Actress & London Contemporary Orchestra // LAGEOS (Ninja Tune)

#1

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In theory I would normally cringe at the idea of this type of thing, but in practice… this ain’t half bad in a very background music type way.

Not all-killer-no-filler by any means, but when this collab hits, it hits. The single “Audio Track 5” is one of the most interesting things Actress has done in yonks IMO, a departure from his usual sound but still identifiable as a D.Cunningham tune. Sounds utterly miserable in the best way.

There are points on the record where his sound gets so diluted that it’s practically anonymous. And the rework of ‘Hubble’ just leaves me completely cold. But then the rework of ‘Surfers Hymn’ ups the Drexciya levels to great effect, and the Orchestra-Pit-bang-along of ‘Galya Beat’ should not be anywhere near as enjoyable as it is.

So basically - not perfect, but way more interesting to me than his last 2 ‘proper’ LPs.

#2

I had just clicked into the forum to post this. I’m half way though. Although I’m listening as I work. Quite enjoying it so far.

#3

I really like the version of N.E.W., excellent to hear that played by an orchestra, the stand out track for me. Hubble … hadn’t I loved the original so much I think I’d appreciate it more. The original track is such a monumental thing, it’s kind of hard to listen to this “watered down” version of it, but if I somehow manage to forget about the original, it does sound quite nice on its own. I haven’t really caught on to the last couple of Actress releases though (loved pretty much all his releases up until Silver Cloud to bits), so not expecting much, but maybe that’s a good thing!

#4

Hubble is one of my all time favourite tunes to space out to so I’m a little disappointed that the version here is only 4 minutes long and not the dozen or so it deserves (the Thriller single release not the Album version). Still taking the album in as a whole though.

#5

I’m a bit cold on this, sadly, feels just a bit sparse.

I wandered along to see this project at the Barbican last time out and really enjoyed it, the show had a couple of ropey moments (the whole bin bag wind instrument thing bit?) but the earnest nature of it carried it through, it had that slightly brittle feeling of people trying to push it a bit and that’s something that I feel people can really connect with. (And is all too rare these days!)

With them doing another gig, it would be great to see if they come up with a full original material project, but who knows what Darren has planned next.

#6

I think I can mostly second OP’s take on this, except for maybe the last line…I rather liked AZD and in fact was the first album of his that I’ve enjoyed.

I’d add that it is definitely lacking in completeness and strays too close to just being an experiment…but I was intrigued enough to know that I’m going to give it a second listen at some point. didn’t provide enough on first pass to really engage me (though I almost wonder if that was part of the goal).