ACTRESS - R.I.P

Darren Cunningham's third full-length (and second for Honest Jon's) sees his approach stay static-ridden and sidechain-prone, sinking into deeper, darker ambience than on previous efforts despite intermittent resurfacing into beat-based technoid territory.

"R.I.P is, without question, far removed from the twisted techno jams that comprise 2010's Splazsh and Actress' debut album, Hazyville, but the genre's influence is nonetheless dominant. Instead of blatantly nodding to the great Detroit veterans or, say, the German minimalists, however, Cunningham inverts techno and dives further into its deep cavern of possibilities than ever before. Only after he's reached the tunnel's end does the producer return, emerging with a sound that favors visceral textures and supernatural moods over outright rhythms and melodies." - XLR8R

"R.I.P increasingly floats free of mind/body exigencies to create a record—closer in spirit to 'sound art' than anything you might hear in a club—that revels in a sublime sense of unearthliness, from 'Ascending''s inverted beats and cloud-mist textures to 'Marble Plexus,' which sounds like god's own techno party heard through a wall, and on to sulphur-reeking cuts like the excellent 'Shadow From Tartarus' and 'Tree Of Knowledge.' The whole thing glows like freshly mangled spaceship parts found in the desert at night." - The Stool Pigeon