Keel Keathley – Ti Morf Raf
This one struck me totally off guard. The promo came out of nowhere and I nearly forgot about this, after i had put it in my iTunes. It came on some weeks later, while I was listening to music on random and left me pretty amazed.
It starts a little slowly and low-key. Some distortion here, some clangs and voice fragments there … nice textures, but nothing to call home about. Anyways, this first impression is somehow misleading. It only gives a hint, in what direction the whole thing evolves. It’s the third track, which runs you over like a slow steam-train: Thick reverb clouds hover above a crunchy granular bass drenched in distortion. Although the pieces have a certain edge to them, they always manage to maintain melancholic touch with great attention to detail and depth. Especially the last track with its filtered, mourning piano is just downright beautiful. It is a shame that it only lasts 13 minutes. I could listen to this thing stretched out at least double the time.
Keel Keathley’s tracks have a sort of a Christian Fennesz (during the Venice period) feel. Their textural quality and the delicate use of granular textures hints towards this sound and aesthetic, but luckily enough without copying it.
Under the sea of hiss and noise, these six pieces that Keathley calls Miniatures, floats a stream of bittersweet harmonies and buried melodies. Especially the slowly shifting timbres add a beautiful monochromatic vibe to the album.
