ACTRESS - Splazsh / RENE HELL - Porcelain Opera

While it may not appear to be the case at first glance, there are enough affinities between these discs to warrant a joint writeup, and not just because they share a release week (although that certainly helps). 

While these two young men's soundworlds are both singular enough to be miles apart (and draw from their own mongrel mixes of entirely different subgenres), Actress (a.k.a. Darren Cunningham) and Rene Hell (a.k.a. Jeff Witscher) are both releasing their highest-profile full-lengths to date (for the highly respected Honest Jon's and Type labels, respectively) after years of underground acclaim in each of their domains (post-dubstep, abstract tech-house-inspired, what-u-call-it? U.K. bass music for Cunningham; ambient drone, harsh noise, power electronics, U.S. post-hardcore and, as Rene Hell, analog-synth industrial/prog/kosmische for Witscher).

While Hell's been much more pseudonym-happy than Actress (having also gone by the names Impregnable, Marble Sky, Secret Abuse and Abelar Scout, among others), both these artists have plenty of experience going it alone, not only through making their music solo, but also by releasing much of it on smaller labels that they each run (Werk Discs vs. Agents Of Chaos/Callow God), proof that Cunningham and Witscher both know how to skillfully produce tracks on/of their own, as well as how to lend their releases and identities the sort of mystique that's increasingly crucial to getting heard amidst the din of the independent music marketplace.

Each a unique, hermetic and disorienting sound experience unto itself, Splazsh and Porcelain Opera both bear the mark of years of hard work paying off, yet are immersive enough listens to render all this backstory moot, making for two of this writer's favourite electronic releases of the year thus far.

Comments

[m]

nice to see Rene Hell featured, now to try and bring him to T.O!