- A masterpiece of non-dance dance music.
- Minor Science first introduced Absent Friends as a serene, ambient-leaning mix for the Blowing Up The Workshop series in 2014. The second volume, released on AD 93 in 2017, was a more ambitious ambient project, a meticulously edited sonic collage that included avant-garde music from the likes of Dutch composer Jaap Blonk and excerpts from obscure audiobooks.
Shortly following his exquisite debut album, Second Language, Angus Finlayson (a former RA scribe) went back to Absent Friends, converting it into a new outlet for his own original ambient work and performing it live at some experimental-leaning venues in Europe. Taking a snapshot of his improvisational ingenuity at these shows—composed of hundreds of stems from effects chains, field recordings, feedback loops, found voices and more—Absent Friends Vol. III is a dense, highly detailed body of work that elevates Finlayson's interest in ambient music into a vivid aural storybook.
The album begins with a harrowing build of shrill static that unfolds into "Dread The Evening," a cool, melancholy melody with remnants of the previous noisy introduction. While the main synth line doesn't change much throughout the track, it never truly repeats itself, shifting alongside its dynamic atmosphere while glowing embers of sound sizzle in the background.
On "The Dinas Walk," Finlayson brings the listener back down to earth with a sedated hand drum rhythm and quirky gurgles that could soundtrack an evening stroll down a swampy causeway to a destination unknown. "Summer Diary," with its washed-out sounds of daily life, is an invigorating page-turner. As a mysterious narrator announces each dated entry with huge melodic swells, Finlayson manipulates and teases apart recordings of what appear to be a crying baby, running water and other seemingly mundane sounds, until they become barely recognizable. Through these vignettes, Finlayson anchors the listener in the moment instead of letting them drift. The effect is carefully taking in each transient scene that passes by, like people-watching in a crowded place.
Absent Friends Vol. III becomes all the more impressive when you snap out of Finlayson's spell and realize that this is coming from the same Minor Science that delivered "Workahol," one of this year’s most reliable peak-time club cuts. And the same Minor Science who recently flipped a Kylie Minogue classic into a cheeky, 170 BPM psytrance teeth-grinder via his “secret” side project, STRIPE N CO. Just a few months ago, he performed at the debauchery-fueled UK rave festival Bang Face, where he ended his set (comprising many STRIPE N CO originals) with 230 BPM hardstyle.
Finlayson doesn't abandon his flair for high-energy moments on this project—he summons an enormous amount of intensity for the album's climax, "Contingency," which surges through a wormhole of 160 BPM arps. As quickly as it's amassed, the energy is dissolved and repurposed for the conclusion, "Gather Your Party (Dispersed Mix)," a haunting track that culminates with a disconcerting, The Grudge-like croak while an ominous melody twinkles in the background. At this point, I would trust Finlayson to take me pretty much anywhere, sonically, even through (what sounds like) a hoard of screeching undead.
Presenting three distinctly different sides of your artistry all at once is a bold challenge that Finlayson accomplishes without a single misstep. While we got pieces of his beatless production efforts on Second Language, Absent Friends Vol. III is the fully assembled puzzle of non-club music full of unpredictable possibilities, and a new specialty of Minor Science.
Tracklist01. Introduction
02. Dread The Evening
03. Sun Turn
04. The Dinas Walk
05. Summer Diary
06. Life Texture
07. Contingency
08. Gather Your Party (Dispersed Mix)