- Soothing sounds on R&S's ambient sub-label.
- The new self-titled EP by mcconville, AKA Thomas McConville, is a short and sweet 11 minutes. Released on R&S's ambient sub-lbael, Apollo, the brevity might be due to the Irish producer's love for modern commercial pop and its synthetic production style. "I used to be so concerned about using 'fake' sounds when I was writing music and usually worked by writing acoustic music or taking samples from real world things and manipulating it," McConville says. "But now I want it to be obvious that the sounds are made in a computer, just because that's the time we're living in, and it would be silly to ignore it."
This method is heard in the opener, "technicoloursupersong," a bricolage of synths and distorted auto-tuned vocals. The brief but sharp climax is in the middle, where an array of sun-drenched chords fill the scene, only to abruptly fall away. Gleaming and colourful, it's reminiscent of the forward-thinking pop produced by the likes of SOPHIE and Charli XCX stripped of its hooks.
There's more conventional ambient in the balearic-edged "variation/interlude," where time-stretched pianos echo alongside a chorus. The percussive "popsongsforpornstars" rediscovers the energy heard earlier in the EP. The airy "breakthrough" is particularly compelling. Lush synths ebb and flow, occasionally interrupted by the prang of digital noise and a vocal sample from the red carpet of an awards show. The final track, "music for piano, cello and violin," could be a nod to McConville's classical background, but with the discord that shapes much of the EP. While it might not strictly be ambient, there's something soothing about McConville's work.
Tracklist01. technicoloursupersong
02. variation/interlude
03. popsongsforpornstars
04. Breakthrough
05. music for piano, cello and violin