- While I can't tell you much about Sim Hutchins, other than he purports to be an Essex lad, Vantablank Stare's concept is so roundly executed that we learn something about him. The title references Vantablack, a substance so dark that it absorbs 99.965% of visible light. (The blackest artificial substance known, the sculptor Anish Kapoor is the only person to whom it's been licensed for artistic use.) As such, we can interpret Vantablank Stare to mean the "blankest ever blank stare." To fully parse the implications, visit the web installation vantablank-stare.u-i-q.org, where you'll see digital renderings of empty 24-hour news desks with a running news feed available in English, Russian and Arabic. The headlines deliver sarcastic commentary on our relationship with media today.
The visuals—by Hutchins himself—and design of the site are great, but it's the music keeps you there. You can listen to the full EP this way, although without properly experiencing the final locked groove on the vinyl. (On mp3, it's a gentle 30-second dub riddim that you'll have to put on repeat.) The tracks "Some Men (You) Just Want To Watch The World Burn" and "Some Men (Me) Just Want To Let The World Burn" are the showstoppers—both crackle and lash like an electricity line downed from its pylon. The first sounds like the aftershocks of some drum & bass dystopia, while the latter is like a survivor excavating a dub techno meltdown. The middle track, "Nescience Is Not Ignorance," gives us a momentary rest on a hazy ambient drift. Political, intelligent and ambitious—Vantablank Stare is an auspicious introduction to an intriguing new talent.
TracklistA1 Some Men (You) Just Want To Watch The World Burn
A2 Nescience Is Not Ignorance
B1 Some Men (Me) Just Want To Let The World Burn
B2 Locked Groove (∞)