“Melodic smear, radiostatic blur.”
Unless you listen to dungeon synth, you won’t hear many new records that are sourced almost exclusively from old Casio keyboards. Steve Bates attempts exactly this with new album All The Things That Happen on Constellation, the home of many artists that embrace the fuzzy fringes of the sonic spectrum. With a few extra effects cranked to their limits, Bates‘ record puts a challenging set of tracks to-tape that explore somber dissonance and cacophony. The result is a record that veers between (fairly) harsh noise and (fairly) ambient music, that fans of Yellow Swans, Tim Hecker, or Kevin Drumm should attempt. It’s a difficult record to analyze, as Bates has roots in many music scenes including installation art, so some aspects may be lost in translation and patience is required.
It certainly doesn’t help that opener “Groves of….everything!” is a barrage of the albums most difficult sounds. Some of the key-runs that decorate the high end are hard to make sense of, even when appreciating their likely improvised origins. Perhaps it works like a theme park ‘you must be this tall to ride this rollercoaster’ sign, because once you’re through it, things start to make more sense. Just don’t expect traditional song structures to emerge. The record finds its stride on “Glistening“, a grumbling, erratic distortion-scape where the sounds align towards satisfaction rather than confusion.
Several cuts are decidedly less noisy. “Covered in silt and weed” eventually develops something that resembles a soft chord sequence. Harsher tones phase in and out, as if on an elliptical orbit. “September through September” is an entirely pleasant, distortion free epilogue for the record that breaks the Casio-only limitation to sample an organ. “Glimpse an end” is also a ‘softer’ track, engrossing and melancholic, though its friction increases towards its end. These moments that blend calmness and intensity feel right: like finding calm in a busy place, or perhaps reaching higher planes of consciousness at the back of a rowdy bus.
In these ‘gentler’ moments that Bates has achieved something special, wringing beauty out of chaos. On the more wholly intense tracks, such as “Bring on black flames“, there’s no equivalent magic that transpires, or distinct purpose that is unveiled to me. Still, the sonic textures have been carefully selected. It’s noisy but never irritating, and the high frequencies are used carefully throughout the record, making everything very listenable. By my reckoning, tracks three to six of All The Things That Happen make for a very satisfying suite, but I wouldn’t soon return to the rest.
5.5/10
All The Things That Happen will be available tomorrow, September 23rd via Constellation, and you can find the record here.