Modular workouts from a familiar face
Who He?
There’s only one mystic, actually, and it’s Luke Abbott. He once set up his gear in a forest and made an album there, which qualifies him as some kind of electronic mystic as far as we’re concerned. Earlham Mystics’ debut EP, a side-project designed, it seems, to get more immediate music out there more, erm, immediately, is released by his old pal Gold Panda’s Notown label.
Why Earlham Mystics?
A gander at Google Maps reveals that Earlham is a district of Norwich. The one which the University of East Anglia calls home. The UEA used to have a respected electro-acoustic music department (and an EMS Synthi 100 which was sold to Daniel Miller in the 1980s) none of which is particularly relevant, but feels worth mentioning, given Luke’s music is often embedded in place; his albums include ‘Holkham Drones’ (north Norfolk), ’Wysing Forest’ (near Cambridge) and ‘Music For A Flat Landscape’ (a soundtrack for Norfolk-set film ‘The Goob’).
Tell Us More
With Earlham Mystics, Abbott is pursuing a (slightly) more mainstream sound, with ’Truth’ even featuring a soulful vocal – albeit somewhat mangled – but at the same time he’s allowing the noise and mess of the analogue gear he uses to come through loud and clear. ‘Stolen Hearts’ has the modular beats running into each other at the death, revealing Abbott’s very pretty harmonic lines, always one of his greatest strengths. There’s also a message of sorts. “The idea of ‘truth’ is a bit of a loaded topic” he says. “I hate this notion that we are living in ‘post-truth’ times. Truth isn’t something you can hide from, it’s the truth!” Amen to that.
The ‘Truth’ EP is out on Notown
