PRICE:
$16.50
LOW STOCK LEVEL
1-2 Weeks
ARTIST
TITLE
Universalist
FORMAT
LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
HTRA 008LP HTRA 008LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
9/21/2018

Universalist is the first album by ACT! Baroque, kaleidoscope electronics; material sound for a disembodied world. The energy is optimistic and positive -- even naive -- a statement of unity in the age of psychic dislocation. Ten tracks of phosphorus MIDI and brittle digital textures feel indebted in spirit to the masters of psychic jazz as much as the physical euphoria of the club. Above all, this album belongs to the catalog of Halocline Trance, yet subtle references connect it to a larger lineage of free sound. The empty, divine heaviness of songs like "Ecstatica / On Patrol" invokes Yusef Lateef's Little Symphony (1987), while the computerized spontaneity of "Lava Valley" feels somehow connected to Yasuaki Shimizu's Music For Commercials (1987). Non-musical sounds and evocative melodies sit side-by-side -- new psychedelia for love and life in the digital jet stream. ACT! is a project from Toronto-based musician David Psutka. Building on a diverse body of releases as Egyptrixx, Ceramic TL, Anamai, and various other collaborations, ACT! denotes a new chapter of creative output from Psutka and the Halocline Trance label. Universalist follows a prolific string of releases in 2017 with Anamai's What Mountain; Ceramic TL + Ipek Gorgun's Perfect Lung; and Egyptrixx's Pure, Beyond Reproach, and synthesizes recurring themes of materiality and the unifying potential of sound.