- Stately, unpredictable and jazzy broken beat from K15's band.
- Perhaps best known for his Insecurities EP, released on Kyle Hall's Wild Oats label back in 2014, K15 (real name Kieron Ifill) has a knack for making elegantly raw house music that pulls on the heartstrings. But after Insecurities, Ifill was loath to churn out more of the same. So he began experimenting with some of his other tastes—hip-hop (The Scarlet Tape), R&B (Mist) and a blend of ambient and trip-hop (Indecision). By 2016, he'd struck the sweet spot with his project Culross Close, a jazzy broken beat quintet whose debut album embellished the soulful passion of Insecurities with a newfound experimental freedom.
The heart of that album, Home, was "Requiem + Reflections," which recalled the murder of Mark Duggan at the hands of the Metropolitan Police and the subsequent riots that followed in Ifill's home of Tottenham. It's an intensely sad song, made even more so by reinventing the lead line of Dilla's "Fall in Love" instrumental with heartfelt synth flourishes and waltzing keys.
Where the trump card of earlier Culross Close albums was the emotional depth (songs like "Requiem + Reflections"), on their third album, PRESSURE, the group's deft, sometimes lighthearted instrumental interplay becomes the focal point. Drums strut between brooding bass chords on "Tipping Point." Low-slung and groovy arpeggios, studded with kicks and snares, give "To Belong" momentum. And following a bullish voice recording promoting individuality, "Convictions" falls comfortably into an assured hip-hop beat from start to finish. But these moments of confidence are offset by an inner turbulence.
The album's Bandcamp blurb describes pressure as "the invisible hand" that forces us to change, and there are subtle hints at this transformation. "To Belong" has notable mood shifts—from resonant chords to graceful keys to tearful strings—which could either reflect restlessness or a willingness to change. Similarly, "Shifts" meanders through a haze, as if lost, before eventually morphing into something distinct as the piano and synths align in the song's final seconds.
Although these introspective tracks climb gradually to a peak, the only downside is that their amorphous nature means they fail to have the same impact as slow burners from previous Culross Close albums. But that’s not to say that PRESSURE doesn’t have moments of raw emotion, too. They come in short bursts, where individual instruments behave erratically, emphasising a struggle with pressure which can either lead to a moment of brilliance or a falling apart. On "Misguided," stuttering percussion pushes us frantically past dreamy electronics in a race to the finish. An impassioned saxophone bookends "Convictions," busily weaving its own path around the suave plod of the song. Pressure mounts more insidiously on "Tipping Point" as the drums are coaxed into cymbal crashes by soaring synths, before descending into an all-out attack.
In his 2015 interview with RA, Ifill spoke of how pressure can suck the fun out of interests and hobbies. Here though, Culross Close paint a somewhat positive outlook on pressure—it can cause all manner of change, both good and bad. This idea culminates in the closing song, "The Will To Live (I, II)," which moves at two different tempos, suggesting an acceptance to become something different. While it might not have as many moving moments as Home and Forgotten Ones, Culross Close have traded them for a thought-provoking subject matter and in turn freed themselves (as Ifill would want) from churning out more of the same.
Tracklist01. PRESSURE!
02. To Belong
03. Misguided
04. Tipping Point
05. Convictions
06. Shifts
07. The Will To Change
08. The Will To Live (I,II)