This album appeared last August and is (to date) the latest offering from UK label Hydrogen Dukebox. Why talk about it now, more than six months after its release? Because maybe, just maybe, if we lavish R. Simeon Bowring with attention we won’t have to wait another eleven years for more.
His previous, Anthology, appeared in 1995 on Deviant and promptly vanished into the electronic netherworld. A double album that collected all of Pentatonik’s previous efforts, it was melody-drenched, technically beautiful, widescreen — a downtempo album that sits well alongside the best of guys like Beaumont Hannant and the Black Dog. What happened? Why has it taken over a decade for me to hear this man’s work?
With The Five Angels Bowring returns with his heart still securely stapled to his sleeve. Synth strings and pianos collide in delicately intricate patterns. The cinematic touch is in full effect, sometimes (as on “The Last One and the First” and “Love Is a Rose”) accompanied by the wistful, classically beautiful voice of Kirsty Hawkshaw. This is IDM in the old, Artificial Intelligence sense of the term, completely untainted by the post-Autechre glitchery of the past six (seven? eight?) years. It’s a refreshing, much-needed break.
It’s the individual sounds that shine here, and I can just imagine Bowring slaving over certain noises, tweaking them until he’s certain they will resonate for the listener. Or perhaps just for himself. Either way, The Five Angels is about the smooth integration of these fine-tuned, if sometimes disparate elements, rather than the ferocity/complexity of their presentation, a fact which sets this album apart from many of its contemporaries. You won’t find any dissected breaks here, but if it’s melody you’re after and perhaps a touch of oldschool “electronic listening music”, Pentatonik does not disappoint.
