The internet was abuzz yesterday with news that the rapture is due today. Not the New York punk- funk band (although they are reforming and re- appearing later on this year so their timing is both good but also bad depending on how things turn out) but the actual End Of Days when Jesus Christ re- appears and all good Christians alive and dead will ascend to heaven. The rest of us are done for at that point I think. If by any chance this does come true as foretold by a South African preacher then the post I've scheduled for Wednesday may be horrifically out of date but that's a chance at the moment I'm going to have to take.
In the meantime, rapture notwithstanding, here's some outstanding new music from David Harrow. David cut his teeth in the early 80s with Anne Clark and then as part of the On U Sound studio and live band team. In the 1990s he recorded as Blood Sugar with Andrew Weatherall and the pair also recorded the fantastic dubbed out, chilled out beauty of Message To Crommie for the first War Child album. Andrew and David called themselves the Planet 4 Folk Quartet, a name they used just once.
I met Crommie a couple of summers ago, a real person living not far from me, at an event in Chorlton. He's a sound engineer/ live sound expert who's worked on sound rigs in Manchester since the late 80s, with a slew of bands including 808 State and The reformed Stone Roses. Andrew regarded him as the best in the business and when he and David Harrow were recording their track (all the tracks for War Child were recorded in one day) they were looking for a title for the song- at the same time Andrew asked for a message to be got to Manchester's sound engineer par excellence...
Since the mid- 90s David Harrow has moved to LA and recorded under his name and as James Hardway. In the last few years he has been a Californian cottage industry, recording and releasing dozens of tracks and EPs. The latest has just come out on Exeter's Mighty Force label, a four track EP called Accelerated Life. David's music takes in modular synth ambient explorations, dub, acid, techno and almost every point in between.
On Accelerated Life the sound is electronic, a deep house/ techno/ bleep/ braindance melting pot. The first track on the EP is a co- write with singer Sandy Mill, Catch Me, a track that pushes out of the speakers straight away and keeps bouncing, Sandy's voice cruising on top of the drums and synths. Macro keeps the bpms and kick drum active, a deep sea bassline bubbling away and piano/ synth stabs and a sense of perpetual momentum. Meso's jackhammer kick drum is matched by a speaker rattling synth bassline and more bleepy topline fun. Finally there is Supra, another four four drum machine rhythm, lovely warm bass tones and synths, a hi- hat and a cricket chirruping in time. All in all, more superb stuff from Mr Harrow and Mighty Force. Accelerated Life can be found here.