d_rradio – Leaves
Jason Spaceman floats ‘out of body’, ascends slowly to heaven, meets God, finds he’s Eno.
Yeah, that’s it. That’s the review. You got a problem with that? It’s lazy journalism you say? That’d make it an honest piece then because I AM feeling lazy. Leaves will do that to you.
I’ve known of d rradio for two or three years now but never actually been able to review them before. I’m not quite sure what to classify them as – ambient, electronica, minimalist, IDM? A quick jump to Last FM shows I’m in good company. But the surprise factor here is just how ambient this release is. The stats speak for themselves. Two five-track albums of over an hours worth of music…
…each!
The idea, the concept behind d rradio is finding comfort at times of darkness. d rradio means Death Row Radio. I don’t know if prisoners on Death Row actually have their own dedicated radio service? The very idea opens he door to all kinds of grim jokes about what songs might populate the DJ’s playlist. I think the dignified thing for me to just not go there.
But I remember d rradio having beats. I’m sure. I’d swear it. Maybe they used them all on the last record for there are none here. Leaves is a languid, drifting, entrancing couple of hours. The tracks themselves ebb and flow like the gentlest of tides. The mood is serene, sleep-inducing, but never tedious. I think of the gentlest, most remote aspects of Last Days quite brilliant album, Sea. I’m put in mind of the gospel-tinged, psych drone of Spiritualized, Let It Flow. I recall Hammock writing specifically for a sleepover concert. Leaves goes beyond those. This is back to the ambient masters. Not just Budd, Eno, but right back to Cage, Mahler and Stockhausen, believers in the perfection of a single note.
I’m still feeling lazy so I’ll let Cage finish the review. He’d muse along the lines..; “(they) have nothing to say, but saying it, that is poetry”.