This solo album from
Donkey member and
Trummerflora collective associate
Damon Holzborn offers a variegated trip through old-school experimental electro, electro-acoustics, and noise.
Adams & Bancroft features 15 pieces, most of them less than five minutes in duration. This shortness is rather unusual in experimental music and results in a fast-paced, constantly shifting proposition.
Holzborn's music often relies on analog synth tones and similar sounds, giving it a retro feel that points to pioneers of the genre, from
Vladimir Ussachevsky to
Barry Schrader, by way of the French academic school. But it sounds rounder, fuller, and more diverse in textures and techniques than the crude electronics of the '60s. The two-part title piece marvelously showcases this aspect of
Holzborn: vintage-like yet very contemporary in its assembly. Other pieces focus more directly on noise, either tone-derived ("Classic Football," which sounds somewhere between a
Zbigniew Karkowski piece and an '80s Atari game cartridge having a rough day) or based on field recordings. That material is slightly less impressive; it lacks personality, especially compared to the "DDD" series, a fanciful sequence of tone-filled pieces.
Adams & Bancroft may lack a bit of cohesiveness, but it has a significant freshness, if only for the fact that
Holzborn has found something else to do than minimal glitch-based electro or maximalist noise. His "back to roots" approach is both relevant and charming.