Somewhere along the line, time connected with past and somewhere near, maybe far off and behind. Enter 1995: enter Angelina Jolie, no wait, yes, enter Hackers. The latest from Wire frontman, harbinger of late-seventies London punk, Colin Newman and Tel-Aviv, Belgian exile-e, i.e. Minimal Compact’s Malka Spigel comes Immersion‘s “Nanocluster”. Swim~ records and the duo in question bring fans experimental and existential instrumentals that beckon lightning-fast sequences and fast-twitch muscle movements. No wait, Enter the void, no wait this is just a pseudo reality, no wait this is the group’s first record in 17 years.
While in part the new release, which is off the November 25th album Analogue Creatures Living On An Island, feels oddly retro in sound— like the mid 90’s on the brink of a technological upswing, something far more futuristic and thus creative and original is at stake here. The two minute and forty second track enters the soundscape like something similar to an indian raga; however, this modern-day rendition harps on the industrial sludge of an erratically indulged trip down Alice’s ecstasy hole. A synthesized induced, drone-like beat unearths atomic vibrations that hum two and fro creating what could be something quite close to the artists’ birth of Nanocluster.
The collaboration between the two, Spigel and Newman effects a kind of seamless ensemble. While the couple are not just long-time (and genius) collaborators, but also lovers; Who? What? Where? When? and Why? take a preemptive trip to the back burner. Ultimately Nanocluster boasts an unyielding cadence similar to the full album’s title. Everything feels hooked up to some kind of projection: some kind of audio/visual outlet. The isolation in Nanocluster manifests itself through the proverbial “wall of sound”, while the title of the song alludes to a kind of grouping, the track’s tonal meanderings play off this lonely, lonely island apparently made for two.