lucy: wordplay for working bees

ltd restock! With Wordplay for Working Bees, Lucy creates a blueprint -- not just the departure point for the full-length format according to Stroboscopic Artefacts, but he also lays down new possibilities for the techno album. Refusing the obvious 4/4 route, Lucy traverses the widest possibilities of electronic music. Wordplay for Working Bees encompasses IDM that leans towards drone, puckering, dub-filled techno and ambient in its most oblique forms. The beloved character of Lucy's DJ sets, the way he layers tracks to find unique timbre and tone, is reflected in his studio approach. Lucy's debut album results in the most delicate and delicious juxtapositions, as the unexplained and unexpected tangle together in the ear. The search for hybrid structures begins with "Thear." Through Stockhausen's words, Lucy hints at a manifesto: whenever we hear sounds we are changed, no longer the same. The record is textured with riddling vocals -- be it the slither of a UN summit speech heard on "Eon" or the wisps of Le Corbusier on "Gas" -- and none are used with idle intent. Just as on "Eis," where the samples appear to be engaged in discussion but the thread of their argument is lost in the granular synthesis, the tracks are abstracted enough to provoke your own interpretations and critical judgements. The vocals' inclusion gives rise to questions, and the ambiguity of Wordplay for Working Bees creates an architecture that facilitates debate. It's not just escapist or hedonistic dance music, but a concerted, dissonant effort to challenge the listener's preconceptions. Composed as it is of field recordings from parks, streets and Lucy's apartment, it's difficult not to see this as -- at least in part -- a depiction of Berlin. Wordplay for Working Bees is certainly influenced by the sounds coming from Berlin's clubs, galleries and forgotten pockets. Lucy holds a mirror up to the Hauptstadt, only to distort and redefine its reflection. The abstraction and processing of the album's subject matter has a painterly quality and it's evident that in creating Wordplay for Working Bees Lucy slaved with technology to master it so brilliantly. Co-mixed and mastered by Artefacts Mastering, Berlin.

Lucy 'Wordplay for Working Bees' [SACD001]