"It was on `Alba' (an awesome comp of Scottish electronic) that Reverbaphon was first unveiled, his tune `Kupka' hit a confident bouncing four four rhythm, considered its breakdowns and wrought a chattering, yet shy wonder of a tune. The mood here is more pensive and chilled altogether, a large clue lying in the frosty exploits of the sound engineers depicted on the cd cover, we reckon rocking the river Volga. Kicking off with `Only song', a smooth, deep continuous bassline and swells of keys, pitched aginst the grainy, soft indie-inflections of the undamaged new vocal. `Honky' takes a beat, tastily crisped around the edges, then spooks the track with an awesome crooning vocal sample; `anything your heart desires will come to you' `Nemnon' creates the impression of a windchime in activity, but one involving a deliberate setting of Robert Wyatt like keys and poignant, plucked loose string instruments. `Angel' takes wooden marimba sounds, tucks them into a bed of uneasy electronics, and then adds desert fears in the shape of a disembodied slide guitar, giving the tune a definite shape and drive. `With without words' is assuredly this record's central piece - a subdued hip hop beat, with glowering large bass, the vocal intones `all the emotions are absent' until the drum programming shifts a gear and the tweaked top end does the business, building into an inspired bit of dsp mayhem, which all fans of the Planet Mu and Tigerbeat imprints would do well to check. `Blooduncle Part One' ends this expanded mini album with a distillation of Reverbaphon's freestyle, uninhibited take on electronica. Merging conventional and unconventional instrumentation: melodica, reverbaphone, banjo, biwa, guitar and the human voice all stand next to analogue electronics, field recordings and samples, deftly touched up on computer. This represents a refreshing, organic diversion from preset laptop hegemony - Reverbaphon allows us to fill in an all important piece of the mysterious, always collectable and above all innovative Benbecula jigsaw.1 Only Song (3:03) 2 Honky (2:10) 3 Nemnon (3:22) 4 Angel (4:43) 5 With Without Words (8:36) 6 Blooduncle Pt I (5:05)
