- One part of a new piece by the Hyperdub boss that explores themes of space colonization and the breakup of the UK, featuring some of Kode9's most incredible rhythms yet.
- At this point, it feels fairer to call Steve Goodman a contemporary artist rather than a musician. His practice has expanded to include books, lectures and multimedia installations, with his label Hyperdub even releasing soundtracks to art exhibitions (a newish sub-imprint called Flatlines puts out spoken word material). His fourth album, Escapology, is also soundtrack of sorts, for a video-game-as-art-installation and accompanying sonic fiction (itself due for release in October on Flatlines) called Astro-Darien that debuted at Corsica Studios in London. Chock full of eerie interludes, snippets of voice acting and some of the Scottish artist's most dextrous and intuitive club music yet, it's a typically bumpy ride overstuffed with ideas and full of mind-bending rhythmic nuggets.
Escapology is styled as a video game soundtrack for Astro-Darien, a game that simulates the political breakup of the United Kingdom, which Goodman views as inevitable in the near future. The sonic fiction tells of Trancestar North's (an apocryphal Scottish developer) efforts to create the video game. The story is a mix of current events, history and speculation, using the UK's commercial space travel efforts (with two competing spaceports opening up in Scotland, along with another Cornwall) as the inspiration. "Astro-Darien" itself refers to an imagined Scottish space colonization project modeled on the Kingdom Of Scotland's failed attempt to colonize part of Panama in the 1690s, which was called the Darien scheme, highlighting Scotland's historical involvement in the forces of empire and slavery. (Let's not forget that Goodman is a professor, too.)
While these scattered bits of information conjure up intriguing possibilities, to call it a story might be a stretch. Kode9 is quick to point out that there's not quite a coherent narrative—yet—and Escapology is to the album format as an interactive installation is to video art, with bits and pieces of information thrown at you as you walk through the piece. After a brief introduction, the first percussive track is "The Breakup," which is a classic blend of Kode9 sounds: bobbing broken beat with strains of footwork and glitch, a bumping bassline and a weird, almost annoying melodic figure that sounds like a helium balloon deflating. Escapology is dotted with passages of bracing sounds, from drones and creaks to what sounds like burning wreckage ("In The Shadow Of Ben Hope").
In between these interludes are some of Kode9's richest dubs. "Lagrange Point" is sci-fi jungle as filtered through a footwork lens, as if Goodman made a track specifically with the Juke Bounce Werk crew in mind. "Uncoil" is brusque but buttery drum & bass (ish) with a dislocated kick drum, while "Torus"—the most neurotic tune on a very anxious album—builds on the spartan rhythms of Goodman's last album, Nothing, featuring atonal piano and plucked strings that sound like they're trying to get away from the rest of the track as fast as possible. And for the old Kode9 heads there's "Cross The Gap," whose slower tempo mirrors the ultra-dry digi dub of Goodman's earliest work with The Spaceape. Its topsy-turvy drums and unreal arrangement reflect both his interest in gqom and his long-time expertise in club music—after all this time, he's still the brilliant master behind the scenes, quietly one-upping everyone else.
Having listened to Escapology pretty regularly over the last two months, I go back and forth. Sometimes it feels like one of the best records I've heard in recent memory, other times I wish it would just get to the point faster. But I think that's by design. Like other artists who work in this milieu—Hito Steyerl, Lawrence Lek (who helped Goodman with this installation)—Escapology gives you fragments of data, aural and visual signifiers, and invites you to draw your own conclusions. There's a layer of political commentary, sure, but what is it saying? And what are you supposed you glean from an album of abstract club rhythms that stubbornly avoids a linear narrative in the first place?
Since 2015's Nothing and the Nøtel concept that underpinned it, Kode9's work has been marked by dislocation and confusion. (You could argue that, as a DJ, he's been on that tip even longer.) Here, I can't help but think of Kode9's FABRICLIVE 100 mix with Burial, a milestone event that shattered expectations of what a club mix should be, throwing together tightly-blended sections with passages where tracks simply faded out or stopped abruptly, interrupting the narrative flow just when you got a hold on it.
Escapology works in the same way. While it makes an engrossing listen as a whole, the most fun I've had engaging with it has been watching the videos for the singles, where Kode9's rhythmic abilities meld with the stunning visuals that made up the installation (and perhaps whatever versions of Astro-Darien might manifest in the future). To appreciate Escapology is to look at it as one piece in the puzzle, not an album so much as it is a single cog in Goodman's latest piece. It asks more questions than it answers, but poses them like few other artists could.
Tracklist01. Trancestar North
02. The Break Up
03. Toxic Foam
04. Orbex
05. Angle Of Re-Entry
06. Freefall
07. In The Shadow of Ben Hope
08. Sim-Darien
09. Cross The Gap
10. Uncoil
11. Astro-Darien
12. Lagrange Point
13. Docking
14. Torus
15. T-Divine