Bass Clef

An expanded double vinyl edition of Ralph Cumbers aka Bass Clef's acclaimed 2013 cassette Acid Tracts, originally released in late 2013 via Cumbers' own Magic + Dreams label, its seven dense and immersive club tracks comprising his most expansive and multi-faceted work to date. They meld his modular synthesizer's hard-edged tones with grinding drum machine rhythms, traveling from the anarchic techno of 2012's Reeling Skullways album still further outward into the void. Acid Tracts represents the latest stage in the ongoing evolution of Cumbers' music. He first cut his teeth in Bristol mid-last decade, crafting scuzzy takes on dubstep with an arsenal of analog hardware and a trombone -- an approach quite distinct from the software-based sub-bass experimentation of his then-contemporaries. In the years since, he's continued to follow a highly individual path, even as he's taken stylistic divergences towards cosmic techno (with Reeling Skullways and its subsequent singles) and the free-flowing improvised modular synth jams released under the Some Truths pseudonym. Acid Tracts is his first Bass Clef release to unite those two strands of his work, drawing the fluidity and instinct-led feel of his Some Truths music into tightly structured club tracks. With punning titles like "Strings of Death" and "Apathy Flash," they play cheeky tribute to Cumbers' personal history and ongoing love of the atmosphere and attitude of rave, acid house and jungle. Throughout Acid Tracts, the high-pitched, wriggling tones of his modular reimagine the TB-303's signature acid splatter in crisp hi-def, making for a dazzling and mind-altering listen. For Alter's expanded vinyl edition of Acid Tracts, the original limited cassette release's six tracks are joined by an additional track recorded during the same sessions -- the taut and drone-laden house of "Music Sounds Better Without You." Its full release on vinyl is an appropriate way to open what looks set to be a busy and important year for Cumbers.