J. Wiltshire - sun link (Super Hexagon Records)

 

Title: sun link

Artist: J. Wiltshire

Label: Super Hexagon Records

Cat Number: SHLP002

Genre: Abstract Breaks

1: sun link

2: century

3: drilled into

4: west uns

5: slk6

6: gothub beginnings

7: formless in the antichamber

8: up/upside down

‘sun link’. Super Hexagon co-founder J. Wiltshire’s debut album for the label, is an episodic piece of elemental techno ambience that soundtracks an imaginary English summer, evoking historical strata as it does. It’s an evocation of freedom and the countryside idyll of the mind. It also typifies a certain strain of idm, not there at the beginning, but one that has evolved, built on break beats and whimsy tempered with solemnity. The compositions, with the exception of the strolling ‘gothub beginnings’ and the beatless/ambient pair of ‘century’ and ‘formless in the antichamber’  all follow this blueprint to a lesser or greater extent. Starting in the form of the synapse snapping title track, a peak of sorts is reached with the not too dissimilar ‘west uns’, before the reflective and high tensile spider web beats of ‘slk 6’. A track whose dramatic persona is belied by its lightness of touch. Nothing here is immediately as it seems, and repeated listens only open one up to new experiences.