ARTIST(S): Samuel Kerridge
TITLE: The Silence Between Us
LABEL: Downwards
Cat No: LINO76
FORMAT: 12″ // Digital download
RELEASE DATE: October 5th, 2017

In a modern music world where bold listeners must go to great lengths to find a stimulus that will deliver the needed dose of uplifting intensity without diminishing returns, the sonic arsenal of Samuel Kerridge is becoming an increasingly valuable point of reference. Following his sophomore album on Regis’ Downwards imprint back in February 2016, Samuel Kerridge returns with a three-track EP for the label, The Silence Between Us.
With signature releases such as the Always Offended Never Ashamed LP on his own Contort label, which he has used to release music from like minded artists such as In Aeternam Vale, SØS Gunver Ryberg, WSR as well as Downwards boss Regis under his Karl O’Connor alias, Kerridge has stealthily established himself as a frontrunner in the field of uncompromising music. He is a producer who thinks in rhythm rather than in spoken language, and who finds a poetic value in garbled, illegible communications, stripping them of their specific meanings in order to focus more squarely on their emotional content.

This style has earned Kerridge a role in defining the present-day aesthetic of trend-resistant labels like Blueprint and Horizontal Ground, and of course a fertile partnership with Downwards: his new EP The Silence Between Us takes the next step forward in this relationship that previously birthed his releases on the label including his debut EP Waiting for Love, as well as his two albums Fallen Empire, and Fatal Light Attraction. While still drawing upon the pummeling aesthetic of these previous records, The Silence Between Us has a more fleet-footed approach that represents a further evolution in Kerridge’s sound. This is immediately clear on the opening “Possession Control,” which is built from rhythmic motifs that threaten to erupt into a chaotic frenzy.
Knowing a good thing when he sees it, Kerridge kicks the b-side off in similar style with “Ascension,” whose clever layering of shivering and panning effects makes it feel like a high-speed, weightless journey through a maze of interlocking glass panes that recede into infinity.

“Radical Possibilities of Pleasure” then closes out this episode of Kerridge’s psychodrama with a spine-tingling hybrid in a class of its own: the criss-crossing synth sequences act like a mass of searchlights set on random mode, while the abrupt “start / stop” momentum of the track hearkens back to the type of work that put Kerridge’s previous LPs on radar.

The Silence Between Us once again proves that Kerridge’s sound might not be for the faint-hearted. However, individuals looking to shed their faint-heartedness will find that the sophistication and relentlessness of its attack makes for a perfect training program.

Tracklist:

A1 / 1. Possession/Control
B1 / 2. Ascension
B2 / 3. Radical Possibilities Of Pleasure

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