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Christopher Hipgrave: "Strange Attractor"
From Slow, With Pages Of Fluttering Interference (Low Point; 2010)

If you want to get high, go to Low Point. The Nottingham drone label coined that piece of wisdom when they built a roster of ambient enlighteners, the bulk of whose output has the reverse effect of Russell Crowe’s Nottinghamshire accent: it calms you. The newest addition to this calming bulk is sound designer/software nerd Christopher Hipgrave, arriving with a history of two limited presses that are crying out for the 2CD overhaul: his minimal, organic electronica comes equally fragile and field-tested, the author having the knack for soothing the brain like a pre-doom, pre-white noise Xela. In fact, forget the gatefold reissue—Hipgrave should put his coding skills to good use and write some limited edition malware, one that can trojan his soundscapes onto your iTunes where they’ll cocoon and fester into horror films.

For the moment, however, he’s happy playing along with his “look at the light in the Black Country” angle. His new album finds him developing his tantalising sun beams a little further, but “Strange Attractor” could well be the track to bounce him from the fields right up to Venus—if not there, then maybe the one next to it; somewhere populated by Roswell abductees where the trees grow day-glo fronds. For just over four minutes Hipgrave drapes you in a pearly curtain, the breathy pads tolling away and moving at the speed of a masseuse. It packs a big dose of eerie comfort, it’s strange (duh), and it should do nicely for that spiritual awakening scene if you’re a filmmaker in need of temp tracks.







George Bass | 05/26/2010 |                

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