David Curington & Diurnal Burdens - Drainage Solutions

Released: July 8

This recent colaboration from Anticipating Nowhere Records features David Curington and Ross Scott-Buccleuch (Dinural Burdens) of the Steep Gloss label. The work contained within is highly representative of the work both artists have consistently been involved in and has all the interesting weirdness one could expect. Three tracks of varying lengths take us through unnatural worlds of manipulated tape noise and re-processed field recordings that form a picture that is slightly incoherent but also concise and focused in its story and format. From the first track, we are introduced to a soft and warbly bit of tape noise that carries on until the first bit of vocal sampling appears. At this point, we are transported to some kind of waiting room that feels as though it was pulled from a Kafka novel. The clerk continues to read out names in plain and dry fashion as the surrounding noise grows louder and more aggressive, steadily at first but then having these sudden bouts of energy that quickly fade away. 

The next two tracks are absent (or at least much less) any more of this clinical-sounding vocal sampling. Instead, both dive fully into the soft manipulated noise of tape loops and modular synths, along with strangely wet sounds. "Approaching the Well" focused much more on the modular aspects, starting with gentle but asymmetrical modular noises that grow into fast oscillations of pulsing noise, seemingly bending reality around it as it speeds up and slows down as it chooses to. "Every Wet Answer" continues in similar fashion but in something like reverse, starting out with quick pulses but slowing down near the end to introduce the sound of slowly trickling water  and a twisted voice telling us something that is genuinely indiscernible. It all makes for a bit of a weird little journey, one that has all the surrealism I expected.