My latest purchase comes in the form of Scott Fraser’s subtley brilliant ‘A Life of Silence’. This is the second addition to Andrew Weatherall’s vinyl only Bird Scarer imprint, and with only 300 copies pressed, I’m pretty made up to have bagged myself a copy. As Weatherall put it himself:
“No digital downloads. If you didn’t get it, you didn’t get it”.
London-based Scott Fraser is known for his contributions to acid house in the late 80s, as well as being considered as somewhat of a veteran of the Chicago house and Detroit techno scenes, having worked in the USA throughout the 90s and firmly establishing himself as both a producer and DJ. Scott’s no stranger to remixing, having worked with the likes of Headman and Virgo Four, but one of his reworks that stands out in particular is that of Semtek’s ‘Bento’. Hold on to your hats…
Anyway, back to his latest release. ‘A Life of Silence’ is just under 10 minutes of down-tempo, machine funk, with an incredibly raw, live sound. An intense energy pulses throughout and sporadic kick drums tease you into thinking something huge is about to drop. That would be too obvious, and surely not allowed in Weatherall’s studio. Instead the track is altogether more subtly arranged, and that works just perfectly for me.
For those unlucky enough to miss out on this one, I took it upon myself to share the wealth.
Enjoy!
