- A sonic polyglot returns with a mini-album of folky, post-punk techno hybrids with harrowing lyrics.
- A couple of weeks ago, Sockethead performed at London's Cafe OTO. Flanked by pensive fans the Mancunian artist otherwise known as Richard Harris presented an new live project called AVALANCHE—"a sonic exploration into tainted memory and the evolving narratives that meander between a fragile family unit." Featuring live collaborators Sean Traynor and Michelle Romin, the music changed gear constantly between rugged folk, experimental electronica and everything in between. It felt fresh and packed to the brim with poetic ideas, much like all of the work Harris has released as Sockedheat via Andrew Lyster's YOUTH label over the past three years.
Following November 2020's hellfire debut Harj-O-Marj, its club-geared follow-up Yas and his recent collaborative LP with fellow Manc Michael J. Blood, Harris continues a relentless streak of edgy, experimental electronic music for 2023. Drenched Worlds Fall Apart is the latest chapter in an unravelling story that plucks from the far recesses of his mind. Exploring themes of mental health, Harris combines dank sub-bass, fever-pitch acoustic melodies, adlibs, crooning and lots of delay effects. He takes an alchemical approach to production, blending eclectic styles and going further down the rabbit hole of ideas that seem to come so very naturally to him.
"I'm Losing My Fingers" features a surging melody, while frenetic drums prop up a chant-like verse: "I'm losing my fingers like I lost my patience." "Make Myself Cry" hits totally differently, with a pang of sub-bass juxtaposed nicely by an open-ended poetic trope: "Love comes with its prices." Elsewhere, slow piano chords and hazy field recordings of children speaking lend a more pastoral, music-concreté style to "Still Life," across two parts that feel both melancholy and nostalgic.
The most club-geared moment on the record comes on "Walking On Clouds Slowly Sinking," where a churning bassline combines with a rapid-fire verse of lyrics that linger in the mind: "Since the last album I had the hardest time / On the merry-go-round suicide / I find it hard to communicate / So I ask myself is this my fate? / At the very least I know I gotta try / Got darkness on sight grey skies / Got darkness on sight suicide / I lost my mind." The combination of these words with the music is both unnerving and enthralling. File under curveballs for a raw dance floor.
Where Harj-O-Marj was a kaleidoscopic debut, Harris switched things up with Yas by ditching the vocals and letting his synths and drum machines take the lead for a more techno-oriented club rumination. Drenched Worlds Fall Apart feels like an amalgamation of both, Harris honing both his sound and forlorn lyrics to present his most laser-focused piece of work yet.
Tracklist01. Still Life
02. I'm Losing My Fingers
03. Make Myself Cry
04. Sian
05. Walking On Clouds Slowly Sinking
06. Deathtune
07. Still Life II