Olympic Mess [LP]

Olympic Mess is British sound artist Luke Younger's most rhythmic, structured album yet, building on the intricately constructed experiments of previous albums such as Impossible Symmetry and focusing on more loop-based compositions. The results are still as dark and droning as before, but here they seem more clear and shimmering, if not exactly sunnier. The album's centerpiece is "Outerzone 2015," 12 minutes of hollowed-out Basic Channel-like dub which starts out with a clouded, throbbing rhythm before clearing out to shifting textures and rapidly bowed strings. "I Exist in a Fog" similarly begins with electronic sounds approximating jackhammer drilling, eventually arriving at a more languid second half. The album's title track traps a feedback loop inside a rhythmic bubble, and "The Evening in Reverse" has panning noise loops which eventually become devoured by grotesque sounds and droning. The album's most puzzling conclusion is whispered spoken word piece "Strawberry Chapstick," which is as awkward as those answering machine messages at the end of Prurient's Shipwrecker's Diary, but not nearly as poignant. Skipping that, Olympic Mess is a gripping sound odyssey which bewilders and occasionally perturbs. ~ Paul Simpson