- The alias of Nottingham's Matt Cutler, Lone makes music that revels in gauzy disorientation—the title of Ecstasy & Friends, the glossolalic 45-minute bliss-out he released last year on Werk, kind of says it all. I got even higher on his blindsiding 12-inch, "Joy Reel / Sunset Teens," which was like a combination of all the good parts of chillwave (endless summer haze with a twinge of melancholy) and the good parts of Boards of Canada, yet somehow signified as post-dubstep.
So, like Zomby in late '08, Lone wants to ask where were you in '92? That question has always been under the surface of his work, but on this 10-inch, the first on Lone's own Magic Wire label, it's given brilliant focus. "Pineapple Crush" could have been an early Suburban Base A-side, in part because like those records it's crazy-quilt enough to encompass squelchy synth patterns that feel definitively post-Joker, and the James Brown "Think" break ("Yeah! Whoo!")—while making the latter seem like it's bringing '88 back rather than '92. "Angel Brain" goes further into history, crossing scissoring Detroit-style beats and factory-grade piping synths with a moony occasional tune out of the Larry Heard/808 State playbook. This one could have been on early Warp.
So yes, this is nostalgia. But there's something tweaked about it—it's self-aware but not sodden, lively rather than received. It could have been released back in its day (or days) and stood out even then. That's not a small compliment.
Tracklist A Pineapple Crush
B Angel Brain