Words by Justin Turford
Following on from our premiere of the second ‘single’ from the brand new Awkward Corners LP, we finally get to plunge ourselves into the full album proper. For a record that was created as a response of sorts to the feeble political leadership of the UK as we navigated these challenging times, Amateur Dramatics unfolds like an old book of tales, personal reflections and feelings gently whispering into your chest. Deep electronics, lush live instrumentation and the otherworldly reed work of Tamar Collocutor make this an essential immersive experience.
To be honest, producer, composer and percussionist Chris Menist’s previous releases under his Awkward Corners guise have somehow passed me by but I am a fan of his work with The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band and have caught his show on NTS Radio and can hear a sound that is distinctly his alone. Spatial, meditative and at a resting pace, full of subtle complexities within his worldly electro-acoustic palette.
The album unfolds slowly, uncoiling its energy and emotion with tiny steps. The 808 drum machine and the metallic tones of the Tanzanian illimba (a box-shaped thumb piano) are a close knit rhythm section on many of the tracks, at times accompanied by David Leahy’s muscular double bass playing and an electric piano that on ‘Paragraph Two’ triggers thoughts of the spare soul-jazz of Stanley Cowell’s ‘Travellin’ Man’ (to me anyway!).
The tracks with Tamar Collocutor are possibly the strongest of a strong bunch to me, mainly due to the hypnotic repetition of the album gaining a new narrator to the story. And ‘Amateur Dramatics’ really does feel and unravel like a tale. A tale told in Eastern tones about a Western tragedy.
There is much to love on this record. Pick any track at random and you are transported to a feeling, to Chris’s auditory diary where ancient instruments buddy up with electronics, jazz wanders along with Eastern tunings. Unsettling shadows and bright angles of light make this an album to be listened to repeatedly. 9/10
Amateur Dramatics is out NOW on Shapes Of Rhythm!
BUY: https://awkwardcorners.bandcamp.com/album/amateur-dramatics