colin potter: rank sonata

"Colin Potter has been a central figure in the UK's DIY and post-industrial underground since the late '70s. His ICR label, founded in 1981, blurred the lines between post-punk experimentation, crude pop, Krautrock-inspired drone work and contemporary electronica, with releases by everyone from DIY legends The Instant Automatons through Chris & Cosey of Throbbing Gristle, experimental composer Trevor Wishart, drone soundists Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate and Bryn Jones's Muslimgauze. He has also been a key collaborator with both Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, working in the studio with both groups since the late '90s as well as serving as a member of Nurse With Wound's current live line-up. From the late '90s to the late '00s Potter's IC Studio, based in a Victorian Water Tower outside Preston, was a lightning rod for musicians working beneath the radar and a focal point for the nacsent UK drone scene" --David Keenan, Red Bull Music Academy Daily, March 31, 2015. Rank Sonata encloses sounds of organic techno, somnambulistic dub, and dream-ambient. The nearly-20-minute track "A Wider Pale of Shale" sounds absolutely timeless, with an interplay between ambient and beat-driven passages that could play all night long. With "You," Potter brilliantly weaves abstract sounds into an unexpected multi-layered dub track. The deep, slow reverb-rhythm of "Knit Where?" gives the record a touch of darkness and melancholy. Rank Sonata is a brilliant piece of music full of technical sophistication and innovation.