- Lukid and Tapes sound noisier—and warmer—than ever on their latest EP.
- When does sound become music—and when does it become noise? Historically, the two have been opposites: music embodies beauty, whereas noise an unwanted, disruptive experience. But it's far from being that simple. Many electronic music artists have explored the grey area between the two, from avant-garde composers such as John Cage to the lo-fi techno of Actress or labels like L.I.E.S. and The Trilogy Tapes.
Rezzett, the duo of Tapes and Lukid, have made this noisy sort of distortion their calling card: delay pedals and tape-saturated drums run through their entire catalogue. Their music conjures gritty, almost scuzzy atmospheres, but as with both 2015's Goodness and their 2018 self-titled album, it's not always unsettling. In fact, it's warm—and on Puddings, it's almost comforting.
Gone are the heady breakcore and jungle rhythms that defined 2023's Meant Like This LP, leaving the distorted, decayed elements to fill the space. Opening with "Plum Duff," lush pads smother a craggy bleep that arrives like a signal from outer space, while "Sticky Toffee" drives the creepy aura up a notch, driven by tiptoeing drums and skewed synths. By the final track, "Treacle," rhythm and harmony have seemingly evaporated, leaving only an imposing hum of noise.
What is music and what is noise is a matter of taste—and time. Listening through the four tracks reminded me of recently sorting through old VHS tapes at my grandmother's house. Half of them went in the bin, the original material unrecognisable thanks to the deterioration—an invasive, unpleasant hiss. Yet the familiarity on Puddings struck me as warm. In his recent piece for The New Yorker, music critic Alex Ross poses the question of what noise is in the age of information: "Noise has come to mean a barrage of data […] less an event than a condition." Nostalgia is key to Rezzett's pleasing fuzz. Just look at the track titles, each named after old-fashioned (we're talking Victorian era) British desserts. Puddings makes analogue distortion, once a nuisance, into something sentimental, a longing for a time before notifications, updates and digital spamming—when life's noise didn't reside in our minds.
Tracklist01. Plum Duff
02. Sticky Toffee
03. Spotted Dick
04. Treacle