Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Si Si Es (the former members of the Eighties synth-rock band Car Crash Set under this new moniker) appeared at Elsewhere late last year with the bandcamp release of two pieces, Ode to Holger and Spaced, which found considerable favour round this way.
Check those instrumentals out here which is where you also find this new release of four tracks.
They are the clanking-into-life, futuristic and beat-driven synths washes of the opener Unitled (billed as Trevor's Outstanding Trash Can Edit); the more dreamy Van Jealousy; the dark romanticism of the palindrome Anitina and finally Dos with keening guitar, slashing rhythms and disconcerting, interpolated effects across a stutter'n'start soundscape.
That title track sounds like something for a film set in a dark factory which is yet to be imagined.
Si Si Es are Trevor Reekie, Nigel Russell and David Bulog (here mixed and produced by Nic Roughan) and whereas Car Crash Set was very much of their short-lived era – although their synth-pop has endured better than that of some of their peers – in this more recent, instrumental incarnation they have more timeless touchstones in inventive Japanese space ambience of the Eighties, hallucinatory and rhythmic Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinoxe atmospherics and Reekie's work with Tom Ludvigson (the recent and recommended Roto).
But all the elements are reconstituted in a distinctive 21st century manner where the technology allows for a great sonic depth and even a sense of gravitas, as on Anitina.
You can find Dos at bandcamp here where it is remarkably cheap, which further recommends it.
We look forward to Tres.
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