*First release on this hugely exciting new label from Emeralds' John Elliott and Editions Mego.* Chicago-based, Ohio-bred multi-instrumentalist, Matthew Mullane inaugurates the Spectrum Spools label with the spellbinding voyage of 'A Sort Of Radiance'. This is his debut album, and first release on vinyl but he's previously released cassettes in small runs on Fairchild Tapes and Stunned Records. The fact that he's skipped much of the ferric initiation/screening process should tell you that his music is of a more distinguished character than many trapped in the tape dream. He's capable of initiating vast astral dialogue between his machines of choice (we're not quite sure what he uses here - guitar and computer, possibly?), inviting us in to a "multi dimensional organism of sound that has perplexing depth and astounding detail" according to the label, and sublimely immersive if you ask us. Its structured around five longer compositions and slightly fewer vignettes, or palette cleansers for the epic sections. Those epic sections rove from dense, skin-tingling ultraviolet fog and cascading arpeggios of 'Leaving The House' to the HD synaesthetic phenomena of 'Light Float' and stereo-spiralling columns of synth movement on 'Soft Disconnect', all vividly rendered and deeply detailed while the shorter pieces allow for more condensed, dynamic ideas like with the woozy stereo swirl of 'Control' and the abrasive space-grit textures of 'Left'. Cut by Rashad Becker at Berlin's D&M, January 2011. RIYL Emeralds, OPN, or Rene Hell - don't miss!
A1 Orange And Red
A2 Leaving The House
A3 High Ceilings
A4 Camera
A5 Left
B1 Containers
B2 Light Float
B3 Controls
B4 Soft Disconnect
