Abby Lee Tee / Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy - Grounds

 Released: January 30

A lovely and lurid little album, Grounds is full of all manner of weird sounds that make for strange little soundscapes in combination. It’s unclear how the majority of the album was made, but much of it revolves around the creative use of turntables (pun intended). Turntables have long been a staple in the creation of new music but the very experimental nature of their use here is something to take note of and separates it from what would commonly be referred to as “turntableism.” Unpitched and stretched out samples loop errantly throughout and raw percussive textures are peppered around but rarely bring much sense of a strong rhythm. Instead, it all swirls together in a rather uneasy way that feels like a haunting caricature of the early days of film and phonographs. 

“Restoration” stands out as one of my favorite examples of this motif. It features a repetitive snapping sound that almost seems to make a sense of rhythm but is unable to stay consistent. Then there’s the rather obvious sound of the iconic pre-film beep, giving the vibe of watching something that was pulled out of a vault from the early Cold War Era. But there’s also all other manners of strangeness as well like on “(demo) policy” which features an element that feels like a full song is about to start with a powerful vocal, but is cut off before it can start over and over again. It’s uncomfortable in its approach but also in its sparseness as it feels like there is just barely anything there holding it together. I can’t recommend giving this album at least one listen enough as the novel approach to sampling is something to behold with its off-kilter and slightly unnerving feeling.