Bubblegum Cage III

Richard Skelton – Marking Time (Type) LP

August 30, 2009 at 9:00 am Leave a comment

Richard Skelton - Marking Time

In its short life, this here blog has already developed an annoying habit of discussing albums that have previously been thoroughly picked over by Scott Mapsadaisical. Given this irritating tendency, it was only a matter of time before a review of some Richard Skelton LP or other appeared hereabouts.

So who is this Richard Skelton fellow and why does Scott love him so much? Well, Skelton seems to be a pretty singular figure, engaged in obsessively crafting an ever-growing discography of beautifully packaged albums released in a variety of formats under monikers including A Broken Consort, Landings, Carousell and Clouwbeck.

Marking Time is apparently Skelton’s first album released under his own name. Like all of his albums, it’s dedicated to his late wife Louise, who passed away in 2004. It was originally released on CD by Australia’s Preservation Recordings in 2008 and is now available on vinyl via the Type label.

Like a lot of Type artists, Skelton mixes avant rock methodology with avant classical instrumentation. The results, in this case, are rather like a free-form, drone-heavy take on early music – with ancient sounding cellos and viols gently swaying and creaking in the wind.

Less fancifully, it recalls Arvo Part’s graceful mix of the medieval and modern. It’s also recommended for fan’s of Max Richter’s electronica-tinted neo-classicism.

But these comparisons just don’t quite cut it. Skelton is a genuinely unique artist who is building a significant body of work that deserves much more widespread attention than it has thus far received.

He’s also an extremely single-minded artist, which is a polite way of saying that a lot of his stuff sounds kind of similar. Picking individual tracks to post is therefore likely to be a somewhat arbitrary task. “Fold” and “Heys” are the ones you’ll be getting today.

To hear the rest, buy Marking Time from Forced Exposure.

Entry filed under: experimental, MP3s, reviews. Tags: experimental, MP3s, reviews.