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To talk about the record, we have to start with Grimm Reality, Dimlite’s fourth full-length record, released in November 2011 by Now-Again records. Its name was a pun on Monty Stark’s ‘70s psychedelic-jazz band The Stark Reality, whose little-heard music was first reissued on Stones Throw by Now-Again Records’ owner, Egon.
Nice things have been said about Grimm Reality. FACT Magazine described it as a «colourful world of musical oddities, grooves and melodies» (www.factmag.com/2011/12/06/dimlite-grimm-reality). Pitchfork gave it an honourable 6.7 nod, saying that it was «…somehow making sense in a space where none should be found at all» (www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16124-grimm-reality). The Skinny wrote that it was «…utterly deranged, and yet you can’t take your eyes (or ears) off of it.», whereas Syffal Magazine found that «…it is like he has a Frankenstein lab at his disposal and he dug up the corpses of rock, psych, jazz, hip hop and funk; and fucked around with the forms adding something here, taking something away there then kick started the whole shit with a little sinister electricity, et voilà!». A description which makes for the perfect transition to these left-overs.
The songs on Abscission stem from the same time and place(s) as Grimm Reality. Recorded in bedrooms, on livingroom floors and in Frankenstein labs between 2009 and 2011, they offer the same sensation of stumbling into a parallel universe as the album did, a place where all things tick and feel a tad different from the way we’d expect them to, without being entirely sure why. Right in front there’s the cutting, typically free-spirited rhythm section, duelling with fuzzy bass and guitar tones; all around it: the semi-synthetic carpet of harmony, melody and noise, providing the atmosphere characteristic of Grimm’s productions. And then, on some songs, Dimlite’s admittedly strange and rarely unaltered voice, blurting out wavering, train-of-thought vocals and garnishment. These elements, plus the ever-changing nature of each song, make Abscission a curious place worth visiting and sending postcards from.
Why release «scraps»?, one might ask. Because they’re good scraps! They didn’t fit the structure of a full-length album; that doesn’t necessarily make them inferior. And the fact these haven’t been worked on for as long as what ended up on GR, naturally gives them the raw charm and soul only to be found in demo recordings. GR wasn’t exactly exemplary for the polished sound stylings we’re used to from modern day recordings either, but the tracks on Abscission appear reminiscent of pages fallen out of a notepad… we collected them from the dirty floor, and we’re keeping them. Sharing the find with you respectively. |
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