Satin Doll, Dopamine Rider, Scott Young, Human. Multiple avenues of work coalesce around an artist whose time spent between Hong Kong, Berlin and Bristol has seen techno, dub and house experiments grace a variety of labels worldwide, most recently with ‘Post Peace’ on Italy’s Over Our Heads. Young’s sound is often accompanied with hints of humour, futurism and digital paranoia amidst fragmented narrative clues of failed hard-drives, late nights and cheap hostels. Piece it all together and the duality of dancefloor convention vs playful, off the grid sound abstractions results in constant battle. One that ebbs and flows with regularity but also with surprise.
Returning to the seldom spotted Satin Doll pseudonym, resurrected last year for a CD compilation, Scott Young launches his tape label Less Loss with an intriguing mixture of blunted field recording ramblings and Reaktor fuckery. The latter takes hold on Side B, an untitled piece that unfolds with bursts of harsh digital noise and sub-bass, a rumination on computer generated frequencies that might well answer Bernard Parmegiani’s exploration of pure electronic data in ‘La Roue Ferris’. What would the effect be on a major sound system?
Swapping the hard listening for more relaxing tones, title cut ‘Mong Kok Haruna’ is essentially one 15-minute iPhone voice note of sharp clarity. Recorded in the maze of the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong, the recording calmly fluctuates between casual dialogue and background music, traffic and pedestrian noises picked up in the backdrop. An effortless snapshot of a moment in time that transports the listener into a midtown fever dream.
credits
released October 10, 2021
Mastered by Jack Callahan
Artwork by ANWO Studios
The title track will only be included in the digital download and the cassette.
Hong Kong's FuFu Records presents a compilation of electronic music from artists across Asia to raise money for One Tree Planted. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 22, 2021