Published by Davide Pappalardo on November 17, 2017
Samuel Kerridge is a name in no need of presentation: the English artist has been forging his own sound and vision since 2012, in a career made of many EPs, singles and some albums. He has always challenged the boundaries of techno, noise, power electronics, industrial and electronic music, becoming very quickly a household name both in the rave / techno scene and in the industrial world as well.
After many years spent in Berlin where he even created his own label Contort, he has recently returned to Manchester. This change of setting can be heard in his last effort called The silence between us published by Regis and Female‘s label Downwards records. An EP made of three tracks in which the obsessive loops and noisy drones of his last album Fatal light attraction are gone in favor of a new found rhythmic and syncopated soundscape full of vibrant life and IDM elements filtered by his own industrial-and-noise minded taste.
Possession/Control is a crawling affair characterized by broken rhythms and glitchy blips. Pauses and outbursts are the main themes of the track, encapsulating 90’s IDM in a modern and hardcore way. Ascension plays with a steady rhythmic percussion completed by old-school arpeggios. Warped synth lines and creepy effects are added in an acid atmosphere.
Radical possibilities of pleasure closes the work with its ambient-oriented sound soon engulfed by futuristic glitches once again recalling old-school IDM, but with an industrial edge.
A great work which seems to open a new chapter in an ever growing musical path showing no signs of withdrawal or loss of inspiration. As always Kerridge simply makes elements of the history of electronic music his own; he moves effortlessly between the worlds of dance and experimentation without a problem and with an uncanny sense of identity enforced by a formidable set of skills. Truly brilliant.
Label: Downwards records
Rating: 9