Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Aqua Dentata



 





Aqua Dentata - Lesbian Semiotics At A Jewellery Table
Echo Tango. etc01. CDR. 50 Copies.

Aqua Dentata - March Hare, Kraken Mare
Beartown Records. CDR. 40 Copies.


Eddie Nutall recent arrival on the drone stage seems to have taken everybody by surprise. From nowhere four releases have sprung resulting in praise scattered at his feet like palm leaves on the road to Leeds. And its easy to see why, a recent outing at Wharf Chambers had every single person present held in rapt attention, on a night where more boisterous elements held sway Aqua Dentata’s fragile bowl ring drone rang out like the purest of hearing sorbets. I phoned the Cammster to see what he thought and after ten minutes of gushing and tales of gigs in Bristol and the purchasing of everything with Aqua Dentata on it I got the message.

Only four Aqua Dentata releases in existence then and if these were to be the last then I’m in no doubt that what we have here would become serious collectors items. What I consider more likely is the continued creation of further stunning material along with requests from labels and emails from promoters wanting Aqua Dentata on their bills. Anything less would be a tragedy.

So why all the fuss? Maybe its the purity at work here, or the way these drones unfurl in such an unhurried manner, the minimalist way in which just a handful of sounds marry leaving the listener held rapt and transported, comforted and satisfied. This isn't just ear food its brain food too.

On first listen the unobservant ear may take these drones to be cut from the same cloth but closer inspection reveals a greater depth. The 34 minute single track as found on ‘Lesbian Semiotics …’ is immensely satisfying, the clearest and least cluttered of the two releases in which a single tone slowly emerges to be joined by another, each of them ebbing and flowing and changing in pitch only ever so slightly during its course. 'March Hare, Kraken Mare' represents the material that we heard at Wharf Chambers, here a bowed bowl rings serenely along with seemingly randomly dropped in bass notes as if some hidden double bass player was littering the piece with sparse lingering notes. There's three tracks with a shorter five minute piece sandwiched in-between, a beguiling piece that sounds like a desolate train whistle accompanied by rattling steel pipes. On the final track the cinematic scope of Nuttall’s work becomes evident, its easy to imagine this deeply grained structure sitting snugly in Eraserhead or a Ridley Scott cinemascoped descent onto an unknown planet. This is deeply eerie, moving, desolate, and mysterious work, a track that manages to capture the feelings of estrangement, desolation, emptiness, sadness and loss. A mighty effort and one that deserves a much wider audience.

Another fine example of the beast that is the No Audience Underground then and as befits the NAU [acronym alert] March Hare, Kraken Hare has sold out, copies of Lesbian Semiotics are still available though and if I was you I'd be getting in touch sharpish.



Contact: www.aquadentata.org

1 comment:

Daniel Thomas said...

Indeed, Eddies recordings and the live performance at Wharf Chambers have all been treats.

Excuse my shameless pluggery, but i should mention that there is only one copy left of A Staircase Missing over here in Sheepscar, but the recording of the Wharf Chambers performance will always be available...