Anna Wall - Missing Moments

  • The fabric resident slows down with some ambient hardware experiments on her debut LP.
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  • Anna Wall has gained something of a cult following in the London scene over the past ten years. Whether it's on Rinse FM—where she showcases new producers pushing dubby house and groovy tech house—or her label The Bricks, which has been instrumental in introducing producers like Thomas Bulwer and Corbi to the world at large, Wall's career has been bubbling just beneath a boil for over a decade. It's only recently that she's finally getting her dues, thanks in large part to a recent fabric residency. As a producer, she's taken an equally unhurried tack. Up until now, Wall has always shared production duties, turning out overcast breakbeat with Bulwer or sinewy garage with Alec Falconer as Escape Two. With this CV in mind, it's a surprise that her debut LP, Missing Moments, doesn't have a single kick drum on it. Instead, across the album's 9 tracks, Wall builds pensive ambient soundscapes with only slight nods to her London dance floor roots. All those ambient records made during lockdown were like comforting chicken soup for the DJ soul. And while Wall does describe the album as an escape "when we were in moments of standstill," the result is something more medicinal, like a broth loaded with ginseng and ginger to help you sweat the sickness out. The title track features plenty of genre touchstones—vinyl crackle, found sound collage and bird samples—but Wall spices things up with an anxious chord progression and panning, coiled synths poised to bite at any moment. The jazzy Rhodes melodies fluttering across the high end of "Will You Ever Forgive Me" are soft and mellow, but she slowly introduces minor key tension to suggest that maybe things aren't going to be OK. This makes for a refreshingly fast-paced ambient record (Missing Moments is only 36 minutes long) where Wall approaches ambient tracks like she does her DJing. I'd wager that the "love me" refrain from "Memories" is going to start making the rounds as part of the current post-dubstep revival. Working with vocalist Binky on "Alone Tonight," the pair fall somewhere between washed out trip-hop and Amy Winehouse's jazzy contralto. The London references on record highlight "Murmurations" are a bit softer but still there if you know what to look for. It's a beatless track that would still bang at a soundsystem clash, as drawn-out bass notes bulse underneath the meandering synth work. The best parts of Missing Moments call to mind Francis Harris's earlier albums, the work of another club vet who convincingly turned his attention to ambient and downtempo music. The vocal tracks with Binky in particular bring to mind Harris's collaborations with vocalist Gry Bagøien on Minutes Of Sleep. But where Harris drws from the rich traditions of New York house, Wall channels London club culture. As functional as her other records have been, this feels like a natural progression for an artist who has always favored emotional melodies. If you added a breakbeat and some bass to "With You," it wouldn't be that far from "DAT 2." doesn't feel like a home listening record as much as it feels like a record to listen to on your way home.
  • Tracklist
      01. Memories feat. Binky 02. Missing Moments 03. Venus feat. Steve "Bertie" Burton 04. Murmurations 05. Alone Tonight feat. Binky 06. With You 07. I'll Try Feat. Steve "Bertie" Burton 08. Will You Ever Forgive Me feat. Steve "Bertie" Burton 09. It Was Never The Same Again
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