Kevin Richard Martin - Above the clouds

'Above the clouds' is the latest installment in KRM's warped, dubbed out take on ambient Jazz and smudged drone, after his previously self released  'Downtown' and 'Nightcrawler'(Both on the Intercranial Recordings label).  This nocturnal soundtrack for concrete jungles, conjures images of perpetually rainswept conurbations, overcrowded twilight zones and the longest nights spent in neon lit cities no-go zones. It evocatively reflects glass and stone stretching endlessly into the distance, covered in clouds of hallucinatory smog, as this album wraps itself around you unfathomably..

His latest chapter of sin city, jazz noir, is slower, more rarefied and dreamy than the previous two offerings, in all the best senses, as it recalls the bewitching romantic desolation of his other infamous project King Midas Sound(Alongside Roger Robinson).This album memorably captures a sonic aerial view of vast cities, as clouds of deeply reverberent dub chords hang eternally in the air above the befitting boom bap of the thuggishly minimal drum patterns. The narrative remains mysterious and melancholic throughout, but the tone is again irresistibly alluring.

Like a musical translation of Paul Auster's unsettling urban neurosis, or the mesmeric romance of Wong Kar Wei's finest scenes, the mood is pure stealth, continually shifting emotionally, and philosophically, but thankfully, the result's still remain 101% Martin....For example, 'Sleepless', bewilderingly, simultaneously summons, the ghosts of AR Kane, Bohren, Burial and even Goldie's's Metalheadz,  and mad as that idea seems, the resulting track sounds shockingly fresh and spectral, even at 15 minutes long !  Alternately, the title track itself, sounds like a fictitious battle between DJ Krush and Dylan Carlson's EARTH, for who would steal the crown of slowest and lowest, as its hazy, methodone fuelled crawl swings back and forth seductively. And lastly, the limitlessly stretched fade out 'Gone to Heaven', could be the result, if Tim Hecker and The Necks ever jammed an idea through to the early hours.., but very weirdly reminds me of 10cc's 'Im not in love'  !?!?....

Cinematic in scope, panoramic in scale, paranoid in tendency,  'Above the clouds' is the latest evidence of Martin's blossoming craft as both composer and producer, and offers a surprising haven for meditational Jazz addicts, drone metal casualties and noise worshipping shoegazers alike, to get lost in indefinitely.. 

Cover Photograph : Rikki Chan(Unsplash)