Scories

Those who have heard DJ Olive's more dance-oriented work on the Agriculture label may be surprised by the arrhythmic seriousness of his collaboration with cellist and composer Jean-Paul Dessy and the new-music chamber group Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles. For one thing, there are no beats here, people — if you want to motorvate your booty, you'll want to scoot down the street to one of those other venues. For another thing, even if there were beats, the mood is so dark and brooding that dancing wouldn't really feel like a viable option anyway. Scories sets the tone early with the droning and almost scary "Walking Slowly," which features lots of low tones and weird, slightly creepy snippets of vocal samples. "Along the Line" takes things further along in the same mode, but then the aptly titled "Ghost Groove" starts hinting at the possible future emergence of a beat, while shards of turntable scratches crunch beneath the creaking and groaning string section. More pronounced scratching acts as a counterweight to a spare cello part on "Pass the Potatoes," and then you're back into the droning darkness on the title track. The album's final selection is almost 17 minutes long, and is still rather dark but somehow less brooding — there are episodes of fitful, almost frantic energy that lighten the mood somewhat. The overall effect of this album is really quite compelling. Highly recommended.