Shape Worship - A City Remembrancer

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 11 / 1 / 2016

Label: Front and Follow
Format: CD

Thought-provoking debut album from Shape Worship, the project of South London pianist and urban dub musician Ed Gillett

Review

This is stupendous 'stuff' from Ed Gillett, who if things were different might be his fellow South London hoodie pal Burial. Initially the words that come to mind listening to these electronica escapades are 'cacaphonic drizzle'. Similarly, the Congotronic samples which Shape Worship uses on wider notes add touches that can be easily overheard as well. The epitome of confusion is what it aims for. 'A City Remembrancer' sums up urban and suburban buzz in a worship of sound, like echoes from a city falling apart. That doesn't mean to say though that he's a talent already lost on the piano. Ed Gillett nearly succeeds in creating paintings and drawings that become like striking sound attacks. A keen understanding of Philip Glass on 'Zoned' provides a few seconds of jokes on the 'Koyaanisqatsi' theme. What caught my ear though remain those Konono Numéro Un samples. Brooding on hip movements, the album never loses its sense of direction. The dialogue snippets, which come from estate residents, stand as an ironic testament as to why we'd better escape from the city whilst increasingly the noises become quiet and remote. As if 'A City Remembrancer' has gone suburban, Shape Worship calms down on 'Saffron and Jasmine', via 'Decanted' before finishing with 'Necropolis' with sounds of happy laughter next to a stream of water. Far-fetched as a concept, the album merely appears as too pretentious. It is urban dub with a political twist.

Track Listing:-

1 Tamesis (Vision)
2 Zoned (Hecate)
3 Mudlarks
4 Vertices (Ziggurat)
5 Heygate Palimpsest
6 An Exemplar
7 Paternoster (Look)
8 Rentiers Dub
9 1987 (Interlude)
10 Saffron and Jasmine
11 Decanted (Mohir)
12 Necropolis (So Many)