similar at the start of the album to the end of the album; it is a continual piece of art. A single, however, is usually produced for mainstream entertainment purposes in order for an artist to get out their piece of work and showcase it to the world as a glimpse of their abilities as a musician. This, therefore, made choosing the greatest tracks exceedingly difficult as 2013 has been such a brilliantly diverse year, and although they have been ordered, I feel that any track could slide into my top 10 depending on what mood I'm in. Anyway, here's the list.

2013: Joe Gilbey's Favourite Albums

I like keeping my forenotices short and sweet, and so all I really have to say is that 2013 has been an absolutely fucking insane year in the world of music. Thank you to everyone that has made the year such a good one for //APEX, we promise to supply you with many more great features in 2014. But yeah, here's my long-awaited AOTY list. Enjoy.

2013: Joe Sherwood's Favourite Tracks

You'd think that a favourite tracks/singles list would converge mainly around one's favourite albums, but to my mind a good album is one that retains a degree of uniformity quality-wise, making it rather difficult to dissect and split up the overall experience. That said, I've done precisely that for a number of tracks here, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that my favourite albums list isn't particularly reflected in this list of my favourite tracks of the past year. It contains plenty of singles, non-album tracks, mixtape cuts, and even stuff from albums I didn't really care for - my number one pick here confirms this sentiment rather nicely. Ultimately, I prefer the full album experience, but my enjoyment of single tracks this year has certainly been expanded over the past twelve months, and a large selection of 75 seems to suggest that. So, having reveled in the long players of 2013, here's to the musical short form.

P.S. Yes, Miley Cyrus has indeed made the list, even cracking the top 50. Sometimes, it's just too difficult to deny some pretty good pop music.

2013: Joe Sherwood's Favourite Albums

When it comes to making these year-end lists, I always try to pick out trends in my listening habits, and I always come up with nothing. I'm not trying to say I have an amazingly diverse taste in music, because I don't particularly; only a few rock albums have made it onto my top 50, and unbelievably there are no representatives for metal. The lack of any real dominant focus in my music listening most likely owes to the increasingly fragmented state of music. We live in the age of information, and pretty much any record of one's choosing is available to stream, purchase or (perhaps) download for nothing within a few clicks. Moreover, a lot of the best records this year are available for free at the artist's choice, and it's telling that 3 of my top 10 albums can be downloaded legally without charge. And, the definition of what exactly an "album" is has become hazy of late, with mixtapes and EPs slotting alongside commercially available, full-length releases. The point I'm trying to make here is that this top 50 isn't some sort of vanity exercise to show how unique my tastes are, nor is it an overblown advertisement for independent labels. It's simply a showcase of my personal favourites from the past year, and any diversity is most likely down to the prominence of the internet rather than a conscious decision on my part to appear on trend.

As ever, there was some unpleasant culling that had to be done to keep this list at 50 records, and some really rather good albums are missing from this list. I would honor them here, but there are far too many to reel off, so I may make a separate post for the honorable mentions. I'll also include a Spotify playlist at the foot of this post with some of my favourite tracks from each album (provided the album is actually on Spotify, of course). Please, don't dwell on the rankings too much, because every single one of these 50 records is absolutely worth checking out.

Thanks for reading //APEX this year, and I hope you can find something you enjoy from this list.

2013: Favourite Album Covers

2013 has unquestionably been a landmark year in music; with comebacks and breakthroughs, debuts and swan songs, Sky Ferreira and Miley Cyrus, it has been more than an eventful 12 months. However, here at //APEX we're a little more easily amused by the little things in life, so welcome to our 30 finest album covers of the year.

