- An occasionally brilliant LP from the cellist and composer.
- As a cellist and performer, Oliver Coates is probably best known for his collaborations. His work with Mica Levi on the score Under The Skin resulted in some of the most chilling, evocative compositions for film in recent memory. His bowing is always precise and measured, even when it skitters across jumpier passages. That control is on full display in his contributions on Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool, arrangements of John Luther Adams, and in his own cello compositions, which range from neo-ambient meditations to experimental fusions of modern classical and electronica.
For all the control Coates channels into his cello work, there's another side to him that comes out in the absence of live instrumentation. On Shelley's On Zenn-La, Coates plays with synth grooves, minimal electronics and fast-paced beats. The results can be as gorgeous as they are disjointed. Where Coates' previous experimentation with electronics played to his strengths as a performer and arranger of string music, Shelley's On Zenn-La is a daring, if uneven, leap into computerized music.
When it works, it works. With its muted, high-speed laser beams and brushed metallic percussion, "Perfect Apple With Silver Mark" bears a resemblance to Aphex Twin's recent "T69 Collapse," and is one of the album's best cuts. Over almost nine minutes, pulsing beats wax and wane between waves of heavenly distortion. It's an aerodynamic dance floor high.
Not every experiment here is as successful. "Norrin Radd Dreaming" begins in obscurity with a grainy synth lead, and quickly evolves into a kind of gallery of pastiche with choir voices and a post-rock crescendo. It's dense enough that individual ideas get confused, clashing recursively rather than building on a single concept. (That clash is also found on "A Church" and in moments of "Charlev.") But scattered brilliance makes Shelly's On Zenn-La a compelling listen. At its best, the LP showcases a composer with an uncompromising will to experiment, even if it yields mixed results.
Tracklist01. Faraday Monument
02. A Church
03. Lime
04. Charlev
05. Norrin Radd Dreaming
06. Cello Renoise
07. Prairie
08. Perfect Apple With Silver Mark
09. Swollen Spiralling Face feat. Malibu (Bonus Track)