Some Truths - Some Friends I Lost To Bedlam, Others I Abandoned There

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  • Ralph Cumbers, the Bristol artist better known as Bass Clef, started the Some Truths project as a blank canvas for modular synth doodles on his own Magic + Dreams label. But something odd happened along the way—just as his usually danceable Bass Clef releases have become dense and tangled, the Some Truths material has grown clearer and cleaner, like he finally wiped the eraser dust off his scribbles. Some Friends I Lost To Bedlam, Others I Abandoned There completes the transformation, taking techno as its muse and delivering 40 minutes of pitch-perfect modular play. Landing on Mordant Music, Some Friends... is the most widely-available release from Some Truths yet, and it comes with a newfound focus on melody and composition. Cumbers has a tight grip on his machines, weaving space rock melodies on "Too Much Bone" and emphasizing the unique textures of modular synthesis—"Magie On The Gallows" moves like an organism that lives, breathes and grows. At their most basic, these songs develop through the modulation of sounds that dance and jiggle across the stereo spectrum, but they feel practiced rather than improvisatory.  Over its second half, Some Friends... wobbles in the direction of techno, albeit the cosmically-inclined kind. The nine-minute closer "What Fresh Hell Is This" does it best, loading up a sturdy foundation with seismic pulses and erratically twirling synths—it has all the brazen unpredictability of a live jam, but it squirms in place as if pinned down by Cumbers' own hands. Swarmed by angry tea kettle squeals, "Section 12(2)" is driven by a zig-zagging bassline, like Shackleton in slo-mo.  As with Bass Clef's recent material on PAN, some of these tracks (especially the Drexciyan depth charge of "Acid and Prozac") could work on an open-minded dance floor. The album is short, digestible and split into two neat halves, without a wasted moment. This, above all, is the hallmark of Cumbers' recent hot streak: the more out-there he gets, the more confident he seems in his surroundings. On Some Friends... he sounds right at home.
  • Tracklist
      01. Too Much Bone In Your Skull 02. Quaalude And Fugue State 03. The Magpie On The Gallows 04. Music For Trepanning 05. Section 12(2) 06. Acid And Prozac 07. What Fresh Hell Is This?
RA