P.S. big up to the artists at DONDA that have actually managed to squeeze 2 Chainz onto an end of year list.
Joe Gilbey


Never judge a book by its cover, or so the old adage goes. We're not ones to do that, but instead we'll opt to judge a cover by its cover for our favourite pieces of album artwork from the past 12 months. These picks fall under numerous criteria: conceptual statements, imagery related to the music, or on a more basic level the simple aesthetic value of the art. Here are 30 of our favourite covers, in no particular order, for you to feast your eyes on before the real business of year-end lists commences (ie albums and tracks). Enjoy.
Joe Sherwood

Cassette Roundup, Volume 1

Independent record labels have really harnessed the potential of the internet through mediums such as Bandcamp and Soundcloud, and it means that whatever the label puts out can be heard by more people than a limited-run release would allow. Sure, it sacrifices the exclusivity of owning one of 50 copies of a tape, but as the major labels continue to stagnate, we need these boutique and web-based labels more than ever for exciting, challenging and new music. A few releases I've reviewed this year (JCCG, LAMPGOD and**Ł_RD//$M$) have been tapes, so to reflect the wealth of cassette releases out there in 2013 I have decided to launch this new series: Cassette Roundup. Every so often, I'll tackle a few tapes which I feel are worth a few words and include a sample/stream for good measure.

Diamond Black Hearted Boy Father, Protect me. (Steak Au Zoo, 2013)

There's outsider hip-hop, and then there's this. Chino Amobi's Diamond Black Hearted Boy project has been going since 2008, but it hasn't seen many proper full-length releases; instead, his Bandcamp mainly features single tracks, all of them strange in their own right. Father, Protect me. is a continuation of his oddball approach to beat-making and soundscaping, and it may be one of the most singular hip-hop albums I've heard this year (possibly probably ever).

The title track is an exhilarating experience in and of itself, featuring broken drum loops, digital abrasion and a stuttering verse which is repeated throughout. Amobi has an almost Burial-esque approach to vocal samples on tracks such as "I just wanna be a r#97C57CE", wherein soulful voices are pitched up and looped ad infinitum. There are some rather strange samples across the album - I think I can hear the gravity hammer from the Halo games on "I don't need protection (You)", and I'm sure there'll be hidden pop-culture nuggets aplenty buried beneath the murky beats and noisy manipulation. That's all I can really muster up about Father, Protect me.: albums like this have to be heard to be believed.

Free Weed On the Moon / Get It 2Nite (Exo Tapes, 2013)

Erik Gage's releases as Free Weed carry the drug-induced hypnagogia one would expect from such a name: his previous releases feature whacked-out pop songs comprised of drum machines, distorted guitars, pianos and sloppy vocals, all veiled beneath a kush cloak. His cassette for Exo Tapes, released earlier this year, sees him clean up his sound a little bit for On the Moon, before retreating back into the clouds on Get It 2Nite.

The On the Moon side is probably his most immediate set yet, with upfront drum machines opening the proceedings. The lyrics are, rather predictably, stoner fare, with lines such as "I wanna have drugs for friends" and "You won't get high if you don't get high, if you won't get high"; it's not big, and it's not clever, but it's infectiously good fun. The Get It 2Nite side is more abstract, with the case in point being "I'm a Mermaid", in all its sub-aquatic glory. All in all, this tape is a pleasure to listen to, and you'll be sure to return for your Free Weed fix.
 

Street Thunder Bonfire Gecko Hex (Reckno, 2013)

Street Thunder doesn't do "releases" or "albums"; he/she/they/it instead operates in "transmission[s]", and the latest is Bonfire Gecko Hex, released in Reckno's October batch. Gibberish name aside, Bonfire Gecko Hex feels like some sort of spiritual rite. There's a certain earthiness and elemental quality suggested by the artwork, and it's carried into the recording itself - Street Thunder manages to shift the stasis with swelling, layered drones and subtle movements in sound, in a way that reflects a forest ecosystem.

Side A's "Dragon Bong" starts out with pulsating, melancholic strings, as if one was exploring a dark undergrowth or wading through a murky river, but just as it seems to slip into a groove the mood is suddenly altered by a shimmering loop, akin to the awakening of an ancient beast. Side B's "Chrome Swisher" begins as side A ended, with a twinkling loop underpinned by slowly-developing (but never threatening) noise. Towards the end of the track, a chasm is opened and the noise envelops all, before fading back into the darkness. Bonfire Gecko Hex, then, is a rather minimal, hallucinatory experience, but a gripping one nonetheless.