A Call To Arms

Londons Louis Carnell has progressively drawn his Visionist project away from its beginnings in club music, using his intense, boundary-pushing albums as venues for deep personal examination. Both 2015s Safe and 2017s Value interpreted the producers battles with anxiety and isolation, expressing what words cant describe through harsh, grinding rhythmic formations and bleak, disconcerting synth-scapes. A Call to Arms is no less challenging and cathartic than those works, but it marks a major shift in Carnells working methods as well as his sound. Letting go of the chirpy, disembodied vocal samples of his past material, here he embraces the warmth and honesty of the naked human voice, singing lyrics for the first time on his records in addition to working with a few choice collaborators. Opener By Design drifts through periods of static and silence, with Ben Romans-Hopcraft contributing wayward clarinet, airy guitar, and delicate vocals. Form establishes more of a post-industrial art-pop sound, with caustic guitar played by Wu-Lu and a slow, snapping rhythm framing Carnells lyrics about hunger, uncertainty, and desire, given extra poignancy by Lisa E. Harris unbound, operatic vocals. The Fold is a heartbreaking duet with Circuit des Yeuxs Haley Fohr, with both artists lamenting broken hope as Matthew Bournes steady piano playing grounds the song with a sense of clarity. Winter Sun is a disorienting swirl of queasy vaporwave textures, Gregorian chanting, and Ben Vinces shape-shifting saxophone, clearing for Carnells eloquent messages of hope and gratitude. While tracks such as these are the most open and transparent that Carnell has ever been with his music, theres others that are difficult and defiant, yet compelling. Japanese noise pioneer K.K. Null adds squealing feedback to the beginning of Allowed to Dream, which gradually smooths itself out and becomes quite peaceful and lovely by the end. The epic Nearly God begins with smoldering rhythmic distortion and thudding, cinderblock-heavy kick drums, which eventually drop out as the tracks hallucinatory clock chimes and ghostly vocals take over. Lie Digging similarly approaches the gritty avant-techno of labels like Opal Tapes, with a crackling drum loop (courtesy of black midis Morgan Simpson) pumping away under whirring, glitching machinery. A Call to Arms occupies a unique space in Visionists catalog, as its a fractured, inconsistent record, yet it seems like hes baring more of his soul than ever, and it certainly marks a turning point in the direction hes taking his music. ~ Paul Simpson

ヴィジョニストを初めて聴く人には難しく聴こえるかもしれないが、驚くなかれ、このニュー・アルバムは彼の作品の中ではいちばん親しみやすい内容だ。過去作において声はあくまでサンプルとして使われていたが、ここでは彼自身の歌声が中心に据えられ、宗教音楽のような歌唱とノイズ、アンビエントが悲しげでエモーショナルな世界を作り出している。ブラック・ミディのモーガン・シンプソンらがゲストとして参加。
bounce (C)長谷川義和