Richard A Ingram – Happy Hour

‘Happy Hour’ is Richard A Ingram’s second full length release, following on from last year’s debut album ‘Consolamentum’. This album is made up of long-form compositions – bleak drone designs, mastered by Taylor Deupree, and released in a limited edition digipack CD by White Box.

Four tracks make up the release – opener ‘Agile Drone’ runs at a shade over thirteen minutes, and is a restrained and in places foreboding piece, counterpointed by some occasional hidden chatter and windy hiss. The sound design is strong, if a little minimal, and the strong mastering shines through in the excellent stereo separation and bottom end punch when the track comes up out of the depths midway through. The first few minutes lull you, and then there’s a burst of electronic activity to wake you right up. The instrumentation is described as degraded tape and filtered piano; hard to make out what’s what, but the intent is certainly clear enough.

‘Truncheon Tree’ follows a similar pattern – close to ten minute run time, quiet start, before building up a head of steam as it progresses. The degraded piano loop has some intriguing tonal qualities and floats at a good pace before being slowly enveloped by hissy drone after the six-minute mark. The sound here is a blast, a roaring analogue wind becoming a cyclone. Well interesting. The unexpected retreat works a charm, and contextualizes the roar.

‘Chaos Fortifier’ is lovely hiss and crackle to start, fairly leaping out of the speakers. Speaking of wind, there’s a sense that this track is the sound of a cave, deep within a snow-covered mountain.

‘Retro Morph’ retains the glacial hiss and crackle, but also imbues it with a clean electronic aspect that hums and booms across the bottom end. The track is in places reminiscent of Erik K Skodvin, as are some elements of the preceding tracks.

As a whole, the album balances minimalist dark ambient with occasional bursts of electronic activity well, breaking its own mould and defining itself by being itself.

Ingram is playing shows in support of the album’s release in May, on the 7th at Manchester’s Kraak Gallery (for the Mie Music/Hibernate all dayer) and on May 13th at Foundation B.a.d (Aether: Tones and Talks), in Rotterdam. The CD itself is released by White Box on the 30th of May. Copies will be available from the Stashed Goods store very soon. – Recommended!

- Review by Alex Gibson for Fluid Radio

www.whiteboxrecordings.blogspot.com
www.richardaingram.co.uk