Gescom – Key Nell

I'm not very impressed with the production on this EP. Keynell 1 & 2 depend too much on use of some tacky string sounds that must have been taken straight from some cheap late 80's synth. The beats are also very repetitive for a release involving Autechre, but I guess they are tailored made for use at both 33 and 45. Keynell 3 & 4 makes this an essential purchase, but I wish the boys would have spent more time on polishing these tracks too. A bit more analogue trickery would have been much appreciated.

One of the finest of Gescom. The tracks are developing slowly to take the listener to this strange world of Booth/Brown et al. And when they end, one can only regret it was so short... I would call it the "autechriest" of Gescom, maybe that's why it is so good. First two tracks are my favourites here.

This is a fairly standard electronica style cd until you get to track four which is an absolute classic, based around a really strong organ style riff. The sort of track that stays in your head all day if you listen on the way into work.

autechre/gescom's rob brown and sean booth have had more hits than misses, despite their sketchy software / technik navel gazing sessions from the last few years. some of their strongest efforts are variations on a loose theme, key nell. remixes, derivations and reinterpretations of this song rhizomed throughout their catalogue in the mid to late nineties, yielding a fascinating body of work that really should be considered in its full scope eventually, perhaps as a compilation. for now, though, we're fortunate to have this cd reissue lovingly recreated (cd-sized bubblewrap and all!), of the boys at their peak.

key nell is simultaneously a technique (like those rapid vocal stutter-effects), melodic hook and compositional element that binds all the songs into a modular meta-song. it's a sly wink and a reward for the attentive listener and dedicated consumer (skam stuff ain't always cheap); i can't recall offhand any other artist who's developed this idea so extensively. this is no finished song with various live jams a la the grateful dead - some songs are so distinctive one doesn't catch on for multiple listens. try mixing chiastic slide's cichli over track four and you'll find that they're almost the same song. sorta.

all the mid-period autechre-isms we've grown to love are in full effect here - mechanical, severely downpitched samples that sound more like clacking factories than alien craft, uncannily funky basslines that twist like moebius-strips and those trademark haunting melodies. it all sounds very 1997, very non-laptop to my ears, but in that time, no other group has sured this, not even autechre themselves, though not for want of trying.

This is a worthy folllow up to Autechre's Chiastic Slide, as if Envane already wasn't. The easiest word to discribe this release is experimental. Gescom is always one step head of everyone else, the rest just tag along.