Aidan Baker and Claire Brentnall - Delirious Things

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 25 / 2 / 2017

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The fourth release in Gizeh Records' new 'Dark Peak' series is this curious offering from Aidan Baker. Dark Peak is a series of albums limited to 175 CDs, housed in special hand-crafted, eco-friendly packaging, which is designed and assembled by SmilingPaperGhosts, Gizeh's in-house publishing company. Believe it or not, each item is also individually printed, cut, numbered and packaged and includes a free instant download of the album. 'Delirious Things' is an exploration of Aidan Baker's interest in 80's-influenced cold-wave and synth-pop. Taking its influence from 4AD's Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and other similar bands on the Factory roster such as Durutti Column and Joy Division, Baker tries here to combine vocals with the abstract. His main sonic weapon of choice on show is a 1980's Casio synthesizer. In swapping his guitar for the synth, and then processing it back through guitar effect pedals, he creates a heavy, droning, almost Numan-esque industrial sound. All the guy has to do now is add a surreal ether-like vocal but how and where nowadays do you find that? Enter guest vocalist Claire Brentnall of Shield Patterns whose voice I described in a previous review as being "reminiscent of Kate Bush but still distinctly her own." Baker himself is a Canadian musician and writer currently based in Berlin, Germany who is classically trained in flute, self-taught on guitar and drums, and who also dabbles in various other instruments. His main instrument is the electric guitar and he has used it in the past to experiment widely in post-rock and with more contemporary classical sounds. Over the years he has released numerous recordings and has published several books of poetry, as well as performed with Nadja, BBS, Caudal, Adoran, Whisper Room, and ARC. This offering was recorded in 2016 at Broken Spine in Berlin and Cloud Blunt Moon in Glossop in Derbyshire. In places I can draw comparisons also to the great Jean Michel-Jarre and to Tangerine Dream too. The backing however is the perfect platform for Brentnall's gliding, curve-laden vocals. Shield Patterns fans will be just as in awe of this as they will their own material, and if you know Baker's past catalogue you will be slightly surprised. Either way, with artwork by Leah Buchareff, it is a huge piece of transcendental journeying that you won't want to pass you by in a hurry.

Track Listing:-

1 Delirious Things
2 Interlude I (Shivers)
3 Dead Languages
4 Interlude II (Tongues)
5 Wingless
6 Interlude III (Wax)
7 Always Leaving
8 Shivering

Band Links:-

https://en-gb.facebook.com/AidanBakerMusic/

Label Links:-

http://www.gizehrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/gizehrecords
https://twitter.com/gizehrecords

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