zap! bang! Magazine

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• 7

• A Sort of Radiance

• Fabric

• Spectrum Spools

• 2011-03-21

• One of two initial releases on new Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools, A Sort of Radiance is the debut LP from Chicago’s Fabric, aka multi-instrumentalist Matthew Mullane. Run by Peter Rehberg but curated by John Elliot the imprint has a mission statement of releasing “current, past and future electronic music works of the highest order”. With that and its title in mind, A Sort of Radiance displays the kind of ambient wondrance that you might expect. A delight for fans of kosmische and new age ambience old and recent, Mullane crafts an array of synth/computer atmospheres, of varying length, texture and density across the LP.

  Lengthy early track “Leaving The House” sets out the Fabric stable with a soft, sci-fi scape which almost meets John Elliot’s Emeralds an Oneohtrix Point Never in the middle, with the soft arpeggiations and melodies of the former swimming atop the latter’s bold base washes. Mid-length following track “High Ceilings” offers a seething, warbling and wobbling electronic mass of whistles, scree, bass waves and pulses, whilst “Camera” after it delves back into spacey delays and evolving patterns with sustained holding notes and dulled riff repetitions continuing throughout.

  A delight for fans of kosmische and new age ambience.

  Shorter tracks punctuate the record like the short swell of opening track “Orange and Red” or "Left"’s short fall out of space – a little like a reverse Lucas THX sound – at the mid-point. The shorter tracks serve as counterpoint to those that follow – both the warm sparkling solo organ tones of “Containers” and the panning vocal-like synth warbles of penultimate track “Controls” offering close encounters in contrast to the expansive space explorations that follow; “Light Float”’s epic and fullsome euro synth drone, and the polyphonic pulses, patterns and arpeggios of final track “Soft Disconnect” following on respectively. 

  Mullane is clearly not in unchartered territory yet traverses the terrain with a clever guiding hand and joyfully pleasant approach making it easy to enjoy the journey.

by Philip Hoile