Uranus Prize 2012: And the winner is...
To find out this years' winner, visit The Liminal - there's a little clue below...
If, as the man says, we are all David Toop now, then somehow **** must be the neurons, or maybe the writing hands. There’s always been something of Toop’s style in **** – the exploratory nature, the episodic open-endedness, the almost propulsive sense of stasis. And **** is the very epitome of all this. On its 5 tracks, **** has somehow stepped through the gaps between the beats and discovered a new Mandelbrotian layer of complexity and calm. He gives each track space to breathe and unfurl to a logical conclusion, unafraid, particularly on Parts 3 & 4, to allow for long passages of inertia. But even these periods of inertia are alive with a kind of crackling creative energy, an energy stirred and kneaded by the calm monologues of Vengeance Tenfold. The other word I keep wanting to use is ‘shamanic’ – it’s daft and overblown language, of course, but there is something increasingly mantric and psychedelic about the direction **** is heading. He’s one of our most intriguing explorers at present, and **** might just be the best thing he’s done.