ALSO - Second Storey & Appleblim Present ALSO

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  • In explaining why it takes him so long to put out records, Laurie Osborne, AKA Appleblim, has described himself as a "tinkerer." If you were looking for someone to help you knuckle down and get some focus, Alec Storey might not be the person to call. His Al Tourettes tracks seemed to be the work of an inveterate doodler, every corner coloured in with obsessive details that sometimes made them a bit of a mess. One reason Storey's full-length under his new Second Storey alias—last year's Double Divide—worked was that he left a bit of space between all the spasmodic rhythms. Storey and Osborne make music together as ALSO, and their self-titled album collects the three EPs they've released on R&S. The two artists have joined forces before, but even the weirdest parts of 2010's Lipsmacker sound conservative next to this record. On ALSO, Storey and Osborne seem to be squeezing as many beats—and whatever other noises they can find—into each track. The way these tracks slide around, challenging you to get a grip on them, is what makes them so great. All the fidgeting would make things frustrating if you just wanted to get your groove on—even the most straight-ahead dance floor tracks, like "Formation," constantly try to wrong-foot you—but they're fascinating when you give them your full attention. Listening to ALSO is like watching a three-legged race: beats that bang into each other at first eventually settle into something of a lolloping rhythm. Some moments, like the 12-minute "Rant Check Parts 1 And 2," are really indigestible, but you can happily sink into "Arpegmonger," whose bleeps and rhythms seem to bleed away and boil up again, or "PGs," with its stumbling proto-hip-hop rhythm. ALSO took two heads to make, and you probably need two brains and four ears to completely absorb everything that's going on.
  • Tracklist
      01. Arpegmonger 02. Dive Prophets 03. Blyford Bass 04. Raves 05. Sid’s Conundrum 06. Rant Check: Parts 1 & 2 07. Ashford Swaiths 08. Formation 09. PGs
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